Subject: REVIEW: A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME

From: [email-masked] (Eric Walker)
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 14:45:41 GMT

[The book generated enough interest in the science fiction community that it seems
reasonable to post the film review to rec.arts.sf.reviews as well as
rec.arts.movies.  Followups are directed to rec.arts.movies.  -Moderator]

			  A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME
		       A film review by Eric Walker
			Copyright 1992 Eric Walker

     Since the earliest days, Man has looked up at the stars and
wondered just what was out there.  Were the myths true, and were the
stars created by the gods, or by God?  How do stars work?  Will our
Universe ever come to an end?  Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Did God create the Universe, and does he play dice with it?

     These are the questions asked by Stephen Hawking, one of the
greatest minds in the scientific community, in Errol Morris'
fascinating-but-unsatisfying documentary A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME, with
a title taken from Hawking's own best-selling book on black holes and
the beginnings of the Universe.

     Hawking's mind has traveled to the farthest reaches of time, but
in contrast his body cannot go beyond his wheelchair.  He suffers from ,
a disease that is slowly robbing him of the ability to move his muscles;
over the years he has lost the ability to walk, to lift himself up, and
even to speak.  In 1985 he suffered from a bout with pneumonia, and as a
result he had to have a tracheotomy in which he lost his voice
completely.  Hawking now communicates with the world through an
electronic voice from a computer terminal attached to his wheelchair.
Oddly enough, the computer's mechanical (but not emotionless) voice
suits him better than any human voice ever did, and it's the perfect
vehicle to deliver his dry, British wit.  The movie is quite funny, and
we're engrossed from its first moment, when we see a vision of
infinities of stars, and we hear Hawking's keypad clicking away and
forming sentences for us.

     Morris wisely avoids the standard "hero triumphing over tremendous
odds" approach of documentary filmmaking.  Hawking suffers from a
disease that would make it easy to pity him, and yet he still became one
of the greatest names in the scientific world.  Instead of the usual
"battle for his life" that we would expect, however, Morris prefers to
cast Hawking as an individual who willingly accepted the hand dealt him
by Fate.  He lost the ability to walk, to talk, to move by himself, but
he didn't mind; he just accepted it and continued from there.  He's
simply a man in a wheelchair, writing books and papers with the aid of a
computer.  If he had any bitterness about his condition, he doesn't show
it here.

     This is why we don't even see a complete shot of Hawking until
nearly half an hour into the movie; when the movie begins, we first hear
the sound of his clicking keypad.  We are then treated to a close-up of
his eyes, concentrating on his computer screen, and several shots of his
face appearing amidst flashes of his early life, when he could walk.
Nearly all of the present-day scenes with Hawking consist solely of his
face, his eyes, or his hand at the keypad - these are his most important
parts, and to dwell on the wheelchair would be a way of pitying a man
who has no need to be pitied.  In fact, as his mother notes, it was the
disease that contributed to Hawking's decision to concentrate on
theoretical physics.  While growing up and attending college, he seemed
to be a bored genius - he could easily solve problems, but he had no
interest in doing anything worthwhile.  The disease (and his engagement
to his wife, now separated) made him face the reality of death for the
first time, and he resolved to bring direction and meaning to his life
after that.  He then began his now-famous research into the structure of
black holes, entropy, quantum physics, and other areas of science that
we can barely conceive.

     In addition to presenting Hawking's vast intellect for us, we also
see that he is a very religious man.  The question of God is always
present here, and Hawking is very concerned with the fact that if
Mankind learns how the Universe was created, we might learn that God
does not exist.  This question permeates Hawking's book, and it's here
in the movie as well, as Hawking tells us how the Church persecuted the
great minds of the past, like Galileo, and how he was nervous when he
was granted an audience with the Pope.  Few other movies have the
courage to tackle such cosmic ideas, and A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME
deserves credit for doing so without overwhelming us.

     As a presentation of Hawking's life, the movie is entertaining and
informative.  In fact, the wealth of detail that Morris gives us makes
us hungry for the knowledge that Hawking has accumulated through the
years.  It makes us want to go out and learn about black holes and the
Universe.  This brings me to the movie's one fault: While the movie
paints an engrossing picture of a man whose mind has traveled into
realms of the Universe where no man has gone before (to coin a phrase),
it only gives us the briefest of synopses when outlining Hawking's
theories for us.

     What it does describe for us is intriguing and interesting.  As
Hawking's computer-generated voice tells us that time might flow
backwards when the Universe eventually collapses in upon itself, we see
a teacup crashing down upon a linoleum floor - and then the teacup
reverses itself, comes back together, and rises again to the top of the
screen where it came from.  It's a striking image, and it perfectly
completements Hawking's description of the reversibility of time.  There
are several other related images throughout the movie, as Hawking
summarizes the Big Bang for us, along with the reasons why particles can
escape a black hole, and why time slows down as we approach one.  But
it's not enough; these lessons in quantum physics only serve to whet our
appetites, and the movie leaves us hungry for more.

     The book A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME is a fascinating piece, and its
major advantage is Hawking's gift for writing about complex subjects in
clear, concise, easy-to-understand grammar.  Perhaps it's a natural
development of his illness; since it takes him so long to phrase his
statements, he must choose his words carefully and presents them in a
fashion that gets the point across with the greatest impact as quickly
as possible.

     I couldn't put the book down when I began reading it, even though
some of the subjects presented in it made my head swim.  It's a
simplification, meant to explain the complex cosmologies of the Universe
for us in plain and simple terms.  At this it succeeds admirably, and I
would have loved to see even more of the book presented in the movie.
Perhaps Morris was afraid that long segments of techno-speak would turn
off audiences and put them to sleep.  When I saw the film, however, I
heard people wishing that there was more of the book in there.  What we
see is merely the tip of the iceberg, and even though a ninety-minute
documentary can only give us the simplest of lessons in science, I
believe that Morris should have delved into Hawking's theories with more
detail.

     A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME is certainly a triumph for Errol Morris.
He could have turned Hawking's book into a cold, dry essay on the
structure of the Universe, but by making it into the story of the life
of a great man, he gives his movie a humanity and a warmth rarely seen
in character portraits of this type.  But he does so at the expense of
the scientific data, making much of the film a case of
style-over-substance.  You will certainly be entertained, informed,
entranced, and fascinated when you see this movie.  It's a terrific
piece of work, and in an age where 90 minutes can seem like an eternity
at some movies, here's one film that's not long enough.  I've had a
taste of A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME, and I want *more*!

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Channel 1 (R)   Cambridge, MA