A Brief History of Time (film)

Last updated

A Brief History of Time
A Brief History in Time video cover.jpg
VHS cover
Directed by Errol Morris
Based on A Brief History of Time
by Stephen Hawking
Produced by David Hickman
StarringStephen Hawking
Cinematography
Edited byBrad Fuller
Music by Philip Glass
Production
companies
Distributed byTriton Pictures
Release dates
  • October 1991 (1991-10)(Los Angeles)
  • January 1992 (1992-01)(Sundance)
  • August 21, 1992 (1992-08-21)
Running time
80 minutes
Countries
  • United States
  • United Kingdom
  • Japan
LanguageEnglish
Box office$2.3 million [1]

A Brief History of Time is a 1991 biographical documentary film about the physicist Stephen Hawking, directed by Errol Morris. [2] The title derives from Hawking's bestselling 1988 book A Brief History of Time , but, whereas the book is solely an explanation of cosmology, the film is also a biography of Hawking, featuring interviews with some of his family members and colleagues. The film is scored by frequent Morris collaborator Philip Glass.

Contents

Production

This project originated with executive producer Gordon Freedman, who brought it to Anglia Television. After acquiring the property, Freedman met with director Steven Spielberg for advice on how to make the project into a documentary film. Spielberg suggested Errol Morris as director. Morris had studied the history and philosophy of science at Princeton and later Berkeley, so was familiar with many of the topics in Hawking's book. Freedman's production company partnered with Anglia Television and Tokyo Broadcasting. David Hickman, of Anglia, became the film's producer.

Morris only had a few days of access to film and interview Hawking. Because of Hawking's ALS, a disease that progressively affects nerve cells within the spine and brain, [3] Morris filmed various static shots of Hawking, his wheelchair, and the tools he used to communicate, such as his battery-powered computer-based communication system with an electronic voicebox (which was sponsored and provided by Intel Corporation [4] ), to later edit together for the video component of Hawking's interview segments in the film.

Although Hawking had an aversion to featuring his personal life in the film, Morris saw A Brief History of Time as being as much a biography as a science text, and much of his directing and editing work was dedicated to finding ways to depict ideas from theoretical physics and cosmology and then connect those ideas with details from the life of Hawking. He employed stylized interview sequences, graphic illustrations, and music written by Glass. [5] Morris also included clips from Disney's The Black Hole (1979).

Instead of Morris traveling around and filming the various interview subjects in their native surroundings, all of the interviews for this film were shot on specially built sets on a sound stage in England. [6] Morris said he was "very moved by Hawking as a man", calling him "immensely likable, perverse, funny...and yes, he's a genius." [7] He remembers that Hawking had posters of Marilyn Monroe in his office, and one of them fell down while they were filming. "A fallen woman", Hawking's speech synthesizer intoned. Hawking's mother, Isobel, is the first person we hear from in the movie, and near the end she describes her son as "a seeker" for truth. After the movie premiered, Hawking told Morris, "Thank you for making my mother a star." [8]

List of interviewees

(in order of appearance)

Music

The soundtrack for A Brief History of Time was composed by Philip Glass. Morris says he had Glass compose the score before showing him the movie; instead, he would give him relevant cues like "falling into a black hole" or "event horizon." [9]

Soundtrack

A Brief History of Time
Soundtrack album by
Philip Glass
Released2015
Label Orange Mountain Music
Producer Kurt Munkacsi
No.TitleLength
1."Brief History of Time Title"1:29
2."Mysterious No. 4"3:36
3."Bombs with Fidelity"2:22
4."Slow, Simple, Sad No. 3"3:50
5."Mysterious No. 1" 
6."Slow, Simple, Sad No. 4"3:57
7."Mysterious No. 2"2:42
8."Hawking Radiation"1:42
9."Bombs"2:47
10."Dice"2:11
11."Hawking-Radiation with Brass"1:43
12."Climbing the Stairs"1:23
13."End with Strings and Trumpets"2:17
14."Melody in Major"3:10
15."Signature"2:54
16."Utility No. 1"3:32
17."House"2:06
18."Closing No. 1"3:28
19."End Credits Arpeggio and Brass"2:11
20."End Credits Major and Minor"4:48

Reception

A Brief History of Time received largely positive reviews. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 93% rating based on 15 reviews. [10] On Metacritic, the film has a 78 out of 100 rating based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [11]

Availability

The film was released on VHS in the early 1990s, but remained unreleased on DVD or Blu-ray until The Criterion Collection issued a release on April 15, 2014.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Errol Morris</span> American filmmaker and writer

