Rachel Weisz vs the Dark Ages in New AGORA Trailer

The Dark Age wins.

Devin... thank you for that. I was looking forward to an actual trailer. I found an English language trailer here (with dialogue) in case anyone would like to see it: http://www.agorathemovie.com/

The story of Hypatia? This movie is going to make me so angry.

Now that is an interesting story. And judging by the trailer it seems to deliver on scale at least.

Though I am really curious about the percetion among Christians since they are not exactly the good guys in this story. Could make for an awesome post-release thread. But that has less to do with the movie rather than the issue at hand. Am I right, Stelios?

Thanks for the heads-up!

I look forward to the eventual thread, yes. Assuming this doesn't outright disappear and has something of a wide release.

Looks encased in period film boredom to me. Alexandria and Weisz are always interesting. It seems like her story is slightly separate from whenever the main library went up, but this is the greatest "always keep a backup" story of all time.

Carl Sagan lays it down (um, spoilers):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jixnM7S9tLw

Spoilers, lol.

Are they really tying in Hypatia's murder with the Library's destruction? I guess it works thematically...

the story hasn't passed the 2500 year limit for spoilers yet oops

You have RUINED this movie for me.

I have been so excited for this movie. Alexander III of Macedon is my favorite person to have ever lived, and the idea of an entire movie that takes place in Alexandria Egypt just blows my mind. The 4 episodes of Rome on HBO that occured in Alexandria were awesome, but an entire movie where I get to peek at Pharos in the background of every shot makes me positively giddy.

Rachel Weisz is wonderful and one of my favorite actresses, ever since I first saw her in Enemy At The Gates. I think she will really help to class up the film. She seems very thoughtful so I can buy into the idea she could be a philosopher.

The idea of a director who is not American or British making a film about this subject I also find very interesting and am eager to see how it all turns out.

I do take slight issue with the idea that the time of Ptolemaic egypt represent 'Dark Ages' when compared to the spread of Christianity and later Muslim rule. The degredation of Rome from vibrant paganism to monotheism (Along with, sadly, the fall of the Cult of Alexander in Egypt) and the fall of strong institutions like that are what lead to the actual Dark Ages. I understand this was an article title which little thought went in to, but as a person who cares about classics and western history, I thought I'd just offer clarification.

EDIT: even worse than the loss of the library is the loss of the body of Alexander, which had been on display (Ptolemy hijacked it before it could return to Macedon and brought it down to egypt) and was kept preserved in honey and oil. Though this tragic loss occured 300 odd years later, it was brought about through the greed of the world after the invention of Christianity, which enraged the locals enough to riot. The single most devestating loss in all of recorded history, it makes the library seem like a used book store.

EDIT2: On my first reading I took the "religious fanatics" to mean people from the Cult of Alexander , which I took offense at. I now understand Devin was talking about Christians, so disregard that part of my post.

Devin meant the opposite of what you're saying.

*backs out of thread slowly*

No gold chainmail bikini karate fight? No sale.

There's a chapter on Carl Sagan's Cosmos on this story...

...and it breaks my heart whenever I watch it. The destruction of the library of Alexandria has always struck me as one the greatest tragedies in the history of the world, and one that has so far received scant attention -- mainly because history was written by the (Christian) victors. I'm very much looking forward to Agora...

The loss of the documents contained in the library is tragic, but the fact that they actually lost Alexanders corpse through greed (the pharaoh at the time melted down his gold outer sarcophagus to pay for stuff and people freaked out and rioted. Alexander himself was in a glass coffin filled with honey and oil so people could gaze at him) strikes me as the most truly devastating loss in all of history. to be here in the year 2009, as indebted as man is to his legacy, and not be able to pay our respects at his final resting place is really really awful. I mean, we literally have only ONE room in the entire world where we can say for certain alexander stood. That is how hard it is to feel any sort of physical connection to this person, dispite the change he unleashed on this planet.

It does. And that's about it. Sadly.

