Product Description

Learn of the drastic steps taken to stop its spread.Re-enactments bring the fear and desperation of the era to life.See haunting reminders of the scourge that devastated Europe. It began like the common cold. Then came fever baseball-sized black swellings on the neck and coughing up blood. Few infected lived more than two days. In the three years since it first struck in 1437 almost half of Europe's population died within three years.THE PLAGUE visits the rat-infested holds of the ships that brought death and disease witness the terror that swept through towns and walks with religious flagellants. Follow a princess as she travels into the center of the plague a doctor who struggles to understand what is happening and a Jewish merchant caught up in violent attacks. Hear the actual words of the victims taken from diaries and journals. From the Pope's palace to the humble huts of medieval peasants watch as people live and die in the unforgiving grip of fear and death and wonder how we would act if such a terrible event happened today.System Requirements:Running Time 50 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. UPC: 733961745672 Manufacturer No: AAE-74567

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14753 in DVD
• Brand: A&E HOME ENT.
• Released on: 2006-03-28
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 100 minutes

Features

• Learn of the drastic steps taken to stop its spread. , Re-enactments bring the fear and desperation of the era to life. , See haunting reminders of the scourge that devastated Europe. It began like the common cold. Then came fever, baseball-sized black swellings on the neck, and coughing up blood. Few infected lived more than two days. In the three years since it first struck in 1437, almost

Customer Reviews

Amazing!
Without going into too much detail, this documentary is amazing. The speakers are all experts in their respective fields, and the historical accuracy is beyond reproach. I found no such "religious hatred" anywhere in the film; again, pure historical accuracy. (To put it very VERY lightly, medieval Christians weren't exactly friendly to their Jewish neighbors. Look into it before getting all defensive, please.)
An excellent base of information for anyone with an interest in this watershed event in human history.

Absolutely loved this DVD!
A perfect E squared (entertainment/education). Very well done and interesting documentary on mankinds deadliest killer ever! If you enjoy medieval histroy then this is a must. The plague transformed the face of Europe and affected life in inumerable ways. I highly recommend this entertaining and educational DVD.

Not pretty
History is not always pretty. When great and sustained misery is visited upon people, they too often show the worst side of their nature. In this case the misery was the black plague that killed millions in Europe over a period of about five years.

It was blamed, by some, on the convenient Jews, and they were villified and slain for a disease that killed them in the same proportion as non-Jews. The plague brought about the flagellants, who, in their religious fervor, went around publicly flogging themselves to expiate the sins of mankind and for the entertainment of others. Much of the misery of the plague was actually increased by the falsely pious Christians who thought the plague was a punishment from an angry God. This dvd presentation shows this but treads lightly, too lightly, perhaps.

This dvd is, all in all, a remarkable presentation. Settling to the soul, it is not. And the question it provokes is: could it happen again? It did, with the flu pandemic of 1918, and it may recur, worse next time, because of the fact that airplanes carry travelers thousands of miles in just hours.