I am so glad this movie was made and released is Spain, where the Catholic church still retains its grip on society. Other reviews have complained about this movie's lack of plot -- they miss the whole point. What this movie shows is what people were like in that time -- how ignorance and dogma ruled people's lives and how it caused misery and conflict. But in that fog of dull wits are always people, like Hypatia, who want to see further and understand more.
As to the historical nature of what Hypatia herself did, I think the film goes too far. It seems highly unlikely to me that she bridged the gap between Ptolemy and Kepler essentially by herself just thinking about the problem. Prof. George Saliba and others have written extensively on the subject, and the thousand years of analysis primarily by the Arabs was actually necessary for Kepler to finally solve it. But the idea provides very well to the story to show the contrast of one people who spent their lives thinking and those the spent their lives praying, judging and persecuting.
The movie does very well in putting religion in its proper place, and exalting science with the kind of devotion of one who is obsessed with it. It provides a comparison of the ultimate sacrifice of oneself to spreading understanding as supposedly Jesus sacrificed himself for the purposes of spreading ignorance and piety (this is not in the movie, but the parallel was so obvious). Hypatia actually achieves something that we all benefit from to this day, while Jesus achieved nothing.
This film is exceedingly important in this era when the next generation is not as impressed by dogma, but still falls victim to it.
As to the historical nature of what Hypatia herself did, I think the film goes too far. It seems highly unlikely to me that she bridged the gap between Ptolemy and Kepler essentially by herself just thinking about the problem. Prof. George Saliba and others have written extensively on the subject, and the thousand years of analysis primarily by the Arabs was actually necessary for Kepler to finally solve it. But the idea provides very well to the story to show the contrast of one people who spent their lives thinking and those the spent their lives praying, judging and persecuting.
The movie does very well in putting religion in its proper place, and exalting science with the kind of devotion of one who is obsessed with it. It provides a comparison of the ultimate sacrifice of oneself to spreading understanding as supposedly Jesus sacrificed himself for the purposes of spreading ignorance and piety (this is not in the movie, but the parallel was so obvious). Hypatia actually achieves something that we all benefit from to this day, while Jesus achieved nothing.
This film is exceedingly important in this era when the next generation is not as impressed by dogma, but still falls victim to it.