Steve Jobs the movie, first look

I'm sure you have probably seen this very interesting joint interview with the two of them, and at around the 1:04:00 mark when Gates answers a question from the audience with "Oh I'd give a lot to have Steve's taste...intuitive taste both for people and products..." so I think he was very aware of those differences between them.

Another thing that I've always found interesting, and I know people put on "public faces" to look good, along with his natural salesman abilities, but Jobs comes across in this interview (and really any interview or speech I've seen with him) as very likable. Often people that are attributed very bad characteristics, like all the negatives ones Jobs supposedly had with other people, you can see glimpses of them come out in public, especially over a long interview time -- or even very clearly on display all the time -- but Jobs still always seems likable to me. It's tough to imagine what he was really like when the cameras weren't turned on... and seeing any movie depiction, or written descriptions, doesn't fill in those blanks for me.

 

Pretty much my reaction to the film. This is one of the very, very few movies I abandoned halfway through, because I didn't want to spend another minute in the presence of (the character) Jobs.

In the end, I don't think his accomplishment was any more significant than, say, Lee Iococca developing the minivan: another expensive, middle-class consumable that eventually ends up in a landfill, stripped for recyclable metals. So my sympathy for the torment behind the genius is a lot less charitable than it was watching the biopics about, for example, J.M.W. Turner or James Brown.

 

I still have not seen this...I need to make my own decision.

 

I think Jobs was a brilliant guy in many ways. One quip I've often said is, "if a man only created the Macintosh or only started up Pixar or only invented the iPhone, I'd say he was an amazing guy who changed the earth. The fact that one man did all three is absolutely incredible."

But... he was a huge, steaming a-hole. I think he was a fascinating guy to watch, and I liked elements of the movie, but I can totally see why non-techie people would just be annoyed with the whole thing. It's pretty well known that even people who admired Jobs on some levels also detested him personally.

 

My review:

This was excellent. I was concerned that the fancy but restrictive stage play structure that spans only three product launches would be more arty than helpful in telling a biopic story. My concerns were unfounded. It worked. They packed in a large chunk of his life and I have zero complaints with the format they used. It was a far more interesting way of telling his story than doing a plodding biopic in the conventional linear way. The direction was strangely dynamic. It completely removed any sense that I was watching a static play. People constantly move around the large visually interesting buildings and the camerawork was good looking. As expertly directed as it was, it wasn’t showy with fancy edits or pretty visuals. Danny Boyle sort of disappeared into the shadows to be forgotten in order to allow the real star of the film, a great script being performed by excellent actors, to shine. Aaron Sorkin is a very powerful writer. His dialogue (which never seems excessive even though the characters never stop talking) is excellent and intelligent. He manages to create a surprising amount of palpable tension with scenes that aren’t obviously dramatic. The actors are all very good. Michael Fassbender doesn’t look like Steve Jobs but that’s irrelevant as he convinces you within minutes that he is indeed Steve Jobs. The use of a few short flashbacks also works well. They aren’t used in that plodding way that they usually are (they have a tendency to be a result of laziness in the writing and kill the all-important forward momentum pacing). I expected the relationship with his daughter to be boring bloat. I was surprised that I found those scenes to be as compelling as everything else. It’s maybe a little too pat and on the nose with a few moments to be perfect (the last meeting with John Sculley, the public confrontation with Wozniak at the end). It’s as good as Aaron Sorkin’s previous tech film The Social Network (2010) – I even suspect it might be better. I don’t have any issues with any deviations from real life events as it’s clearly the dramatic power that mattered to the makers, not the factual accuracy. Excellent movie.

 

Depressing film.

 

I HATED the commercials for this movie. They drove me bananas, constantly on.

The film? I enjoyed him being an *******. They left out the part where Apple is... Apple, etc.

They also left out that he was a hard core vegan, who's a blood type O.

 

So Woz didn't like the Kutcher movie version at all?

 

It was mentioned quite a bit in the Walter Isaacson biography that Steve was very much vegan but had some radical "theories" about food and diet, including the time that he at nothing but carrots for an entire month and started to turn orange. Some medical doctors theorized that it's possible his unusual diet did not help his pancreatic cancer (though the cause was a variety of factors, including heredity).

