I have watched the new movie Agora several times. It is one of those movies that the more times you see it the more you see. As one of the members remarked at our last meeting, it will definitely not be shown here in Minot. I recommend you get it on Netflix or buy it from one of the outlets. The subtitles and the meaning becomes deeper every time you see it. It becomes an analogy for the religions today, particularly Islam and fundamentalist Christianity. But could for any other religion. The so called religions of peace. How the psychological hold a cleric can have over followers, as manifested in the atrocities they are willing to do for them. The need for them to control the lives of everyone, not with just being content with being the sheep's confessors. How minot insults escalate into major confrontations that even governments cannot control. All in the name of some invisible Deity. The assigning of cause and reward to these invisible dieties, when in reality it is the human cause that is at the root. The fear that is propagated by these clerics in the name of their respective Deity. The curse of humanity to have invented such deities.
Peace
Skeptical DoDo
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2 comments:
I saw Agora when it first came out in NYC and loved Weisz' performance as Hypatia. And I agree that Amenabar with his choice of costume and casting, is clearly calling out today's religious fanatics (of any stripe.) Amenabar distorts some history in service to his art (the Library didn't end that way and Synesius wasn't a jerk), but that's what artists do. I don't go to the movies for history.
For people who want to know more about the historical Hypatia, I highly recommend a very readable biography Hypatia of Alexandria by Maria Dzielska (Harvard University Press, 1995). I also have a series of posts on the historical events and characters in the film at my blog - not a movie review, just a "reel vs. real" discussion.
I agree that this was not historically accurate. But I don't think that was the point. The point I think was about how religious fanatism spirals out of control in its effort to control hearts and minds, which is its real aim. Truth is always the victim and religious fanatisms doesn't really care about truth, but calls its idealogy truth.
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