Customer Reviews

Brief History of Time [VHS]

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is simply the finest documentary I've ever seen. Beautiful is not a word I use often, especially in such a context, but it certainly applies here. The cinematography, music and overall style is understated, yet excellent.

If you're looking for a mere visual depiction of Dr. Hawking's wonderful book, you are apt to be surprised. The video interweaves Dr. Hawking "reading" his book (with appropriate visuals) with interviews of his colleagues, friends and family. While much of the interview material discusses Hawking's disability, there is none of the maudlin pity or false heroics we see so often in the media. The viewer is left with a sense of tremendous awe, both from the material explored, and from the power of one man's genius.

Very highly recommended. I've watched it several times.

I rented this video at our summer house and was so entranced by it, I watched it three times in a row until 4:00 AM. Stephen puts very complex, cutting edge theory into easy to understand models for the average guy. Even if you are above average in your understanding of the universe, you will still be provoked intellicutally. I can't say enough about this video. Get it for the kids and watch them astound you as to their ability to think in concepts and question accepted ideas. JUST BUY IT!!! - Terrence J. Boylan, Jr.

If you have any inkling of intelligence, and crave pondering the mechanisms of the Universe, then this is a must see vid for you. One day, the human species will catch up in our evolutionary process and be able to reach the itch that Hawkings scratches.

This delightful documentary gives a keen look at the intimate parts of Stephen Hawking's remarkable life. Interviews of friends, family members, and colleagues are artfully weaved with pictures of Hawking, computer graphic illustrations, and the commentary of Hawking himself. Along with the overview of Hawking's life we get fascinating bits of physics and philosophy that challenges his mind and everyone else's. If you have an interest in popular physics, then this would be a worthy purchase.

This isn't a spectacular documentary, it stays true to the accepted style that is both entertaining and at times predictable and plodding. It is humorous though, the opening scene involves a chicken and some stars, and much of Hawking's narration is filled with wry wit.

The First portion of the film is almost solely devoted to the early years of Professor Hawking's life. He wasn't good at school we learn surprisingly. He was never as attentive as he later wished he should have been. However, his genius was enough, and he got his degrees. However, it was being diagnosed with ALS that forced him to focus on what really interested him, the aftermath of which has been the cosmologist we know today.

Further into the movie there is a discussion of black holes, which is the subject of Hawking's first successes in physics. This segment alone I consider worth the price of admission, however an even stronger segment comes next; a discussion of the origin and outcome of the universe in which we live. It's all concluded by some whimsical observations by Hawking. This isn't a classic, but for those that don't have the time to jump into many works of cosmology and physics and philosophy, this provides entertainment and a fair dose of where physics stands today.

This short film is about a monumental cosmologist attempting to delve into the unknown in order to know it. It poses the question as to whether there is a God behind the universe or a self-contained boundless system running blindly by its own physical laws (or perhaps there is a God but one who is impersonal to the universe). Today there are two theories about the expansion of the universe. Some believe that it will continue to expand forever while others think it will slow down, contract, and collapse with the cycle continuing infinitely. Hawkings clearly thinks the latter is more plausible. This probably explains his agnostic stance on creationism, while many theologians would naturally be more inclined to reject the theory of a collapsing and expanding universe because it does seem to do away with the idea of a "beginning" and "end." As an ignoramus in the field of physics and cosmology, I found this film to be a good compliment to his book (which is a read somewhat difficult for a person without a background in physics). Hawking's idealism is vibrant as he sounds hopeful that scientists are close to developing a unified theory of the universe that will be explicable not only to philosophers and scientists, but to the average person as well. This films only flaw is that it doesn't have captions telling us who is being interviewed and what their relation is to Stephen, but that's only a minor one at most.

This video should have rather been called a brief biography of Stephen Hawking. It only touched very lightly on his theories and works. I thought it would be a video version of his famous book but the video can not compare to the book at all. There are many interviews with people but one has no idea who these people are or what their relationship is to Dr Hawking as there are no subtitles. I suggest viewers first view the credits at the end of the movie where a list of interviewees is given and then go back and watch the film. The video is also dissappointingly short lasting only for 80 minutes.

Rob Lightner's review says it all. This is a beautifully crafted glimpse at the very frontiers of scientific research. Hawking's quest for the ultimate theory is not only scientifically compelling but spiritually uplifting as well.

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.

I enjoy it emmensely, each time I watch it I learn more about our universe. Hawking is an amazing person with a great sense of humor.

In just shy of 200 pages Stephen Hawking has
blown my mind to pieces. _A Brief History_ is a
trip as fast and disorienting as any rollercoster
I have ever been on. Pure physics hits you full
in the face, boggling your mind with fourth dimensions,
singularities, and charmed quarks. But it extends
beyond the science. Philosophy abounds in its pages.
Zen koans lurk just beneath the surface of scientific
reasoning.
And in between the words, you catch a glimpse of
the inner workings of one of the greatest minds of
our time. END