Errol Mark Morris is an American film director known for documentaries that interrogate the epistemology of its subjects. In 2003, his documentary film The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. His film The Thin Blue Line placed fifth on a Sight & Sound poll of the greatest documentaries ever made. Morris is known for making films about unusual subjects; Fast, Cheap & Out of Control interweaves the stories of a wild animal trainer, a topiary gardener, a robot scientist and a naked mole rat specialist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Penrose</span> English mathematical physicist (born 1931)

Sir Roger Penrose is an English mathematician, mathematical physicist, philosopher of science and Nobel Laureate in Physics. He is Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics in the University of Oxford, an emeritus fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, and an honorary fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, and University College London.

<i>A Brief History of Time</i> 1988 book by Stephen Hawking

A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes is a book on theoretical cosmology by English physicist Stephen Hawking. It was first published in 1988. Hawking wrote the book for readers who had no prior knowledge of physics.

<i>The Large Scale Structure of Space–Time</i> 1973 book by S. W. Hawking and G. F. R. Ellis

The Large Scale Structure of Space–Time is a 1973 treatise on the theoretical physics of spacetime by the physicist Stephen Hawking and the mathematician George Ellis. It is intended for specialists in general relativity rather than newcomers.

Ken Lawrence is a nerdcore rapper who purports to be the late theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking rapping under the name MC Hawking.

<i>The Thin Blue Line</i> (1988 film) 1988 documentary directed by Errol Morris

The Thin Blue Line is a 1988 American documentary film by Errol Morris, about the trial and conviction of Randall Dale Adams for the 1976 shooting of Dallas police officer Robert W. Wood. Morris became interested in the case while doing research for a film about Dr. James Grigson, a psychiatrist known in Texas as "Dr. Death" for testifying with "100 percent certainty" of a defendant's recidivism in many trials, including that of Randall Adams. The film centers around the "inconsistencies, incongruities and loose ends" of the case, and Morris, through his investigation, not only comes to a different conclusion, but actually obtains an admission of Adams' innocence by the original suspect of the case, David Harris. The "thin blue line" in the title "refers to what Mr. Morris feels is an ironic, mythical image of a protective policeman on the other side of anarchy".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dennis W. Sciama</span> British physicist (1926–1999)

Dennis William Siahou Sciama, was an English physicist who, through his own work and that of his students, played a major role in developing British physics after the Second World War. He was the PhD supervisor to many famous physicists and astrophysicists, including John D. Barrow, David Deutsch, George F. R. Ellis, Stephen Hawking, Adrian Melott and Martin Rees, among others; he is considered one of the fathers of modern cosmology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri</span> Bengali physicist (1923–2005)

Amal Kumar Raychaudhuri was an Indian physicist, known for his research in general relativity and cosmology. His most significant contribution is the eponymous Raychaudhuri equation, which demonstrates that singularities arise inevitably in general relativity and is a key ingredient in the proofs of the Penrose–Hawking singularity theorems. Raychaudhuri was also revered as a teacher during his tenure at Presidency College, Kolkata.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Mersini-Houghton</span> American cosmologist and theoretical physicist

Laura Mersini-Houghton is an Albanian-American cosmologist and theoretical physicist, and professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a proponent of the multiverse hypothesis and the author of a theory for the origin of the universe that holds that our universe is one of many selected by quantum gravitational dynamics of matter and energy. She argues that anomalies in the current structure of the universe are best explained as the gravitational tug exerted by other universes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Hawking in popular culture</span>

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018), a theoretical physicist, has appeared in many works of popular culture.

<i>Hawking</i> (2004 film) 2004 television film directed by Philip Martin

Hawking is a 2004 biographical drama television film directed by Philip Martin and written by Peter Moffat. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, it chronicles Stephen Hawking's early years as a PhD student at the University of Cambridge, following his search for the beginning of time, and his struggle against motor neuron disease. It stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Hawking and premiered in the UK in April 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Hawking</span> English theoretical physicist (1942–2018)

Stephen William Hawking was an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author who, at the time of his death, was director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge. Between 1979 and 2009, he was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, widely viewed as one of the most prestigious academic posts in the world.

<i>Standard Operating Procedure</i> (film) 2008 documentary film by Errol Morris

Standard Operating Procedure is a 2008 American documentary film written and directed by Errol Morris that explores the meaning of the photographs taken by U.S. military police at the Abu Ghraib prison in late 2003, the content of which revealed the torture and abuse of its prisoners by U.S. soldiers and subsequently resulted in a public scandal.

