{"id":1403,"date":"2010-03-17T05:18:18","date_gmt":"2010-03-17T09:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=1403"},"modified":"2018-08-10T01:33:50","modified_gmt":"2018-08-10T05:33:50","slug":"agora-amenabar-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=1403","title":{"rendered":"(Amen\u00e1bar 2009) Agora"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> <\/a>This excel\u00adlent film has yet to find a North Amer\u00adi\u00adcan dis\u00adtrib\u00adu\u00adtor. It\u2019s not hard to guess why. The film is a his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly accu\u00adrate por\u00adtray\u00adal of reli\u00adgious life in Alexan\u00addria in the ear\u00adly fifth cen\u00adtu\u00adry AD<\/span>. The main char\u00adac\u00adter is Hypa\u00adtia, the woman philoso\u00adpher at the Muse\u00adum of Alexan\u00addria, who was sav\u00adage\u00adly mur\u00addered by a Chris\u00adt\u00adian mob. The film accu\u00adrate\u00adly por\u00adtrays the city as engulfed in the bru\u00adtal reli\u00adgious vio\u00adlence that accom\u00adpa\u00adnied the rise of Chris\u00adtian\u00adi\u00adty in many parts of the Empire (The pop\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtion of the city was divid\u00aded between Chris\u00adtians, Pagans, and Jews, all sen\u00adsi\u00adtive to \u201cinsults\u201d and deter\u00admined to use force to con\u00adtrol the city).<\/span> A celebri\u00adty female philoso\u00adpher was an abom\u00adi\u00adna\u00adtion to all the fanat\u00adics, and the key to destroy\u00ading sec\u00adu\u00adlar author\u00adi\u00adty and such civ\u00adi\u00adlized, tol\u00ader\u00adant prac\u00adti\u00adtion\u00aders of reli\u00adgion as exist\u00aded. In these back\u00adground ele\u00adments, the film tells the plain, irrefutable his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal truth. Nat\u00adu\u00adral\u00adly, the Catholic and var\u00adi\u00adous Protes\u00adtant church\u00ades have denounced the film as \u201chate\u201d, and launched boy\u00adcotts, and so on. The invent\u00aded aspects of the film are legit\u00adi\u00admate his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal fic\u00adtion \u2014 Hypa\u00adtia is rep\u00adre\u00adsent\u00aded as being on the verge of solv\u00ading some key rid\u00addles of the solar sys\u00adtem (not entire\u00adly implau\u00adsi\u00adble), and there\u2019s a sub\u00adplot about a slave in love with her. Oth\u00ader\u00adwise, the larg\u00ader polit\u00adi\u00adcal events are well por\u00adtrayed, and the visu\u00adal recre\u00adation of Alexan\u00addria is painstak\u00ading\u00adly accu\u00adrate. Far from being pro\u00adpa\u00adgan\u00adda, the film under\u00adstates key events to avoid sen\u00adsa\u00adtion\u00adal\u00adism: the film shows the Chris\u00adt\u00adian mob ston\u00ading Hypa\u00adtia, while in fact they ripped her apart alive, stripped all her flesh from her bones with oys\u00adter shells, and immo\u00adlat\u00aded her. Nor is the film one-sided, as it shows all the reli\u00adgious fac\u00adtions engag\u00ading in atroc\u00adi\u00adties. As a hero\u00adine, Hypa\u00adtia is meant to rep\u00adre\u00adsent Rea\u00adson, not Paganism.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is sad, but the cur\u00adrent ver\u00adsion of the igno\u00adrance and fanati\u00adcism that led to the destruc\u00adtion of the Great Library of Alexan\u00addria will pre\u00advent many peo\u00adple in the world from see\u00ading this fine film. It isn\u2019t any\u00adthing spe\u00adcial as pure cin\u00ade\u00adma \u2014 fol\u00adlow\u00ading actu\u00adal his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal events, as usu\u00adal, makes for unsat\u00adis\u00adfy\u00ading dra\u00adma. The film is well-act\u00aded, but not dra\u00admat\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly com\u00adpelling. But as a win\u00addow into a time and place that the gen\u00ader\u00adal pub\u00adlic in North Amer\u00adi\u00adca knows noth\u00ading about, and that the polit\u00adi\u00adcal boss\u00ades of their church\u00ades don\u2019t want them to know any\u00adthing about, it is superb.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This excel\u00adlent film has yet to find a North Amer\u00adi\u00adcan dis\u00adtrib\u00adu\u00adtor. It\u2019s not hard to guess why. The film is a his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly accu\u00adrate por\u00adtray\u00adal of reli\u00adgious life in Alexan\u00addria in the ear\u00adly fifth cen\u00adtu\u00adry AD<\/span>. The main char\u00adac\u00adter is Hypa\u00adtia, the woman \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[948,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-d-viewing","category-dq-viewing-2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1403"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8127,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403\/revisions\/8127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}