Agora


 * Title:** Agora; a must-watched film.


 * GP:** To persuade


 * SP:** To persuade and to convince the audience on the reasons to go watch this movie.


 * CI:** Agora is a must-watched film because of the outstanding characters emphasized in this movie, the great cinematography and the moral values it brought.

__Attention getter:__ I had just finished watching this movie. A very serious one at that. Caused me a bit dizziness after spending two hours watching it. So, imagine this scene; you are living in the 4th century Roman Egypt where there are lots of clashes between religions and it involves the killings between the pagans, Jews and Christians and how much they hate each other? There charts the bloody struggles that pitted pagans and Jews against the Christianisations across the Mediterranean region. So, this is what the movie is all about. It is entitled Agora; a Spanish film. It was set in the city of Alexandria.
 * Introduction:**

Agora centered on a renowned [real life] female philosopher, mathematician and scientist named Hypatia. Since Hypatia having influences towards the leaders of Alexandria, it caused certain conflicts concerning the governmental affairs.

(Transition: One of the reasons you are encouraged to go watch this movie is that the characters played were really outstanding and versatile.)

The main role in this film was __Hypatia;__ played by Rachel Weisz. - She is an intelligent female character being terribly obsessed with knowledge. - She rejected love from possible suitors to retain her independence to learn. - It is very rare to see a character like Hypatia even in our daily life. - She believed in power of knowledge and wisdom. - From a gender perspective, it feels so refreshing to see historical film where a woman in a place of knowledge and priviledge is teaching, hypothesizing and problem solving and also not minutely interested in the numerous men who are obviously interested in her.
 * Main Points:**
 * MP 1:** There are few characters displayed in this movie which range from the very naive Davus to the very extremist Cyril, a powerful bishop.
 * Supporting details:**

ii) The character __Davus__ was played by Max Minghella. - He was Hypatia's slave who converted to Christianity for freedom. - He had feelings towards his mistress. - Hypatia later freed him. - He is the most transformational character; from the obedient and timid young slave, he joined the rank of the Christians after gaining his freedom as a bodyguard where he grew rougher and hoarser. - All that he wanted was not actually freedom, it was Hypatia's love. - At the end of this movie, he suffocated Hypatia to death as he wanted to spare her the suffering of being stoned and tortured by the mobs. - This truly implies his love for Hypatia. - My favourite scene of his has to be when he secretly prayed helplessly to his Christian lord - "please let no one else have her." - Applied to each and everyone of us, we have to keep our one-sided love of ours a secret, right? - What we can learn from this character is that we should be obedient and loyal to our master. We also must sacrifice for our loved ones.

(Transition: Now we have seen the interesting side of the characters brought in this movie. So, let's move to another point where some of you might be interesting in the cinematography and high definition scenes.)

i) In a positive way, the wars and killings in the movie really ticked me off. ii) There were lots of heads and body parts lying around in blood. iii) I could feel the fear that Hypatia was going through as the clashes began... - How people began running around, causing chaos and killing people and destroying books. iv) Plus, the film also depicts killings of other people from other religions, it was really gore. v) Also, the film fits the epic definition in several ways including sweeping, gorgeous cinematography that makes each and every shot of a thing of beauty. - I was also fascinated by the great performance from the cast including a particularly stellar performance from Max Minghella as Hypatia's young slave Davus. - I also got to see great works from Oscar Isaac as the privileged Orestes, Sami Samir as the often scary Cyril. vi) It was a beautifully shot movie, addressing an important modern theme.
 * MP 2:** The cinematography of the story looks almost real and believable.
 * Supporting details:**

(Transition: What a movie if there are no messages brought to the audiences and for me, the moral values really sink deep in my heart.)

i) Firstly, there are scenes where these intellectual and thinking people were being blamed and killed for being clever, reasoned and moderate. - Should we go this far just because they are intellectuals? - We should treat people equally no matter what are their backgrounds and history.
 * MP 3:** There are several moral values of the story:-
 * Supporting details:**

ii) The film also depicts killings of people from other religions just because they believed that they were sinners. If they just leave each other in peace, then perhaps people wouldn't die as much as they were. People should really accept and tolerate and respect other people's religions notwithstanding what they are. - Indeed, Prophet Muhammad was one great symbol of tolerance and acceptance. - He didn't go around killing people of other religions during his time. - Instead, he welcomed them with open hands and encouraged exploration of knowledge notwithstanding gender, background or status.

iii) We cannot condemn on how other people should live. - People always deemed themselves a know-it-all while they are actually not. - Even if he or she appears to be more religious, obedient and proper, that doesn't mean they are going to heaven for sure and that certainly doesn't mean that he or she has the license to condemn how other people should live.

iv) We can complain of other people being rude, bad, evil, wrong but no, we can never question their love for God. - I believe that such matter is only known between god and that person himself or herself. - People could never measure one's faith for definite. - Those who appear to be lost from the outside perhaps hide a secret yet great love for God deep inside their hearts.

(Transition: These are among the strong reasons on why you are encouraged to watch this movie; not just because of the outstanding characters and great cinematography, it brings the moral values as well.)

- Anyway, this is a cool movie, especially for nerds like me who are into history and ancient civilisations and, to some extent, feminism. So, what are you waiting for? If you ever interested in watching this movie, just go to this websites or you can just borrow the dvd from me. It has to be in your must-watched list.
 * Conclusion:**

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 * References:**