Woz openly spoke out against the Ashton Kutcher movie, but Woz was hired as a consult on the second version, written by Aaron Sorkin. He later commented that several of the scenes were heavily dramatized to the point where they combined some incidents into one, or changed the names of certain characters, but he said they got the gist of what Jobs was like pretty closely.

Note that neither Jobs (the Kutcher film) nor Steve Jobs (the Fassbender film) made any money. I think the reality is that the mass-market didn't really care about learning more about the person behind Apple, and also that it was hard to watch a movie about a character so polarizing.

List of artistic depictions of Steve Jobs - Wikipedia

 

Steve Jobs.
No mention of buying The Beatles - APPLE ( Corps) copyright name, or did I sleep through that part?

 

Steve Jobs had a very complicated life, and that's a mere blip in the 36 years from the time he started Apple (1975) to the time he died (2011). If you covered everything he did that was newsworthy, it'd be at least a 10-hour miniseries (and I suspect very few people would watch it). Jobs also dated Diane Keaton and Joan Baez, and that wasn't covered in the movies either.

The Apple lawsuits were interesting. Note that Apple Corps sued Apple Computer four times, and while Jobs settled the first time and another CEO settled the second time, the third time they fought it and Apple Computer won. It's been guessed that Apple Computer paid Apple Corps about $50 million to end all the lawsuits and just buy the Apple logo outright, then give Apple Corps the right to use the logo indefinitely (which is just as good as owning it). There's an entire Wikipedia entry just on the Apple vs. Apple lawsuits...

Apple Corps v Apple Computer - Wikipedia

 

Film( which I remember ).
Jobs mentioned John Lennon, George & Ringo ( no McCartney), but tbe use of record label Apple, as the name of his company wasn't explained in the movie.
I realise Steve Jobs film was a essential a drama, but the inclusion of The Beatles label non de plume as a springboard for his computer company I would have found interesting.

 

"Steve Jobs" never intended to be an all-encompassing biopic. It takes 3 important (business) days in Jobs' life and relates character elements/changes/development through those.

If you want, you can pick on all sorts of "life events" the movie omits, but you'd be completely missing the point...

 

Thx for the explanation.

 

Well said, I must agree.

 

On the other hand, his bio did very well. I think the movie just missed way too many hallmark moments which would understandingly be difficult to do in 120 minutes. I would certainly be in for a mini series like The People VS OJ but I think it's too late as the mass audience has long since moved on. A missed opportunity imo.

 

You also write very well. You make me want to see the film again! Somehow I missed your post back when you wrote it. You're right, but I still wish they could have included more elements. But, where do you stop?

As a sidebar, and probably for another thread, it's really disappointing to see where Apple is now. I am a huge Apple supporter and as of two years ago I now use little of their software at this point. I really believe they have lost their way in many ways, and have forgotten about the user and it's become more about what they want to do, not necessarily what the consumer wants. No one seems to want their new laptops with the silly lightbar that is getting little support from software mfg. In fact, they had to break precedent last week with not talking about upcoming product they are working on and they felt the need to reassure higher end users they have in fact not forgotten about us, and that they have stuff coming that will make us happy. Many are jumping back to Windows centric compiters (though I still far prefer Apple's hardware). But, as a film and photographer producer, I have already moved over to competing products which have far surpassed Apple's software abilities and most are not going to jump ship yet again to Apple if they are pleased with what they have moved to. Adobe has really run circles around them. Apple had a huge head start when Steve left us. Apple, imo, really lost their way and squandered it as I believe the iPhone simply became the priority, which is certainly understanding, but sad for those of us that really enjoyed their eco system. Sorry for the rant....

 

I think that's far from the truth. The new Pros seem to sell quite well.

 

They might be selling okay but many people that were waiting for the new one eneded up ordering the older one in droves once they saw the new one, according to Mac Break Weekly, a bunch of Mac geeks that hate the new laptop.

 

How many are "many"? There will always be people who are disappointed by new models. Prices will come down a bit and specs will be bumped up a bit, then the new Pros will sell at least as well as the older ones.

 

iPhone 5 sold 70 million.
Google is your friend.