Customer Reviews

Biography - Mother Teresa: A Life of Devotion [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
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An excellent example of Biography when the program focused on challenging and intriguing lives - rather than 70s TV stars. This episode comes from a time when Biography was committed to thoughtful and revealing glimpses into the lives of women and men who slowly changed the world for the better. The production offers numerous interviews of Mother Teresa's contemporaries and fascinating video clips of the woman, both in her labors for the poor and among the world's powerful. Her unique spirit shines through, including moments when her overwhelming personality was perhaps not easy to take but was still admirably, relentlessly dedicated to her worthy cause. She was a personal hero of my fiance, Sidelle Rimbaud, who patterned many of her life decisions after Mother Teresa's example of self-sacrifice, and ultimately died in the line of duty. Because of this, I watched the program and was rewarded with a view of one of humanity's most noble spirits. David R. Bannon, Ph.D.; author "Race Against Evil."

This is a fantastic look at Mother, but it does not cover her passing as another reviewer wrote. It is the old Biography that was released while she was alive and simply repackaged for current sales. The actual video is not up to date. Hopefully the folks at Biography will complete the job soon. If you don't already have this tape it's a definite buy.

This is one of the Biography series best. Although it is not up to date, the video is a powerful document of Mother Teresa's life. The interviews with many of her associates within and outside the Catholic Church add a great deal of insight into her work. It shows clips of her speech after winning the Nobel Peace Prize, and the passion she felt over the issue of abortion.
The entire video has a great spiritual air about it, and leaves one feeling that they know a little more about such a great woman.

This biography is chock-full of interesting information and especially noted for historic footage; however several long periods of interruption showing nothing more than pictures of film reels, camera lenses, and other film clips having nothing to do with the subject at hand are quite annoying and disruptive to the content. These many "fillers" are a waste of the gift of sight and the time could have been put to much better use by simply showing more still photos of Mother Teresa or her many work settings. I've seen many other tributes to Mother Teresa and this was my least favorite. I'd recommend those interested to consider other sources.

I thought this was a very good documentary on this great saint. However, since i bought it to show a number of year 9 students it was quite boring and not student-friendly. The people who make these documentaries must make them more student/ school friendly. Overall the dvd was a good one.

Excellent overview of a modern saint Mother Teresa's life, espcially the footage of her holding the tiny, abandoned babies in her hands, and her personal caring of the lepers. Mother Teresa's life is a shining example of karma yoga, faith, devotion, unconditional love, compassion, and humility that we can learn and incorporate in our daily lives. I also bought the DVD of Mother Teresa, played by Olivia Hussey, which is also excellent.

Small in stature, but with an enormous and loving heart, Mother Teresa was the embodiment of what Christianity should be. She went to the poorest and most destitute people and aided them as they lay dying of causes that in most cases could be easily cured. She was born in what was then Yugoslavia and found her calling to minister to the poor in India, where she established her presence near the worst slums in Calcutta. She founded a new order, the Missionaries of Charity, which is dedicated to being an advocate for and to the treating of the poorest of the poor.
This biography demonstrates the spirit of Christianity at its' best, Mother Teresa was a tireless worker, taking the admonishments of Jesus literally as she did all she could to make sure that the lost people received some loving care, even if they only had days or hours to live. Like all people that perform major accomplishments, she had her detractors, most specifically over her steadfast opposition to abortion and all forms of birth control. While some of that is mentioned here, there are questions about some of her other actions that are not mentioned.
Nevertheless, although she may have made some mistakes in what she did and advocated, no one embodied the fundamental religious principles more deeply than Mother Teresa. She deserves the accolades that want to elevate her to sainthood. All you have to do is watch a few minutes of this tape where the camera is panning through the cots where the people under her care are lying.