Steve Jobs * * * * *

Have you seen my Phone?

This isn’t being typed on an Apple. I don't use Apple, never have and probably never will.  Apple logic makes no sense to me, which must mean I’m even weirder than the guy who invented it.  But he was weird in a different way.  He actually figured out how people think and what they want in technology. I’m weird because I can’t figure out how people think, as this blog clearly demonstrates.  Ah well.

Steve Jobs is a great film. Much better than what I thought it would be. It’s almost Shakespearean. It’s an intense, highly informative and revealing drama, with outstanding performances from the whole cast, especially Michael Fassbinder in the lead role.

Ignoring his establishing years and his later years, Steve Jobs tells it’s story by focusing on the launch day of  three products that were significant game-changer for Jobs: The Macintosh in 1984, Next Computers in 1988, and the i Mac in 1998.

But interestingly the quiet lingering centerpiece to the whole drama is his daughter LIsa. When we are introduced to her she is seven years old and Jobs is angrily denying paternity as she timidly stands outside the room.   In final scenes Jobs looks as though he won't be able to take the next step forward in his life unless she comes into the room and accepts him as a father.

Most of the action takes place backstage at three different auditoriums, just before Jobs has to walk on the stage to introduce each new product to his adoring crowd. The sense of urgency is magnified with impatient audiences hammering at the doors, and last minute hitches. It also uses the locations with castle-like cavernous backstage areas, crowded corridors, chambers. He is like a King at times and his staff dash about responding to orders as though they are soldiers preparing for battle. Like I said, there is definitively a Shakespearean feel to this. At other times the action is taking place on the same stage where Jobs is to present, so that we become a theater audience..

This is an excellent portrait of the man.  On reflection I am amazed at how much information about Jobs was conveyed to me subliminally and with incidental dialogue.

Kate Winslet plays Joanna Hoffman, a fascinating woman who seemed closer to Jobs than any other Apple employee.  Whether the portrayal is right I don’t know, but it’s an excellent performance.

Seth Rogen uses his own natural warmth to give us a very human and caring portrayal of Apple’s co-founder Steven Wozniak who’d dropped out at this stage but still hung around and Jeff Bridges as CEO John Sculley who was both Apple’s saviour and undoing.

This is not an uncritical fan film.  It shows Jobs warts and all - and there are some ugly warts (but isn’t that true of all of us?). Nevertheless as Steve Jobs background is revealed so much makes sense about his behaviour and obsession. And you can’t help but admire his genius. We’re left in awe at his vision and achievement just with these three products - and we don’t even get to the iphone. But more importantly you feel that you have actually met the man and been given a unique insight into him. Whether it is accurate or not Steve Jobs is one of the best bio films I have seen.  
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