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Mar 07, 2016Incal rated this title 2.5 out of 5 stars
Given that its director's got an axe to grind, I can't give this film full marks, and that's unfortunate because in Agora, there's a lot to like. In part, the movie is about Alexandria itself: the city, complete with its famous Lighthouse, has an Old-World exoticism that would delight as a setting for other movies. It's well-reconstructed and intensely atmospheric. Most exhilarating is the intellectual story arc of its protagonist, the mathematician Hypatia, and her pursuit of an answer to the theoretical puzzle dropped after the death of the Greek astronomer Aristarchus. Her quest to continue his work is accompanied by sumptuous music and perspective shots of her city from orbital vantages, suggesting the cosmic answers she's trying to find. These are the movie's peaks... and, sadly, one of its problems. Aristarchus' heliocentric concept of the solar system failed because it couldn't successfully challenge Ptolemy's geocentric model. Hypatia, presented in Agora as a de facto atheist, was in life a Neo-Platonist and unlikely to question Ptolemy. Had she actually jumped from the box and continued Aristarchus' research, her first task should have been gauging the distances between the Earth, sun and other planets, measurements which his idea needed. Instead, director Alejandro Amenábar has her predating Johannes Kepler in plotting elliptical orbits. The most Eureka! part of the movie is, unfortunately, not very likely. Then there's the rest of it: conflating the Christians' destruction of the Serapeum with the burning of valuable manuscripts is a falsehood which originated with Edward Gibbons and was popularized by Carl Sagan. Alexandria's witnesses and writers, as divided in their beliefs as Socrates Scholasticus was from Eunapius of Antioch, wrote preserved accounts of the destruction and don't mention any bonfires of books, a detail that would hardly have escaped their attention. Amenábar's camera turns upside down to show a world upended. Historical accuracy is what inverts instead. Ditto the showdown between Cyril and Orestes: Hypatia is made pivotal to their conflict in a way she actually wasn't. Their clash was political, and Cyril eventually won. His reference in the movie to 1 Timothy 2:12 and accusation that Hypatia was a witch is without genuine historical precedent, but sells the conflict vision of science vs. religion. It all but compels the viewer to take sides. With these points, Agora's not "only a movie." It's casting blame beyond what history actually warrants and attempts to distort perceptions of Christendom. (Some reviewers here imbibe this message.) As a post-script, I'll add that the "hostile Christianity" impression was undercut a century later by the life of Aedisia, a female pagan philosopher who also resided in Alexandria. Good-looking movie, great setting... wish it was something I could enjoy instead of arguing with.