Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An informative look at the life of the Prophet of Doom, August 4, 2004
Almost everyone has heard of Nostradamus' prophecies, but many know nothing about the actual life of the man. This video spends a good twenty-five minutes on the life story of the 16th century seer before it gets into the subjects of the prophecies themselves. Nostradamus was a fascinating man, exhibiting special qualities even as a child. His grandfather took him under his wing and taught him many things that helped prepare him for his life as a medical doctor. I learned one very surprising fact: the first and foremost subject that doctors had to learn in that era was astrology, as they based much of their diagnoses and remedies on the patient's horoscope. Nostradamus was a man ahead of his time even in medicine, as he apparently insisted on cleanliness, refused to use bloodletting as a remedy, and enjoyed much success with his own lozenge of special herbs. The plague was devastating all of Europe in those days, but Nostradamus never contracted the disease himself. The Black Death did claim his wife and children, however, while Nostradamus was away helping treat others elsewhere in Europe.
After the loss of his family and the arrival of news that the Inquisition would like to speak to him, Nostradamus embarked on a wanderlust journey of Europe, during which time he seems to have taken a great interest in divination. The video describes how he supposedly invoked his visions in a secret room of his house; he would, it is said, actually travel in some form to the future and unconsciously write down his predictions while in a trance. He had to be careful, though, as the Inquisition was poised and ready to leap upon anyone with unorthodox ideas, and this is the reason his famous quatrains incorporated all sorts of anagrams and tricky little words and phrases. His fame as a seer grew, and no less than the queen of France herself called upon him for specialized predictions as to the future of her children. One of the quatrains seemed to predict the death of Henry II, and when that prediction came true, a mob wanted to burn Nostradamus as some sort of warlock - luckily, the queen's influence kept him safe.
A number of the quatrains are read to us and accompanied with visual images of the events and individuals they supposedly predicted: the French Revolution, the destructive reigns of Napoleon and Hitler, the assassination of John and Robert Kennedy, man's trip to the moon, the Gulf War, the Challenger explosion, and the list goes on. The only problem I have with this video is the fact that the discussion of the prophecies is completely one-sided. Nostradamus' modern-day supporters marvel at the seer's extraordinary future vision and make a very big deal out of the details he seemed to hit right on the money. There is no real discussion of the validity of the prophecies. Normally, since this is a biographical presentation, I would not expect to see skeptics included in the program. The fact that the video seems to make a big deal out of the accuracy of the predictions, however, seems to necessitate an opposing viewpoint. There is no reference to the skeptics who talk about how vague the quatrains are and explain how different translations and interpretations of the quatrains lead to different conclusions. In its place, all we get is the weakest of explanations for those prophecies that did not prove true - the prophecies showed what would happen if man's course did not change, so obviously man managed to avoid certain of the fates foreseen by Nostradamus. This video gives the impression that Nostradamus was indeed a true prophet who saw the future with incredible accuracy; many people, including myself, do not embrace such a concept, and I think this video would have benefited greatly from the inclusion of at least one Nostradamus skeptic into the discussion.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
THE SEER OF CATASTROPHE, January 15, 2002
Join in with scholars and writers who discuss a man's visions that unfolded in the future. Nostradamus is a name well known for his fatal prophecies but little is known about him. Biography takes us through a journey of this man's life and the impact that his words had on future generations. You will be surprised to find that Michael Notre Dame was the descendent of forced Jewish converts. He grew up learning about astrology, magic and the sources of Kabballah. All of these teachings lead him to become a reknowned medieval physician. The question then arises, what happened to him that he was able to foretell future catastrophes? Biography does an adequate job in its attempt in answering this question. Throughout the film you are shown the prophecies that he had foretold four centuries prior to their happening. Nostradamus was also under a cloud of suspicion but through his patronage with royalty, he was able to escape the cross examinations of the inquisitors. This film is informative about a person whose name is well known but whose life and work are a mystery. Should we believe that his prophecies came true or are they a result of our imagination? All of the scholars interviewed says Nostradamus was highly accurate. It would have been good to have another point of view regarding his life and work for us to make a sound judgement. Overall this is a fairly good video to entice you to learn more about this man.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Biographical Sketch of a man whose life could fill an epic, April 5, 2002
A&E's Biography(long before it was trendy) produced this VHS entitled Nostradamus: Prophet of Doom. As with most programming that A&E produces, this video is high quality. My only quabble is that the video, while providing much background about Nostradamus' early childhood and influences, does not focus on enough of the chilling predictions that he would become famous for. The prophecies that are mentioned are indeed scary, especially how precise Nostradamus was approaching time periods, places, and even peoples names. For instance, Nostradamus predicted the rise of a leader in Germany who would rally his people with passionate speeches and take the land of Poland. I mean what more proof do you need. What was very interesting was the explanations of how Nostradamus actually used some type of brass triangle, a goblet of water and a branch to actually "see" the future by becoming entranced with the rippling of the water. This is really entralling viewing but again the total running time of the video is 50 minutes. Now with the tragedies of 9/11/01 and another of Nostradamus' predictions coming true, A&E should revisit the topic, update, and expand. Recommended.
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