DIRECTOR: Danny Boyle WRITER: Aaron Sorkin STARRING: Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels, Michael Stuhlbarg, Katherine Waterston, Sarah Snook, John Ortiz, Adam Shapiro, John Steen, Makenzie Moss USA 2015
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By now, everyone’s over with the fact that Steve Jobs was this kind of digital-revolution visionary who democratized personal computing, another dysfunctional genius that was sometimes more human than human – “What if the computer was a beautiful object? Something you wanted to look at and have in your home. And what if instead of it being in the right hands, it was in everyone’s hands?” said Jobs.
Danny Boyle and Andy Sorkin bring together a different vision of the Steve Jobs well known reputation, perhaps he was able to bring some of that innate humanism into this kind of villain of technology, but we all know that once you are a visionary, you will be loved and hated at the same time.
Set in three main events of Steve Jobs life’s work, where the stylistic evolution that underscores Jobs’s design-conscious innovations clashes with this kind of relationship between the myth and the man. From presenting the hype computing life-changing machine the Mac back on a campus near Apple’s Cupertino HQ in 1984, to his Machiavelli stunt back in 1988 with NeXT’s black cube computer after being pseudo dismissed to his glorious and historic presentation of iMac G3 at San Francisco auditoriums in 1998 – “The two most significant events of the twentieth century: the Allies win the war, and this” said Jobs.
Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay was able to create this non-stop dynamic tension between Michael Fassbender (Steve Jobs) and Kate Winslet (Joanna Hoffman), that somehow gives a close glimpse of how Jobs interaction with people is beyond priceless, every single one of his attitudes were conscious and affected people in a good and bad way. The geeky hype he created around him, totally justified, and his own way of showing emotions – sometimes being an asshole and sometimes showing his human side. Nothing goes beyond the fact he changed the lives of every single person that was somehow part of his life – “I don’t want people to dislike me. I’m indifferent to if they dislike me” said Jobs.
From his relationship with his own daughter, Lisa, who he didn’t even recognized as his own daughter for years, to his relationship with software designer Andy Herzfeld (Michael Stuhlbarg) and the early days working with Apple tech wizard Steve Wozniack (Seth Rogen) in his garage, even his relationship with Apple CEO John Scully – otherwise known as the man who fired Steve Jobs – nothing changes regarding what was his own purpose and goal, changing lives and being part of history, all done in the most scary and conscious way.
This is not a standard biopic, Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin created a brave, smart, artful and elegant film. In three main events of a person’s life, they were able to portray Steve Jobs as a person and as one of the main technology designers visionaries of all time. Perhaps and sometimes a bully and egocentric prick, Jobs is undeniably brilliant with an arrogance to match his intelligence – “I’m gonna put music in your pocket… You’re carrying around a brick playing a cassette tape. We’re not savages. I’m gonna put a thousand songs in your pocket… All I have to do really is wipe out the record business as we know it and we’ll be all set” stated Jobs.