Uma Breve História do Tempo

A very fine and intriguing documentary from Errol Morris about the life and work of physicist/celebrity Stephen Hawking, who revolutionized the way we think about the universe in his monumental book of the same name. The film is really divided into two stories, the life of Hawking as he struggles to overcome his paralysis, and the brilliant work he achieved in spite of his physical limitations. One gets the impression that had Hawking never became ill, he wouldn't have been as compelled to carry out the kind rigorous intellectual work that he of course did carry out, and (he himself notes that he was quite bored with life prior to his paralysis). Morris does a fine job with the material; the first half hour of the film suffers from a dry PBS feel, but the aesthetic and intellectual intensity takes off from there, the film never digresses into a mere sob story. Morris nearly always keeps the material more intellectually intriguing than it is uplifting and sentimental.

Courage can be described in many ways. This small documentary slowly presents a life story that shows how a person can incredibly overcome physical obstacles but also who without fear can go beyond the mental obstacle of facing any question about why we are here and where we are going.

At first the style of the film seemed ordinary, typical short interviews. But the experience grows on you. Partly this is due to a haunting film score by Philip Glass but mostly because of the amazing life and ideas of Stephen Hawking. Step by step we are led up a ladder of more amazing concepts. At the same time we are always reminded of the physical struggle of this man, how he has more than endured but triumphed.

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.

Along with Carl Sagan, we can credit Stephen Hawking with de-mystifying the Universe. We've been fortunate to have two such men in our time with the gift of translating Physics into a format we don't need a degree to comprehend.

You will find yourself in awe of Hawking's mind, and justifiably so. It would be truly remarkable if we could find a way to venture into his brain and feel the pleasure he takes in what so many of us find abstract.

The biography of this remarkable man is just as interesting as his research. Told in documentary fashion through interviews with family and friends, we see his development from a precocious child to a mischievous youth to remarkable adult. Also, we have the chance to meet Mr. Hawking himself, who is very personable with quite a sense of humor.

I strongly recommend reading the book A Brief History of Time to accompany the film...it picks up where the film leaves off regarding the sciences, and is less biographical, except for his brief summaries of such luminaries as Newton and Galileo.

Documentary maker Errol Morris tackles nothing less than the origin and fate of the universe, placing the often mind-bending theories of the popular science guide alongside a portrait of the author himself, British cosmologist Stephen Hawking, who for many years has been confined to a wheelchair, unable to move or speak, while his mind has been ranging freely all over creation. Hawking (and his ideas) can't help but inspire a compelling film, but there's an uncomfortable sense of déjà vu because the style is identical to 'The Thin Blue Line', with the same Philip Glass music score, the same oddball graphic digressions, and the same clips from old Hollywood movies (in this case Disney's 'The Black Hole', with mad scientist Maximillian Schell). But unlike the previous film there isn't any sense of resolution, because the questions posed by Hawking ("why do we remember the past, but not the future?") will likely never be answered. Out of respect for the scientist Morris downplays the deadpan ridicule that made his earliest films so amusing, but there's no shortage of the trademark dry wit, much of it provided by Hawking himself, who narrates most of the film with his own computer generated voice.