Last night I saw “Theory of Everything,”
the biopic about Stephen Hawking. I have been a big fan of Hawking ever since .
. . actually I can’t remember exactly. He was doing some kind of lecture on PBS
many years ago. I’ve been interested in all things Space since I was in the
Fourth Grade, so he and his work fit right in with my interests.
I read A
Brief History of Time then On the
Shoulders of Giants, and A Briefer
History of Time. His books are eminently readable and understandable. More
important to me is his humor which shines through in all three of these works.
And in his public appearances.
The movie is wonderful. Not maudlin or
cloying. Nor treacly, if there is such a word and Microsoft Word accepts it so
I won’t look it up in a real hard copy dictionary. My daughter cried, but I did
not. Which is something, because I’m rather famous for my tears in sad movies.
This is NOT a sad movie.
And I have followed Hawking for so long
that his physical limitations seem quite beside the point. The point is that he
is brilliant, he lives his life on his own terms, and, thanks to modern
technology, he is able to share his wit and ideas with the world.
The movie not only resists the urge to
play on our sympathies, but it does not downplay his atheism or the
unconventional relationships with the people in his life. Or theirs with each
other.
And I love the way it plays his
unrestrained and sometimes reckless physical activities. It reminds me of a
couple of guys I used to work with many years ago.
One was someone whom I considered to be
old. He was in his forties while I was under 21. I don’t know how long he’d
been in a wheel chair. Nor do I know why he couldn’t walk. Again it seemed
quite beside the point. He had two children and he would take them to the
“internationally famous Oklahoma City Zoo.” On their way they’d stop at a local
grocery and get lettuce leaves that the produce guy trimmed away before putting
the heads out for sale. At the zoo, the sidewalk along the west side of the old
elephant enclosure ran fairly steeply downhill. He’d throw a handful of lettuce
over the fence to the elephants. Then, with his younger daughter in his lap,
he’d race the elephants to the bottom of the hill where he’d throw them more
lettuce. His wife would push him back up the hill and they’d do it all over
again.
The other guy I worked with who was also in a
wheelchair was my age, so naturally we had a lot more in common. One day he
came in to work with his arm in a cast and sling. What happened? He and one of
his buddies who used a wheelchair were racing on the front porch at his
house and he fell off. So, in my experience, a rowdy guy in a wheelchair ain’t
unusual. And I loved that the movie portrays Hawking that way.
Eddie Redmayne plays Hawking in the film. He’s
superb. It’s his smile. And the twinkle in his eyes. I mean they work it so
he looks very like Hawking. But it’s the expressions. The nonverbal responses
to his world. You don’t have to guess what he's feeling having been told he
has only two years to live when he's just beginning his life as an adult.
What he feels being in love, having babies. Facing the loss of his ability
to communicate those grand ideas in his head. Transferring
his dependence on his wife to his nurse. Letting his wife go. Getting to meet
the queen. The wonder of the universe.
And there’s no chewing the scenery,
wailing, or moaning. Such melodrama has no place here.
What did I learn about him that I did not
already know? That he turned down a knighthood. Gosh, and he could have been
right up there with Sir Elton, Sir Paul, and Sir Mick.
Here's a cool picture
NASA image -- Stephen Hawking in Zero Gravity flight
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