A Brief History of Time (1991)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

A Brief History of Time (1991) – E. Morris

The fourth feature from famed documentarist/interviewer Errol Morris was partly an attempt to present Stephen Hawking’s ideas about the universe and partly a biography of the renowned physicist. Morris does use an assortment of talking heads (some famous physicists, some family members) but this is before he started using the “interrotron” to better capture direct eye contact to the camera. The contributions of the different interviewees is variable but Morris fleshes everything out with perfect editing of shots of Hawking, well-chosen found footage and striking animations that seek to visualize concepts from the book: an expanding universe, black holes (and people falling into them), etc. The soundtrack by Philip Glass heightens everything. Although Hawking’s story is rather tragic, one never feels pity for him – perhaps this is because of his wry sense of humour and/or the esteem his colleagues feel for his achievements. His life story may have been somewhat sanitized (his marriage broke down around the time of the film after an affair) but Morris isn’t seeking to expose self-deception here (see his later The Fog of War, 2003, instead) and in fact Hawking seems quite willing to acknowledge his own failings and mistakes. In line with that, I’ll have to admit that I didn’t always grasp the science depicted in the film but I always appreciated the spirit of scientific inquiry. Moreover, the questions being addressed are stimulating enough for any layperson. For what it is worth, we watched this in a double feature with 2001: A Space Odyssey, another film that contemplates the universe and our place in it.