Seeing the Story – Errol Morris’ A Brief History of Time (1991)

Poster for film: A Brief History of Time | Movie Poster Source: Wikipedia

Seeing the Story/ Review of Book to Screen Adaptation

Released in 1991.

All screen adaptations will be referred to in the following format “Title (Date).”

3.7/5 Last week, I shared my Starlight Book Review (SBR) of Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time. As I strategized my reading for the Back in the Day Stellar Reading Challenge (SRC), I noticed a screen adaptation of sorts of A Brief History of Time existed. Then, I read that Errol Morris’ A Brief History of Time (1991) not only talked of Hawking’s book but focused on Hawking himself. I also seized the chance to watch and review a documentary on my blog.

Click here to read my SBR of Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time.

Click here to learn more about the Back in the Day SRC.

“A film about the life and work of the cosmologist, Stephen Hawking, who despite his near total paralysis, was one of the great minds of all time.” (IMDb) … “Unlike the book, this film is really an anecdotal biography of Stephen Hawking. Clips of his lectures, interviews with friends and family and a little physics are thrown together.”—Jim Sadur <jsadur@keyflux.com>

I nearly considered bestowing A Brief History of Time (1991) with more than one rating. Approaching this as a biographical documentary about Hawking, I felt Morris deserved more stars. I appreciated learning about Hawking’s stellar life (please forgive the pun) and how Hawking and others viewed him. As an adaptation, though, A Brief History of Time (1991) seemed lacking. I enjoyed the visuals but felt this worked better as a short film rather than a ninety minute or so back and forth between Hawking’s life and this particular book.

Quotes come from description on IMDb and are featured on color blocks. Click here to access this webpage.

Starlight Book Review – Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time

Cover of A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking centered on a light blue background with Starry Night Elf avatar in lower right hand corner | Cover Image Source: Goodreads

Back in the Day Stellar Reading Challenge – 1980s

Published 1988

4.20/5 I wanted something different for my 1980s entry for the Back in the Day Stellar Reading Challenge (SRC). Then, I realized I had yet to read nonfiction for this particular SRC. That helped me narrow down my selection to Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time.

“Stephen Hawking, one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists in history, wrote the modern classic A Brief History of Time to help non-scientists understand fundamental questions of physics and our existence: where did the universe come from? How and why did it begin? Will it come to an end, and if so, how?… Hawking attempts to deal with these questions (and where we might look for answers) using a minimum of technical jargon. Among the topics gracefully covered are gravity, black holes, the Big Bang, the nature of time and physicists’ search for a grand unifying theory… This is deep science; the concepts are so vast (or so tiny) that they cause mental vertigo while reading, and one can’t help but marvel at Hawking’s ability to synthesize this difficult subject for people not used to thinking about things like alternate dimensions. The journey is certainly worth taking for as Hawking says, the reward of understanding the universe may be a glimpse of “the mind of God”.
(From Hawking “dot” org “dot” uk)… A Brief History of Time, published in 1988, was a landmark volume in science writing and in world-wide acclaim and popularity, with more than 9 million copies in print globally. The original edition was on the cutting edge of what was then known about the origins and nature of the universe. But the ensuing years have seen extraordinary advances in the technology of observing both the micro- and the macrocosmic world—observations that have confirmed many of Hawking’s theoretical predictions in the first edition of his book. Now a decade later, this edition updates the chapters throughout to document those advances, and also includes an entirely new chapter on Wormholes and Time Travel and a new introduction. It makes vividly clear why A Brief History of Time has transformed our view of the universe. (Refers to later editions)”

As a person who usually prefers reading more about history and art, I approached A Brief History of Time with trepidation. Yet, I found A Brief History of Time a simple but not condescending take on astronomy. Hawking’s sharp, humorous tone throughout the work made the knowledge he shared attainable. As an armchair historian, I appreciated most the parts that served as biographies of various scientists. I admit, though, some of the more mathematical and scientific passages seemed drier to me. Regardless, I preferred reading A Brief History of Time to various other science books required in my “science for nonmajors” courses in undergrad.

Quotes come from book flaps/cover and are featured on color blocks.