Who the fuck cares about the body of Alexander??? The burning of the library is a far, far, far, FAR greater loss!

Yeah, what the heck ... ?

The production values are definitely impressive, but nothing about that trailer makes me want to see the film.

I see your point, but it's difficult for me to compare the loss a human body (regardless of the importance of the person it belonged to) with the willful destruction of the bulk of ancient knowledge -- a loss that set humanity back about about a thousand years (and a loss that would have probably doomed civilization had it not been for the dregs that Muslim scholars and Irish monks managed to preserve). In many ways the European Renaissance was merely the rediscovery of much of what had once been contained in the library of Alexandria.

Well seeing as it was on display for 900 years and people worshipped him as a god, clearly alot of people cared.......

The loss of history and information that occured when the library burned sucked....

but losing the last physical connection to the greatest man who ever lived is the worse loss. that is speaking only for my own opinions and thoughts, but if julius caesar felt the need to kneel at alexander's body, maybe you should consider the value and importance so many people clearly put on it.

No doubt you are right. I guess I just feel that his body is historically signifigant. This was the person who, in all of history, achieved more in his years adn did it more quickly than anyone else, all the while being a pretty good guy in general dispite what some so called historians would have you believe. i read a book that made constant comparisons to hitler, pol pot, adn the nazis when talking about alexander's conquest of asia.. i found it pretty offensive. not because he had that point of view, but because he would often present half truths or biased sources, chosing the worst things to say about him when there is evidence to suspect many claims are false.

but you are right that knowlege contained in the library at alexandria was priceless and that all of humanity was set back for thousands of years when that building burned.

I don't care what Ceasar felt a need to kneel for or what fantasies he used to jerk off to or what that body meant to people.

The burning of that library is on a whole other level. It didn't "suck", it was one of the truly great tragedies of human history. The knowledge that went up in flames is staggering.

That Carl Sagan bit is amazing. I'm assuming that's all motion-control blue screen photography, and quite fantastic at that.

The loss of the library is a tragedy, losing Alexander's body is the bit that kind of sucks. In one of my history classes my teacher talked about a group of archeologists who are fairly certain they know where his body is. They just can't get at it because it's (they believe) buried under a mosque in Egypt. Apparently they tried surreptitiously digging under the mosque from a location down and across the street, but they got caught and shut down. I'm not sure how true any of that is.

I have trouble believing they could be so certain... I have read quite a bit about the search for his body and people do not even know if it is in egypt or if it survived at all, much less what specific mosque its burried under.

Well, I'm not saying everyone is certain, just that there were apparently some guys who were pretty sure about it. Who knows if they were right?

I hope they are right, and we find it someday. I just am saying, I have read a little on the subject, enough to be discouraged about the probability of ever finding it.


On the subject, Nero looted Alexander's armor and pranced around in it while mocking Alexander. Fuck Nero.

There's some hardcore Ozymandias roleplaying going on in here...

Trailer looks ho-hum. I hate those crane-assisted shots that pan around screaming "look at this! Look at all the money we spent to present this scene full of extras to you!"

Oh, weird. I love crane assisted pans, almost as much I love sweeping helicopter shots. A pan from a crane is sort of a poor man's helicopter shot. Like, if they could have fit a helicopter on the set, they should just do that, and then have the camera take off and fly away instead of a traditional zoom out at the end of a scene or shot or something. I cannot get enough of that kind of thing!

EDIT: The 'LOTR' Trilogy is a good example of what I am talking about. Cameras were always flying backwards and forwards at high speeds in that film. Zooming in on things quickly or rapidly zooming out.

EDIT 2: I just remembered, in the LOTR films, sometimes they'd even have the camera zooming in as it physically moves away! Creating a very strange effect (the shot ofFrodo in 'Fellowship' looking down the dirt road and anticipating the Black Rider people uses this technique), but also demonstrating those films mastery of the sweeping zoom as a cinematic device.

Some days you think the Interet has already shown you everything it has to offer.

