Agora

It’s so precious and fragile, civilization.  Your city can reside at its heights, and you at the heights of your city.  You can read the words of the ancients and build upon their knowledge and be a part of the growth of your species.  Then it can all come down, and you with it.  It’s what can happen when no one stands up to the crazy people.

In Agora, Hypatia teaches in the Great Library of Alexandria, the repository of Western Civilization’s knowledge and the center of its intellectual life.  She teaches in an environment much like that of a St. John’s College seminar, leading her students in discussion of the great thinkers who have come before them and exploring the flaws in their reasoning.  Alexandria’s a city in ferment, with the rising Christian sect challenging the established order of the Pagans and Jews, but that competition seems distant and unreal.  Euclid and Aristotle and the problems with Ptolemaic astronomy seem much more present.  Until, that is, the crazy people start killing each other.  That’s when the burning starts.

To give us this story, the story of the burning of the library and the dawn of the Dark Ages, Agora begins by recreating ancient Alexandria.  Blending inspired set and costume design with detailed CGI matte work, the film makes its Alexandria feel like a thriving, dynamic, restive city.  I’ve read about Alexandria, sure, and I’ve seen photos of ruins in National Geographic.  Heck, I flew over the site of the old city the other day.  But now, after seeing this film, I can visualize what it may have looked and sounded like to the people who actually lived there.  That’s a feat in itself.

A world is not enough, however.  Every story needs its beating heart, and this one has Hypatia, daughter of the Library’s curator, tutor in its seminars, and perhaps the greatest mathematician and natural philosopher of her age.  Rachel Weisz, as Hypatia, has given me cause to reconsider her as an actress.  She’s always been a great beauty and perfectly fine performer, but here she captures the joy of thought.  We see her reasoning through the great scientific questions her day (some of which wouldn’t be answered for a millennium – oh, how much we lost when the crazy people took charge), and Weisz walks us through her frustrations, her ideas, her breakthroughs – all without histrionics, but with subtle changes in her face and body that suggest the genius behind the beauty.

The film combines these elements to break our hearts.  We know what’s coming, we know nothing can stop it, and we weep for the people of Alexandria and a civilization heading toward eclipse.  Crazy people thrive on all sides, in all factions, and the sane people don’t realize the threat until it’s too late.

If you care about ideas and the history of ideas, you need to Agora.  This film will break your heart.  If not, well, you’re crazy.

Hellboy Revisited

I've been on a Hellboy kick lately, mostly because I'll reinforce pretty much anything that gets my kid to read. That said, I revisited Guilllermo del Toro's live-action HELLBOY film over the weekend. I enjoyed it much more this time around.

When I saw HELLBOY during its theatrical run, the comics were fresher in my mind. This, of course, led to constant comparisons between what I was seeing and what I'd read and, while I liked what I was seeing, it simply couldn't compare to my imagination. That, and there was no Lobster Johnson.

This time around, the comics have faded in memory and I was able to enjoy the film more on its own terms. The audience surrogate -character doesn't grate, the throwaway references don't feel underdone, and themes of Hellboy really carry through. You see, HELLBOY is all about choice: it's just the thing to appeal to believers in the Leibnizian monadic soul, like me. In the film, as in the comics, Hellboy was created to be the Antichrist and unleash cosmic, Lovecraftian horror upon the world. He was brought into the world by evil forces to do evil deeds, but gets an early exposure to the good guys. Ultimately, he chooses sides, and his self-determining choice defines him more than all the external factors that combine to force his hand.

This is great stuff, and HELLBOY delivers it in a package filled with slimy monsters, catchy one-liners, and a double helping of fun.

Still no Lobster Johnson, though. Perhaps in HELLBOY 2.