Hollywood Hates History, Part 2: Agora (2009)

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 8 August 2019

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the second episode of this series, Stephen tells us everything he doesn't like about the 2009 film Agora, which is a lot. The movie stars Rachel Weisz (maybe the only good thing about the film) as Hypatia, a real-life 4th/5th-century philosopher in Alexandria killed by political infighting among politicians and clergy. Her actual story is very interesting and tells us much about late Roman civic life, but this movie turns her into a genius that is one part Isaac Newton, two parts Tony Stark, ready to discover a heliocentric solar system a thousand years before Copernicus; however, an ignorant mob kills her and burns her scrolls before she has the chance. To put it very mildly, the film takes liberties with the truth.

Transcript

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0:27.3	That's all protected, time to condition supply.
0:57.3	Welcome to the History Unplugged Podcast.
1:09.2	The unscripted show that celebrates unsung heroes, myth busts historical lies, and rediscoveres
1:15.6	the forgotten stories that changed our world.
1:19.2	I'm your host, Scott Rank.
1:25.4	Welcome back to our series on the most historically inaccurate movies.
1:31.4	Steve, are you ready to channel your hatred and anger into your movie of choice?
1:36.4	I've been ready for a long time.
1:39.4	This is going to be tricky, because the way we do this, I'm a defender, but I don't know.
1:45.4	It's sort of like a defender in the devil's advocate sense.
1:48.4	I guess it's kind of like a lawyer for the Nuremberg Trials.
1:50.4	I don't know if that's too strong of an analogy, but hey, legally, I am required to present
1:56.1	my client even though they're a mass murderer.
1:58.1	I'm going to do the best I can.
2:00.4	I'll try to imagine what someone who does like this movie and think it's right would say.
	...

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