<i>Tabloid</i> (film) 2010 American film

Tabloid is a 2010 American documentary film directed by Errol Morris. It tells the story of Joyce McKinney, who was accused of kidnapping and raping Kirk Anderson, an American Mormon missionary in England, in 1977. The incident, known as the Mormon sex in chains case, became a major tabloid story in the United Kingdom and triggered a circulation battle between two popular tabloid newspapers, the Daily Express and the Daily Mirror.

<i>Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts</i> 2007 film by Scott Hicks

Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts is a 2007 documentary on the life of American composer Philip Glass directed by Scott Hicks. The film was nominated for Emmy Awards and AFI Award

Stephen Hawking: Master of the Universe is a documentary television series produced by the television broadcaster Channel 4. The subject of the series is British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, known for his work on black holes, who is also the presenter of the series. The series includes interviews with astrophysicist Kim Weaver, Bernard Carr, a student of Hawking's, and three theoretical physicists: Michio Kaku, Edward Witten, known for his work on superstring theory, and Lisa Randall. The first episode premiered in 2008, twenty years after the publication of Hawking's bestselling popular science book A Brief History of Time. The title is derived from a Newsweek cover.

<i>The Theory of Everything</i> (2014 film) 2014 biographical film of the life of Stephen Hawking

The Theory of Everything is a 2014 biographical romantic drama film directed by James Marsh. Set at the University of Cambridge, it details the life of the theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking. It was adapted by Anthony McCarten from the 2007 memoir Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen by Jane Hawking, which deals with her relationship with her ex-husband Stephen Hawking, his diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and his success in the field of physics. The film stars Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones, with Charlie Cox, Emily Watson, Simon McBurney, Christian McKay, Harry Lloyd, and David Thewlis featured in supporting roles. The film had its world premiere at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival on 7 November 2014. It had its UK premiere on 1 January 2015.

<i>The Unknown Known</i> 2013 film

The Unknown Known is a 2013 American documentary film about the political career of former U.S. Secretary of Defense and congressman Donald Rumsfeld, directed by Academy Award winning documentarian and filmmaker Errol Morris. It is a summary of 33 hours of interviews that Morris conducted with Rumsfeld over eleven separate sessions during visits to Newton, Massachusetts. The film was released on April 4, 2014, by Radius-TWC, and is dedicated to the memory of Roger Ebert.

<i>Particle Fever</i> 2013 film by Mark Levinson

Particle Fever is a 2013 American documentary film tracking the first round of experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, Switzerland. The film follows the experimental physicists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) who run the experiments, as well as the theoretical physicists who attempt to provide a conceptual framework for the LHC's results. The film begins in 2008 with the first firing of the LHC and concludes in 2012 with the successful identification of the Higgs boson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Department of Physics, University of Oxford</span>

The Department of Physics at the University of Oxford is located on Parks Road in Oxford, England. The department consists of multiple buildings and sub-departments including the Clarendon Laboratory, Denys Wilkinson's building, Dobson Square and the Beecroft building. Each of these facilities contribute in studying different sub-types of physics such as Atomic and Laser Physics, Astrophysics, Theoretical Physics, etc. The physics division have made scientific contributions towards this branch of science since the establishment of the department.

References

  1. "A Brief History of Time (1992)". Box Office Mojo . Internet Movie Database . Retrieved January 16, 2015.
  2. "A Brief History of Time Transcript". ErrolMorris.com. 2009. Retrieved March 11, 2008.
  3. Association, ALS. "About ALS". ALSA. The ALS Association. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  4. Hawking, Stephen. "The Computer". Hawking.
  5. Tobias, Scott. "A Brief History Of Time". The Dissolve. Pitchfork Media Inc. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  6. Resha, David (2010). The Cinema of Errol Morris. Wesleyan University Press. p. 88. ISBN   9780819575357 . Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  7. Errol Morris on Meeting Stephen Hawking , retrieved December 20, 2022
  8. Butler, Isaac (March 16, 2018). "Errol Morris on Stephen Hawking and his movie A Brief History of Time". Slate .
  9. Glass, Philip. "A Brief History of Time". Philip Glass. Retrieved May 5, 2020.
  10. "A Brief History of Time". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved January 16, 2015.
  11. "A Brief History of Time". Metacritic . CBS Interactive . Retrieved January 16, 2015.
Awards
Preceded by Sundance Grand Jury Prize: Documentary
1992
Succeeded by