A Brief History of Time (1991)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Errol Morris

Writer:

Stephen Hawking (book)

Release Date:

16 October 1992 (Australia)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography

Tagline:

Where did the universe come from? Will time ever come to an end? Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Plot:

A film about the life and work of the cosmologist, Stephen Hawking, who despite his near total paralysis, is one of the great minds of all time.

Plot Keywords:

Physics | Paralysis | Cosmology | Astronomy | Professor

Awards:

4 wins

Cast

Isobel Hawking	...	Herself - Stephen Hawking's Mother
Stephen Hawking	...	Himself
Janet Humphrey	...	Herself - Stephen Hawking's Aunt
Mary Hawking	...	Herself - Stephen Hawking's Sister
Basil King	...	Himself - Hawking Family Neighbor
Derek Powney	...	Himself - Hawking Classmate at Oxford
Norman Dix	...	Himself - Hawking Classmate at Oxford
Robert Berman	...	Himself - Hawking Tutor at Oxford
Gordon Berry	...	Himself - Hawking Classmate at Oxford
Roger Penrose	...	Himself - Professor at Cambridge
Dennis Sciama	...	Himself - Professor at Cambridge
John Wheeler	...	Himself - Astrophysicist
Brandon Carter	...	Himself - Astrophysicist
John Taylor	...	Himself - Astrophysicist
Kip Thorne	...	Himself - Research Scientist at Cambridge

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

UK | Japan | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:M | Finland:S | Germany:6 | Sweden:Btl | USA:G

Filming Locations:

Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK

Company:

Amblin Entertainment

Trivia:

Appearances to the contrary, all interviews were filmed on sets built for the movie.

Quotes:

Stephen Hawking: I wanted to understand how the universe began.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Gilmore Girls: Knit, People, Knit! (#7.9)" (2006)

Could have been much better.

As a physicist, talk about blackholes and cosmology gets my heart racing. However I found this presentation too slow and not packed with enough information for the interested layman (who is most likely to see it). If you have more than a passing curiosity in this sort of stuff, go to the library and check out some books. You will find they explain current scientific cosmologies with far more detail while at the same time filling you with more of a sense of wonder than this movie does. Also to set the record straight: Hawking is NOT considered the "greatest mind" or the world's "smartest person" as commonly asserted even among the user reviews here at the IMDb. Hawking himself has commented that "It is rubbish. It is just media hype. They needed somebody to fill the role model of disabled genius. At least I'm disabled." To be fair, he is probably a genius but among history's greatest scientists, people like Einstein, Newton, Gauss, and many others easily are even more highly regarded. This is not to disrespect Hawking who is a undoubtedly a great scientist but rather not to disrespect others who have done even more than he has. Anyhow, see the movie if you are truly into science. But if not, I think it would be boring for you.