Freethought Nation

Epic ‘Agora’ shoots for the stars

...Late in the fourth century, Rome’s emperor legalizes the previously forbidden Christianity and Alexandria’s ruling pagans become the persecuted minority.

As Christians take power, ransack the library and pagan temple, pillage and slaughter, it smacks of a terrifying televised mob scene in contemporary Iran or Afghanistan. Then comes a campaign against Alexandria’s Jews....

Pagan Hypatia, who has taught many of those who now seek to kill her, refuses to convert despite entreaties by the lovesick Roman officer in charge of the city (Oscar Isaac) and by Davus (Max Minghella), her former slave who remains chained by his desire for the virginal scientist.

Intolerance, says “Agora,” always lurks in the hearts of men and with it comes a scalding hypocrisy.

Science and religion clash in 'Agora'

The new togas-and-sandals epic "Agora" has a lot on its mind -- everything from the age-old battle between science and religion, to the mysteries of the cosmos.

Give it credit for wrestling with big themes, but it is also pretty convincing evidence that even the most stunning CGI special effects can't create a sense of you-are-there verisimilitude all by itself.

The story here unfolds in the fourth century A.D. in Roman-dominated Egypt. The film's mise-en-scene is spectacular; the sets of the ancient city of Alexandria are something that would make Cecil B. DeMille weep with envy. Director Alejandro Amenabar -- who wrote and directed "Abre Los Ojos," the thriller remade later as "Vanilla Sky" -- employs a stunt in which his camera swoops into the city literally from outer space, creating a breathtaking, Google-Maps kind of effect.

Such a trick is more than just showing off, however. It fits into the film's grand narrative. The central figure of "Agora" is Hypatia, one of the ancient world's most prominent female scholars. As portrayed with square-shouldered dignity by Rachel Weisz, Hypatia is a teacher of natural philosophy what they used to call science who is obsessed with the prevailing astronomical question of the day: What is the secret to the movement of the heavenly bodies?

Hypatia's preoccupations are played out against a background of severe religious and cultural strife. The new faith of Christianity is spreading across the ancient world and in Alexandria it meets resistance with the old pagan belief systems. Let's just say that the resulting clash makes our contemporary Tea Party demonstrations look like, well, a tea party....

Logic and religion clash in Agora

It seems Santayana was correct: We didn't learn our history, and now we're doomed to repeat it.

Nowhere is this bleak message clearer than in Agora, Alejandro Amenabar's hulking tanker of an epic focused on the ancient city of Alexandria circa 4th century AD.

Beautifully recreated through digital technology and gorgeously detailed practical sets, the ancient city appears as a jewel, glinting with gilded Egyptian statuary as the famed lighthouse blinks its Cyclops eye over the horizon.

The visuals alone are worth it, but viewers should be warned this is not your Hollywood variety of swords and sandals cinema where familiar tales are retold.

The movie is steeped in a deep, ponderous, 21st century sense of existential dread as it relates the story of mathematician and philosopher Hypatia (Rachel Weisz). Considered one of the smartest gals of the ancient world, Hypatia made it her mission to resolve the inherent conflicts in Ptolemaic theory of heavenly motion. Not that much is known about

Hypatia, other than her reputed genius and her attachment to the notion of an open mind as a result of growing up among the papyrus scrolls in the ancient library....

"Agora" makes thinking hot

Some may consider "Agora" sound history, others may label it heresy, but I call it thumping good drama.

The film depicts the early days of Christianity as an era of Taliban-style radicalism, zealotry and violence against pagans and Jews that shakes the foundations of civilization and enlightened thought.

It takes place in the Roman-occupied Egyptian city of Alexandria around 400 A.D. The Empire was on its last legs and Christians, after centuries of oppression, began to persecute others. The agora, long a place for public assemblies, here declines from a forum for free speech into a staging area for fire-walking quackery and public stonings....