This week, director Danny Boyle (of Slumdog Millionaire fame) and Aaron Sorkin (famous for inventing ‘the Sorkinism‘) unleash their take on the life and legacy of Steve Jobs.
The film itself explores three key moments in Jobs’ life that help the viewer build a picture of what might be driving the man behind the rimless glasses: the launch of the Macintosh in 1984, the NeXT box in 1988, and the iMac in 1998. The first two were considered commercial failures, while the last marked the moment the myth of Steve Jobs was born.
In the above video, writer, director and the star-studded crew explore the legacy of Jobs in their own words. As you might expect, the thoughts are overwhelmingly positive.
“A creative genius, a world pioneer,” said Jeff Daniels who plays Jeff Sculley, a former Apple CEO and Jobs’ mentor.
“He’s shaped the way we live today,” gushes Kate Winslet who played the part of Joanna Hoffman, a former Apple staffer and close confidant of Jobs in the film.
Seth Rogen however, who plays the part of Steve Wozniak, somewhat unsurprisingly poured cold water on the Jobs love-in. “I never really viewed him as a creative entity.”
Having seen the film earlier in the week, the impression I took away from it was the idea that on the deepest level, Jobs’ turbulent childhood compelled him to control everything around him, no matter what the cost.
Unlike Ashton Kutcher’s slow-motion train wreck that was “Jobs” in 2013, this film keeps the fan-boy at arm’s length. The crowd is always on the other side of the curtain, and what we see instead is a man who manipulated, bullied and brow beat his colleagues into submission.
A key moment in the film comes when Wozniak confronts Jobs ahead of the launch of the iMac, telling him and key members of his staff that, “It’s not binary. You can be decent and gifted at the same time.”
The statement leaves a fascinating thought in your head. If he was a bit nicer, and a bit less of a douche, would I be writing this review on a MacBook and then tweeting about it from my iPhone? Or would Apple have slid quietly into the night?
The mind boggles.
Read Next: We all have our own Steve Jobs: Icon, artist, hustler, huckster, saint and devil
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