The Movies:

Nostradamus 2012 is an interesting documentary that arrives on DVD courtesy of The History Channel. Its focus is on predictions made by the world's most infamous prophet as they relate to the fast approaching year of 2012 - the year his writings seem to indicate in which it'll all hit the fan. French born Michael de Nostredame lived from 1503 to 1566 but during his short lifespan wrote numerous collections of prophecies. An apothecary and seer, his predications have an uncanny accuracy which lends a rather chilling credence to the whole 'it's gonna end in 2012' prediction. But how much of what his man predicted really came true, and how much of it has been made to look true by misinterpretation, coincidence and circumstance is really anyone's guess.

The film begins with a quick rundown of who Nostradamus is and how many of his predictions have supposedly come true before discussing some recently unearthed writings and illustrations that seem to indicate 2012 as the year in question. Interviews with scholarly types and experts in the fields of prophecy and 'seeing' are spliced in alongside clips of the worst that the world has seen - famine, war, natural disasters, political unrest - you name it, it's here.

One thing that continually plagues the interesting documentary, however, is that his predictions are pretty much always seen as accurate in hindsight. Had he accurately predicted the rise of Hitler or the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center buildings then obviously steps could have and would have been taken to prevent such occurrences from ever actually becoming manifest. So while it's all well and good for the various interviewees, authors and religious experts to go on and on about how much weight Nostradamus' words carry, if history teaches us anything, it's that we won't really know what he's talking about until after the fact - at which point it will be too late.

There are moments of rightful skepticism in here that keep the whole thing grounded in something close to sanity, and which do bring up the possibility that this whole phenomena is nothing more than circumstance twisted as an afterthought to fight the words that Nostradamus wrote hundreds of years ago, but the documentary definitely takes the 'be afraid, be very afraid' stance in its delivery. While this may not necessarily make for serious filmmaking, it does make for more interesting television and you can't really fault the filmmakers for taking this approach. After all, misery sells, and so does fear.

When it's all over and done with, this is worth watching, but how much stock you want to put into the prophecies discussed here will obviously depend on how much you actually believe in such things. There isn't anything here that'll convert the non-believers, though those who do latch onto such things will likely insist that there is. It's an interesting ninety minutes of discussion and dissection of some prophecies that are worthy of the time - even if much of this seems little more than superstition and supposition.

The Video:

The documentary is presented in a non-anamorphic 1.78.1 widescreen aspect ratio, which is how it was all originally broadcast when it first aired on The History Channel. The is interlaced but aside from that it don't look so bad at all, it's really no better or worse than most television documentaries. Colors are fairly lifelike and accurate looking as are flesh tones, though the black levels aren't all that strong. Detail levels are as good as you'd expect from a shot on video presentation, meaning they're fair to average, though there are no obvious issues with mpeg compression artifacts or edge enhancement worth complaining over.

The Audio:

The feature is presented in fairly standard English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo presentations. There are no alternate language dubs, subtitles, or closed captioning options of any kind provided. As far as the quality of the mix goes, there's not much to complain about here. The levels are well balanced and the background music sounds decent enough. This is not particularly complex track - it's basically just narration and interview bits with an instrumental score overtop from time to time - so the stereo mix is perfectly sufficient. There are no problems with hiss or distortion and the dialogue and narration is always perfectly audible.

The Extras:

Aside from some animated menus and chapter selection sub-menus, the History Channel has provided a selection of bonus footage that includes bits on the sun, the Egyptians, the end of time, the Hopi and the Masons. This is basically more of the same, in that it's all based on a lot of conjecture and circumstance but it's also worth thinking about. The bits on the Egyptians and the Masons are particularly interesting as they shed a bit of light on how the ancient civilization and the secret society all tie in to the end of times. There's just under sixteen minutes worth of material here, and the quality is identical to the feature presentation.

Overall:

Take it with a grain of salt if you need to, but it's uncanny how, according to the people involved with this feature, how many of Nostradamus' predictions have at least partially come to happen. What'll occur in 2012 obviously remains to be seen, but this documentary makes an interesting case, purporting that things are going to get a whole lot worse in the years to come. That said, while this is worth checking out, is it really something you're going to want to watch time and again? Probably not, so consider this a solid rental.

Ian lives in NYC with his wife where he writes for DVD Talk, runs Rock! Shock! Pop!. He likes NYC a lot, even if it is expensive and loud.