Black Death (2010)

[wild_thing]

I am a historian and I go with the medical people and say it is a bacillus spread by fleas as is strongly documented and still present and active in many places included among the ground squirrel population here in SoTex (as in right outside my house on the golf course). think I will go get my shots.

See Samuel K. Cohen’s book The Black Death Transformed if you truly wish to know more about the Great Mortality that swept Europe. I think Cohen makes a very, very convincing case for the Black Death not being the bubonic plague caused by the fleas of rats. That is not to say that bubonic plague is still not alive and well in the world- because it is, especially in Indonesia and India; but it was not the disease that wiped out almost half of Europe. It’s pretty darn dry, scholarly reading though, I should warn you.

Still have not seen the darn movie. This summer has been too busy!

 

[Dale_M]

No, I’m with the historians who think it was a viral disease.

Hm… of course, until we can isolate the causative agent in the bodies of persons who died back then, there is no way to conclusively prove what caused the black death. Bubonic plague, along with its more dangerous form of pneumonic plague (which can be spread via the air, person to person) still seems overwhelmingly to be the suspect of choice among scientists. But certainly an unknown viral agent could have been the cause. This strikes me as speculative, but considering alternative theories is a sound practice in science.

 

[Dale_M]

News Update:

Black Death bug identified from medieval bones

The Black Death infamously wiped out about a third of Europe’s population in the 14th century, but until now there was no firm evidence that bubonic plague was the cause.

Some researchers have suggested that the epidemic was caused by a virus such as Ebola, but an analysis of DNA from a London plague pit seems to settle the argument in favour of the “plague” bacterium Yersinia pestis.

The findings are the first confirmation that these Black Death victims were infected with Y. pestis, Poinar says. The evidence was strong enough to convince two team members who had previously argued that the bug was not the cause.

newscientist.com/article/dn20844-black-death-bug-identified-from-medieval-bones.html

The good news is that the genetic variant of Yersenia pestis discovered in the bones does not seem to be prevalent in the world today.

 

[Oruwaith]

I watched, though I was rather disappointed. The description on Netfix made me think it was going to be a zombie movie. BAH! I was totally gearing up for it!

I guess I did like the concept though. It was entertaining at times, but the ending just left me depressed.

 

[Road2Damascus]

Well sounds really interesting. For those who have seen the movie does it end up bashing the Church too much? It seems to me that any recent period piece which intersects with the Church will inevitably go out of their way to show the Church doing one nefarious practice or another.

Out now, I have seen this movie and last week “Season of the Witch” which suffers from that problem too catholicnews.com/data/movies/11mv002.htm This is the CNS review.

Both of these movies are watchable and with me, both keep me glued to the movie. It seems people are making “Season of the Witch” a “B” movie but it was okay. Has a little bit about the Crusades in it. I wonder if there are any “Crusade” movies that people give a thumbs up about. Anyway, with “Season”, the part that might be seen as bad is the first 15 minutes and then, I don’t think it is really too irreverent to the Church, the opening 15 minutes is just a bit “shocking” in context. “Season of the Witch” has the Black Plague in it as well.

These movies are not “Gladiator” but they aren’t all that bad. I think “Black Plague” makes a bit more of a point to paint Christianity in a negative way, the way I think people think about the Church in England from what I can tell though “Black Plague” I guess is filmed in Germany or something, a lot of German help. “Season of the Witch” has a bit of animation which I’m not to keen on though overall, I do think I like it a bit better.

“Black Plague” though has a good back up and only when we find out what the Pagans believe does Christianity start to suffer a ‘black eye.’ But hey, it is about England and I guess they had the Druids and things way back then. Still, neither of these are too bad per the Christian view with one strong in the faith.

 

[Dale_M]

But hey, it is about England and I guess they had the Druids and things way back then.

No, the druids are decidedly pre-Christian. The Roman Empire suppressed Druidism in England during the first century AD, which is centuries before the Black Death

 

[Dave_in_Dallas]

I don’t recommend this bloody anti-christian movie. There are no redeeming characters or messages.
It’s typical Hollywood anti-church relativistic garbage .