This was a very good summary of Alexandria's history. Of course, there is always more to tell but no one can capture everything in a short hour. This was a fine piece describing the fascinating streams of influence and the great scholars that studied there and made Alexandria the jewel that it was. Most people do not know who Hypatia was. I appreciate the narrator taking the time to explain her significant contributions. We are facing an eerily similar challenge, as people who consider themselves to be righteous turn away from science and call for the banning of books. This is an important story to tell and to tell in a compelling way, which is what this documentary did.
Alexandria: The Greatest City
2010
Documentary
Alexandria: The Greatest City
2010
Documentary
Plot summary
Bettany Hughes goes in search of this lost civilisation, revealing the story of a city founded out of the desert by Alexander the Great in 331 BC to become the world's first global centre of culture. The documentary also looks at the role of astronomer and philosopher Hypatia, and incorporates stunning footage from the feature film 'Agora'.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
October 05, 2022 at 09:56 PM
Director
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Fascinating history that we would do well to understand and remember
Sadly mediocre, lazy documentary on a great city
This documentary is remarkably lazy and mediocre. Disappointing, really, to have such junk produced about what is truly a great city with an amazing history. The glib pitter-patter from the host, Bettany Hughes, is repetitive and superficial. Seems evident that the production budget was so low that it barely covered a trip to Egypt. Lots of stock shots. Nothing new or interesting in terms of information, really. The documentary could have been 20 minutes long instead of 45 minutes and nothing would be lost. In the end, I felt I'd wasted my time, and that's unfortunate. I will look to see if I can't find something on Alexandria that is more professional than this unfortunate production.
Anti-Christian Diatribe
The movie starts off interesting, but by the end is a screed against Christianity. It was the Muslims who destroyed the city and its library, not Christians, but the narrator says nothing about that. She also says nothing of the many invasions and attacks on the library by the Romans. (See the wikipedia entry "Library of Alexandria.") To hear her tell the story of the city it was a peaceful utopia of higher learning for thousands of years until the evil Christians came along and ruined everything. What a disappointment.