And some days you wake up to find how wrong you can be.

It is staggering that anyone could compare the loss of the ancient knowledge contained in the library to the loss of Alexanders actual body.

Are the proponents of this comparison descendants of some bizarre mysterious personality cult or religion?

Wow. Just wow.

Hot damn, I've been wanting to see this story dramatized since I heard it on Cosmos way back on its first run. If this is the story of Hypatia, the ending is going to play like Passion of the Christ, only with an actual story behind it. The Christians in the audience are really not going to be happy.

Also, what the hell is wrong with Princess Kate? The destruction of a massive repository of knowledge and wisdom is overshadowed by the fact that somebody lost a corpse? Who cares how important he was when he was alive? It's not like we could get a great interview with it if we found it. It's a fucking corpse. There's no knowledge to be had from it.

My brain hurts.

I know, it's really the most bizarre statement I've come across here for a while. A mind-boggling lack of perspective.

Consider who said it, a self-confessed Alexander the Great fangirl (she even liked that fuckawful Oliver Stone movie) and someone who has displayed absolutely no interest in knowledge since the day she arrived. I'm kinda glad that his corpse is still missing, for his own sake, otherwise Kate would be taking a yearly pilgramage to his tomb and dry humping the shit out of his bones.

You watch the trailer and you'd think it was the Jebus brigade that brought down Rome, and not the Hun.

No, the Jebus brigade just brought down Alexandria.

Hi, I thought alot about this last night and I had a few thoughts to add. First off, I have changed my mind. The loss of the library is more important. I feel that Alexander's legacy would have been better served to have it survive, and that the library was more important on the whole to the world at large than just his body.

With that said, for people who know about just how cool Alexander was, the loss of his physical remains is very important. For someone who conquered Asia before he was 30, and overthrew the Persian Empire before he was 25, the fact that we do not know even how tall he was, or what color his hair or eyes were is a pretty depressing lack of information.


He was the first white person to go to india, to meet budhists, to do all sorts of things and meet all sorts of people. Alexander came first and the rest of us just followed. He was like the lewis and clark of conquest.

To be able to see his body, or something we could say for certain he physically interacted with (armor, a sword, etc) would go a long ways towards making his spectacular journey seem real. To be able to look at his corpse, see the teeth in the head and know that they were alive and chewing food 2330 odd years ago when he crossed 200 people over the hindu kush into india, would make it real in a way that anecdotes from people who never met alexander in their lifetimes never could

Hope that explains my position better.


The Oliver Stone film was excellent and had some of the best flat out cinema moments of the aughts , not to mention being just a generally truely excellent Alexander III of Macedon film. Devin agrees with me, read his review

And remember, folks, you're getting all this for free!

Click an ad banner. It's the least you can do.

You ruined my Saturday now I'm browsing Cosmos through the tube...

But apparently, you know all of that. Viewing the remains would do nothing to increase that knowledge. Do you honestly think that if the corpse were still around, you'd be able to identify hair and eye color from it? We would learn nothing, except perhaps details like "Apparently, he once broke his big toe. Seems to have heeled crooked".

The historical details are more important than the physical presence. This isn't a court of law; we don't need to see remains to know that he existed. And seeing remains won't tell us anything we don't already know. It's just sentimentality.

If you get a chance to see the whole thing, absolutely do.

Watching Cosmos is definitely not a ruined anything.

Where am I? I didn't know people who cared that much about the corpse of Alexander the Great existed. Not sure what to do with that knowledge. Gonna go watch The Fountain, since it'll probably make a lot more sense. :\

I took me some time from writing. I was joking I even used Italic. I immensely enjoyed the second chapter.

The entirety of Cosmos is available on Netflix Instant, in pretty decent quality.

'Agora' looks ok.

Not to mention, the library in Alexandria probably housed many historical documents on Alexander the Great.

Good point.

Doubt it had "Cosmos," though.

I know, thats what makes it especially awful. There might have even been primary source documents from people who actually MET Alexander.