while they were filming. "A fallen woman", Hawking's speech synthesizer intoned. Hawking's mother, Isobel, is the first person we hear from in the movie, and near the end she describes her son as "a seeker" for truth. After the movie premiered, Hawking told Morris, "Thank you for making my mother a star." List of interviewees (in order of appearance) Isobel Hawking, Hawking's mother Janet Humphrey, Hawking's aunt Mary Hawking, Hawking's sister Basil King, neighbor of the Hawkings Derek Powney, classmate of Hawking at Oxford Norman Dix, classmate of Hawking at Oxford Robert Berman, tutor of Hawking at Oxford Gordon Berry, classmate of Hawking at Oxford Roger Penrose, mathematical physicist who worked with Hawking on Penrose-Hawking singularity theorems Dennis Sciama, cosmologist and PhD supervisor for Hawking John Wheeler, theoretical physicist who coined the phrase "black hole" Brandon Carter, physicist John Taylor, physicist Kip Thorne, astrophysicist and friend of Hawking Don Page, theoretical physicist, doctoral student of Hawking Christopher Isham, physicist Brian Whitt, physicist and editor of Hawking's A Brief History of Time Raymond Laflamme, theoretical physicist, doctoral student of Hawking Music The soundtrack for A Brief History of Time was composed by Philip Glass. Morris says he had Glass compose the score before showing him the movie; instead, he would give him relevant cues like "Falling into a black hole" or "Event horizon." Glass's score has been described as "hypnotic." Soundtrack Reception A Brief History of Time received largely positive reviews. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 93% rating based on 15 reviews. On Metacritic, the film has a 78 out of 100 rating based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Availability The film was released on VHS in the early 1990s, but remained unreleased on DVD or Blu-ray until The Criterion Collection issued a release on April 15, 2014. References External links A Brief History of Time from ErrolMorris.com A Brief History of Time: Macrobiography an essay by David Sterritt at the Criterion Collection 1991 films Films with atheism-related themes 1990s biographical films 1991 documentary films American biographical films American documentary films Biographical films about mathematicians British biographical films British documentary films Japanese biographical films Japanese documentary films Biographical documentary films Documentary films about mathematics Documentary films about science Films shot at EMI-Elstree Studios Films scored by Philip Glass Films directed by Errol Morris Films shot in Cambridgeshire Films shot in Hertfordshire Stephen Hawking 1990s