steve jobs| (listed as “Steve Jobs” but stylised as the former)
A lot of people assumed it was a fluff piece about the late Apple co-founder and dismissed it. Then it came out that it wasn’t very historically accurate (the people who lived many of those moments came out and said “hey, that’s not the way that happened!” and more people looked away.
The point was how much of an asshole Steve Jobs actually was and how he basically got lucky and exploited circumstances. It was also built like a stage play, with three acts, each consisting of a series of skits where Steve interacts with various people — the same people, in each of three eras. The launch of the Macintosh, the launch of the NeXT Cube, and the launch of the iMac.
The only punch Aaron Sorkin really pulled was the Lisa stuff. According to her, he was kind of a creep. Not quite #MeToo level, but like, he’d ask her if she touched herself in bed, and she’d say “ew, no,” and that would end it for the day. One day she said yes to shut him up, and he started talking about how she was gonna be popular with the boys… or something like that. In the movie, he was only really mean to her in the first segment, and then only at first.
One thing the movie did get right is why every time they show a digital clock, it’s always 9:41. (With analogue, 10:10 or 2:50 are common because it looks like a smile.) It’s 9:41 because that is the exact moment the Mac was announced. Jobs came up with a lot of stupid reasons for why it had to be that time — the timing was planned in advance — but those numbers were cemented in his brain and his subconscious wouldn’t let his conscious mind see it. He may have been on the ASD spectrum as well. Anyway, the numbers came from a paternity test that said there was a 94.1% chance he was the father of Lisa, which he was in denial of, and famously stated that some 20,000 men could have been the father. And yet, he took that number and, no one knows what mental gymnastics he went through to get to 9:41 without making the connection, but that’s the time he announced the Mac and it’s why every Mac, iPhone or other Apple device shows 9:41.
Anyway, the whole movie is good, and watching it reminds me why I like not just movies, but the craft of acting and building scenes and stringing them together. The rocket scene was pretty solid (Jobs explaining the logistics of a NASA mission and it tying into his plans), but the best scene is Michael Fassbender (Jobs) and Jeff Daniels (former Apple and Pepsi CEO, John Sculley) hashing out their differences around the middle of the movie (“Why do people think I fired you?”). Takes place across two timelines (present and flashback) and these guys are talking about 2-3 things at once while advancing one conversation. Had I been 30 years younger, it might have made me get into filmmaking. But as it stands, it just made me appreciate the actors and the writer more.
It’s entirely possible I missed the point, because it’s not exactly a hit piece on Steve Jobs like I initially suggested. They left a lot of things on the table in that regard. It’s just not the fluff piece people make it out to be, though I can understand, there’s a lot of Apple glazing going on. Either way, it was an enjoyable film for dialogue in much the same way The Man From Earth was.
That it’s historically inaccurate makes it uninteresting to me.
And that means there’s no point in it, in my opinion.
If someone wants to write fiction, fine, but using a real figure like Jobs to ride his coattails just makes it lazy.
And since I was around for a lot of the history, the inaccuracies would be distracting. For someone who doesn’t know the history, it makes the movie revisionist history; propaganda.
there’s also quite a bit in the film that just didn’t happen. like the final confrontation between Woz and Jobs and essentially the who basis for the three confrontations. Woz himself said that never happened. Also most of the stuff with Hertzfeld didn’t happen. Like the stuff in the first act where Jobs threatened him. Andy said himself he doesn’t recall jobs being THAT much of a dick to him although jobs very much was an asshole.
steve jobs| (listed as “Steve Jobs” but stylised as the former)
A lot of people assumed it was a fluff piece about the late Apple co-founder and dismissed it. Then it came out that it wasn’t very historically accurate (the people who lived many of those moments came out and said “hey, that’s not the way that happened!” and more people looked away.
The point was how much of an asshole Steve Jobs actually was and how he basically got lucky and exploited circumstances. It was also built like a stage play, with three acts, each consisting of a series of skits where Steve interacts with various people — the same people, in each of three eras. The launch of the Macintosh, the launch of the NeXT Cube, and the launch of the iMac.
The only punch Aaron Sorkin really pulled was the Lisa stuff. According to her, he was kind of a creep. Not quite #MeToo level, but like, he’d ask her if she touched herself in bed, and she’d say “ew, no,” and that would end it for the day. One day she said yes to shut him up, and he started talking about how she was gonna be popular with the boys… or something like that. In the movie, he was only really mean to her in the first segment, and then only at first.
One thing the movie did get right is why every time they show a digital clock, it’s always 9:41. (With analogue, 10:10 or 2:50 are common because it looks like a smile.) It’s 9:41 because that is the exact moment the Mac was announced. Jobs came up with a lot of stupid reasons for why it had to be that time — the timing was planned in advance — but those numbers were cemented in his brain and his subconscious wouldn’t let his conscious mind see it. He may have been on the ASD spectrum as well. Anyway, the numbers came from a paternity test that said there was a 94.1% chance he was the father of Lisa, which he was in denial of, and famously stated that some 20,000 men could have been the father. And yet, he took that number and, no one knows what mental gymnastics he went through to get to 9:41 without making the connection, but that’s the time he announced the Mac and it’s why every Mac, iPhone or other Apple device shows 9:41.
Anyway, the whole movie is good, and watching it reminds me why I like not just movies, but the craft of acting and building scenes and stringing them together. The rocket scene was pretty solid (Jobs explaining the logistics of a NASA mission and it tying into his plans), but the best scene is Michael Fassbender (Jobs) and Jeff Daniels (former Apple and Pepsi CEO, John Sculley) hashing out their differences around the middle of the movie (“Why do people think I fired you?”). Takes place across two timelines (present and flashback) and these guys are talking about 2-3 things at once while advancing one conversation. Had I been 30 years younger, it might have made me get into filmmaking. But as it stands, it just made me appreciate the actors and the writer more.
It’s entirely possible I missed the point, because it’s not exactly a hit piece on Steve Jobs like I initially suggested. They left a lot of things on the table in that regard. It’s just not the fluff piece people make it out to be, though I can understand, there’s a lot of Apple glazing going on. Either way, it was an enjoyable film for dialogue in much the same way The Man From Earth was.
That it’s historically inaccurate makes it uninteresting to me.
And that means there’s no point in it, in my opinion.
If someone wants to write fiction, fine, but using a real figure like Jobs to ride his coattails just makes it lazy.
And since I was around for a lot of the history, the inaccuracies would be distracting. For someone who doesn’t know the history, it makes the movie revisionist history; propaganda.
there’s also quite a bit in the film that just didn’t happen. like the final confrontation between Woz and Jobs and essentially the who basis for the three confrontations. Woz himself said that never happened. Also most of the stuff with Hertzfeld didn’t happen. Like the stuff in the first act where Jobs threatened him. Andy said himself he doesn’t recall jobs being THAT much of a dick to him although jobs very much was an asshole.