04-02-2013, 07:15 PM
Quote:Has anyone seen "Agora"? Any good?Let me say... it could have been so much better. Totally NO time was spent on the clothing, which looks like a bad crossover between several Hollywood 'Rome' movies and several Hollywood 'Jesus' movies.
The characters are sdaly flawed and often extremist in their actions, all the while driven by either hate or indecision. The Roman dignitaries fail to convince in any way: the Roman governor is in love with Hypatia but never acts for one moment as governor. There seems to be no Roman police or military about, apart from a few officers standing by helplessly when Christian fanatics (there seem to be no other Christians present) cry, shout, hate, violate or perform any other execessive act in order to shame or neutralise them.
Unfortunately, the 'pagan' part is over-represented as some sort of 'Greenpeace/AI' group, fatalistic but GOOD.
I realise that to some extent, parts of the Roman empire can be compared to, say, modern Indonesia, where the government looks away when Muslim multitudes close down or tear down Christian churches.
However, that's different from presenting each individual in the manner described above and pretend that nothing was ever done about this. In fact the authorities tried to do much more about what was factually losing part of their authority to Christian (often) self-appointed bishops, but often failing. This is not shown in Agora at all.
Robert Vermaat
MODERATOR
FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)
MODERATOR
FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)