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What the Steve Jobs movie got right, and wrong
- TheBiv 13y agoDid anyone see an early or midnight showing on here? As I would love to hear your reviews, bc right now, RottenTomatoes has this movie at a 25% rating
- owenfi 13y agoMost of the excerpts on RottenTomatoes seem reasonable, but that said I'm a bit surprised the rating isn't higher. Jack London in Oakland had about 30 people in attendance at the 9pm premiere.
- zwily 13y ago[I saw it back at Sundance.] The critics are pretty harsh on it, but if you're at all interested in the subject matter, it's definitely worth seeing. I thought it was flawed but interesting.
- piyush_soni 13y agoI haven't seen it, but I hope they show in the end that it is just not important to be a successful entrepreneur, but a good human being as well, which Steve Jobs failed miserably at.
- checker659 13y agoYou mad bro?
- AlexanderDhoore 13y agoSomething Larry Ellison seems to be failing at as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bj239x9aJ4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bj239x9aJ4
- sfjailbird 13y agoYes, I was not surprised to learn Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison were good friends.
- raverbashing 13y agoAt least Jobs had taste. One of them gave us Apple, the other, Oracle. Not hard to pick a winner.
- WalterSear 13y agoOracle is what it is, but your initial assertion is a matter of taste.
- wslh 13y agoTake it easy, but you can't negate the impact that Apple had in our field.
- piyush_soni 13y agoYes, it also had a big impact (of course, negative) on the culture of 'healthy competition' that once used to be the case in the pre-Apple era. Steve Jobs ensured that someone, somewhere is always in a 'face-palm' position reading/hearing about patents on "pinch to zoom", "slide to unlock", rounded corners, icons in a grid, wedge shape, and many more, while they went on to steal more.
- wslh 13y agoI think in a different way. Beyond the negative aspects of Apple (and, specifically, every public company in a powerful situation like Microsoft or Google) I thank them for pushing the mobile state of the art forward. In a few years we will have more options with that move.
- Steko 13y agoSteve should kick a puppy at some point in the movie to drive home how irredeemably evil he was. Maybe they could have him wear a black hat the whole time so small children will understand he's the bad guy.
- snowwrestler 13y agoSure about that? His family clearly loved him and miss him, and so do a lot of the colleagues that spent the most time with him, like Tim Cook and Jony Ive.
- piyush_soni 13y agoHave you read his biography by Walter Isaacson? I think there is no doubt in the tech community whatsoever that he was an ass with people, he cheated his own company people, and also his friend Mr. Wozniak. Also, Jony Ive 'considered him' as a friend, but quoting him : "He [Jobs] will go through a process of looking at my ideas and say, 'That's no good. That's not very good. I like that one,'" Ive told Isaacson. "And later I will be sitting in the audience and he will be talking about it as if it was his idea. I pay maniacal attention to where an idea comes from, and I even keep notebooks filled with my ideas. So it hurts when he takes credit for one of my designs."
- glenra 13y agoThe Isaacson bio got quite a lot of stuff wrong - both personal and technical stuff. If you haven't yet, I highly recommend John Siracusa's podcast book review "The Wrong Guy": http://5by5.tv/hypercritical/42 http://5by5.tv/hypercritical/42 (skip the first 17.5 minutes to get to the review proper.) (the followup review deals with user responses to the prior one - that one's here: http://5by5.tv/hypercritical/43 http://5by5.tv/hypercritical/43 )
- techbubble 13y agoJust got back from watching the movie. Kutcher does a really good job channeling Jobs. A couple of scenes were over-dramatized, but overall it was a very watchable movie. It got off to a slow start, but after that it was well-paced and kept my interest. I enjoyed it and will probably see it again.
- owenfi 13y agoFrom the trailers & preview material I was worried the movie might be deceptive. Specifically the scenes with Woz and Jobs in the parking lot and later in the office. In an interview Wozniak said the parking lot conversation never took place and got the underlying feelings incorrect. That made me jump to the conclusion that the preview's portrayal of the office scene where Woz leaves Apple would be equally misleading. In context it is actually much more believable. I was surprised by the technical accuracy (ha, what do I know?) and so I feel much better about recommending it to people who show interest. There were parts that I enjoyed more than Pirates of Silicon valley, but also times when it felt long. Music was used to okay effect, but also drawn out. Movie Spoiler: There is no recent history portrayed in the film. Edit: A couple more thoughts. Contrary to the inaccuracies between Jobs and Wozniak mentioned above (and as noted in the linked article) the movie did accurately give Wozniak credit for doing the engineering on Breakout (and getting shortchanged in the process) which I felt was important. The movie only really covers Jobs at Apple, a bit of University and family, so if you are interested in NeXT/Pixar/etc. you may be disappointed.
- kawsper 13y agoIf anyone want to see something about NeXT, I can recommend this short (20 minutes) documentary about building NeXT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHsHKzYOV2E&NR=1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHsHKzYOV2E&NR=1
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- smegel 13y agoPirates of Silicon was great, not just Jobs/Woz, but the rivalry with Gates and IBM. I felt it covered most bases pretty well, not sure I have much need to watch this.
- Bjoern 13y agoAre we going to have a movie about Norman Borlaug, Dennis Richie or Douglas Engelbart as well? What made the movie industry pick Jobs as the topic? I honestly don't understand it.
- CervezaPorFavor 13y agoHype and a huge cult following. These make the movie much easier to sell.
- jkaunisv1 13y agoYou don't understand it? You can't fathom why Steve Jobs gets a movie and those guys that you need a CS degree to recognize don't? Keep thinking.
- jongold 13y agoI'm looking forward to catching it. I know the history; I want to see it dramatised. I mean, I even enjoyed Pirates of Silicon Valley…
- icantthinkofone 13y agoPirates === Worst Movie Ever
- techbubble 13y agoWoz chimed in on Gizmodo's review of the movie: http://gizmodo.com/i-saw-the-movie-tonight-i-thought-the-acting-throughou-1153306973 http://gizmodo.com/i-saw-the-movie-tonight-i-thought-the-act...
- MaxScheiber 13y agoI saw an early screening of the movie. Here were my general thoughts: 1. Kutcher did a fantastic job as Steve Jobs. I was extremely pleasantly surprised by how well he portrayed the role and adopted Steve's mannerisms. You can even see his gait and speech evolve over the course of the movie. 2. My fundamental problem with the film was that it tried to cram so much into two hours that a lot of scenes felt fake and over-simplified to the point of being insulting. Extreme examples of this include the "I'm going to sue Bill Gates" scene and the Jony Ive scene. 3. The beginning is stupid and irrelevant. Also, Jobs's transition from idealistic hippy acid-dropper to steely-eyed businessman is portrayed in a manner of seconds and does not feel realistic whatsoever. 4. I still enjoyed the movie and would watch it again if it were on television. It certainly had emotionally moving scenes, and I wouldn't say it was a poor movie.