Challenged by a new student, tutor and theorist Galileo co-opts emerging telescope technology and discovers irrefutable proof of the heretical notion that the earth is not the center of the universe. But in a rigid society ruled by an uneasy alliance of aristocracy and clergy already undermined by the Plague and the Reformation, science is a threat and enlightenment is a luxury. Faced with either death at the hands of the Inquisition or recantation to a hypocritical but all-powerful Papacy, Galileo must choose between his own life and the restless scientific curiosity that he has spurned family, friends, and wealth to pursue.
Chaim Topol
as Galileo Galilei
Edward Fox
as Cardinal Inquisitor
Colin Blakely
as Priuli
Georgia Brown
as Ballad Singer's Wife
Clive Revill
as Ballad Singer
Margaret Leighton
as Elderly Court Lady
John Gielgud
as The Old Cardinal
Michael Gough
as Sagredo
Michael Lonsdale
as Cardinal Barberini (later Pope Urban VIII)
Richard O'Callaghan
as Fulganzio
Tim Woodward
as Ludovico Marsili
Judy Parfitt
as Angelica Sarti
