Mike Markkula: Dermot Mulroney
Steve Wozniak: Josh Gad
Daniel Kottke: Lucas Haas
Arthur Rock: J.K. Simmons
Bill Atkison: Nelson Franklin
John Sculley: Matthew Modine
Open Road Films presents a
film directed by Joshua Michael Stern. Written by Matt Whiteley. Running time:
122 min. Rated PG-13 (for some drug content and brief strong language).
It’s easy to fail to notice
just what an impact the work of Steve Jobs has had on our lives. I remember the
Christmas when my parents got the family an Apple II computer. We were all so
excited to have entered the computer age. We were just an average family. None
of us had electronic inclinations. My dad wasn’t a tinkerer. My brother and I
weren’t overtly obsessed with video games. But, to have an Apple II computer
was sort of a status symbol signifying that a family had arrived in the modern
age. At that time, no one knew of the innovations to come from Steve Jobs.
Today, the life and work of
Steve Jobs is known about as widely as any of our country’s presidents. Perhaps
more so. Everybody knows he started Apple Computers out of his parents’ garage.
We all know of his friendship and business relationship with his early
collaborator Steve Wozniak. We’ve seen and recently (thanks to YouTube)
revisited again the famous marketing campaign for his revolutionary Macintosh
computer. Many know he was fired from Apple after that product’s failure in the
marketplace because of its heavy price tag. We know of his unprecedented return
to the company he founded in the 90s and the revolutionary new designs he
shepherded of the iMac computer and the device that altered the way all of us
consume music and just about every other form of media, the iPod. The new movie
“Jobs” is about all of these events, but most of all it is about the man whose
obsession drove these milestones.
“Jobs” is a fairly in depth
analysis of the man behind Apple, although there are many gaping holes in this
tapestry. It would be fairly difficult for any filmmaker to give a full
representation of this modern icon’s entire life and keep the movie down to a
manageable running time. Director Joshua Michael Stern and screenwriter Matt
Whiteley seem to have taken an angle of compete overview with particular focus
on the psyche of Jobs himself.
The film opens in 2001 with
Jobs’ introduction of the iPod to his staff in his now famous town meeting
style of introducing new products. Then it flashes back to Jobs on the Reed
College campus after he had already dropped out. He’s still dropping in on
classes and co-eds, however. There a sense in the opening passages here that
the filmmakers are ticking of Wikipedia points. His birthparents’ decision to
give him up for adoption is mentioned in passing. James Woods is brought in for
a cameo to explain Jobs’ college situation. He and his friends Daniel Kottke go
to India. He does acid.
We never really get any
sense of connection with other people in Jobs’ life. We know Daniel is his
friend, but we don’t know why. We see his impossible co-working skills in a
scene depicting his time as a programmer at Atari. He calls Steve Wozniak in to
help him with a project. We aren’t told how the two men know each other, nor do
we get much of a sense as to how they feel about each other. We do get a firm
sense of how they feel about computers and the potential for innovation in that
market. We meet a large cast of characters, including the girlfriend who would
mother his daughter Lisa, his fellow Apple co-founders, Bill Fernandez,
Wozniak, Kottke, and Rod Holt, but they aren’t very well developed. We have no
sense of who these people are. I don’t think this concerns the filmmakers, who
do create a solid impression of who Jobs is and what drives him.
The only real personal connection
Jobs makes in this film and probably the most important person in terms of
business is finally made with the introduction of Mike Markkula, who offers
Apple their first investment plans and stayed on with Apple until Jobs returned
as CEO in the 90s. Again there are no real personal lines drawn between these
two characters, but their business dealings dominate most of the rest of the
film’s story arc. Markkula oscillates between supporter of Jobs as an innovator
in business and a conspirator against Jobs as his resulting products become
less viable.
I’ll admit that when I heard
of this particular production based on Jobs’ life—another film is in production
at Sony Pictures and Funny or Die released their spoof version “iSteve” earlier
this year—I wasn’t sure what to make of it. I thought Ashton Kutcher was great in
the stoner role that made him a star on “That 70s Show”, but I never understood
what he did as an actor to climb his way onto the A-List. I never saw anything
from Kutcher that suggested he was worthy of that position in Hollywood. That
being said, he does good work here. His Jobs is very introverted, very nuanced,
and very convincing. I suppose it helps that he looks so much like the man.
Many will feel “Jobs” makes
a good Cliff Notes version of Jobs’ life, but will find little more of value in
it. Steve Wozniak has said that he fears this film will see Jobs as too much of
an ignored genius and not responsible for the business fiasco that befell his
company in the mid 80s. He’s right that the filmmakers place most of the blame
on Apple’s board of directors and the involvement of John Sculley in shaping
the face of Apple in the 80s. The movie doesn’t really pull any of its punches
against Jobs, however, who is depicted as tyrannical and spiteful. It’s
important to remember that Wozniak is a consultant on the Sony film, which he
is bound to say is superior.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment