Although Michael Fassbender (who plays Steve Jobs) and Kate Winslet (who plays Apple Marketing Executive Joanna Hoffman) didn’t win any Oscars for this movie, their nominations show that the Academy recognized the difficulty of their roles. Steve Jobs in Aaron Sorkin’s script is a passionate perfectionist and a difficult person. That combination makes him hostile to his friends and workers. Yet, the fact remains that Jobs was a genius who came up with the Macintosh computer, the iPod, iPad, and iPhone. I liked Steve Jobs but it never really found its audience. Maybe this Blu-ray will help. Special features include: Inside Jobs: The Making of Steve Jobs, Feature Commentary with Director Danny Boyle, and Feature Commentary with Writer Aaron Sorkin and Editor Elliot Graham. GRADE: B+
I really liked this film a lot and I thought the premise – that Jobs strived to create perfect, closed off, versions of himself, really fascinating.
Sergio, I totally agree with you. STEVE JOBS is a very underrated movie. Jobs was a difficult, brilliant man who changed the world. It’s a great character study!
I’m sure we’ll get to it eventually.
Jeff, you and Jackie will find STEVE JOBS a fascinating film.
I probably won’t watch it, maybe later.
Actually I have to confess that I’ve always hated Apple and its products (I was working with computers long before Jobs – started in 1964 as a student …) because of that closed world view.
It was always made difficult for us “outsiders” to work together with Apple products.
On the other hand one has to admire how Jobs saw new ideas and immediately recognised their importance while others hesitated. Most of what makes Apple wasn’t invented by them – but Jobs said: We need this, so they bought it (often the whole company just because of one clever product/idea …).
PS and OT:
Does the film mention that Jobs was the child of a Syrian immigrant?
Wolf, no one who sees this movie will come away liking Steve Jobs. I respect what Jobs did, but I would NOT want to work for him. I can’t remember if the Syrian immigrant reference was in this film or the earlier Ashton Kutcher movie, JOBS.
I agree with Wolf – not a Steve Jobs fan. I am, however, a fan of his vision. I guess folks that driven don’t make a lot of friends.
I’ll probably watch this now that it’s on blu-ray.
Beth, there are some great performances in STEVE JOBS. But, you’ll find out Jobs was NOT a nice guy.
this is one I’ll get to eventually.
Left Coast Crime was a lot of fun. Catriona McPherson was toastmaster and was the life of the party!!
Maggie, wish I could have been at Left Coast Crime! We’re under a Winter Storm Advisory. At least 4-8 inches of snow are predicted to fall on us tonight!
George, wish you all the best!
Snow and ice in Niagara Falls is one of our best memories – you might see it differently though …
Wolf, 4-8 inches of snow isn’t going to shut us down. At this point, it’s just annoying. But it was 60 degrees just two days ago. This yo-yo weather makes people sick.
I thought you were done with all that. We enjoy watching the Northeast weather from 1200+ miles away. We’re supposed to hit 80 down here the next few days. We’ll be here another couple of weeks before we have to head back home – I hope we have room in the car for all Jackie’s purchases – and I hope Spring is fully entrenched by then.
Jeff, another blast of polar air descends on Western NY the next few days. Next week we’ll be in the 50s!
Great performances but I didn’t like the structure of the film. Centering it around three speeches he made. It felt ham-stringed, lifeless. Although perhaps that suited the man.
Patti, STEVE JOBS was like a three act play. Each product launch presented its own problems. I think Aaron Sorkin wanted to center the film around APPLE products and Steve Jobs’s interaction with his workers.
I’ll probably skip this, there was a biographical documentary that was good and I saw that, as well as some older things. Jobs – and Apple – are polarizing, and as an Apple user I appreciate how his vision, especially after he returned to the company, drove the innovation that has made the company so successful.
Rick, I offered STEVE JOBS to my students for EXTRA CREDIT. The product launches that form the core of the movie enlightened them. All the students who saw STEVE JOBS said they liked it.
I actually liked the Ashton Kutcher film a bit better, though both had their strengths and weaknesses. But then I was just looking for an entertaining yet informative story about Apple, not Jobs. Would not have wanted to work for him, but he got shit done. He seldom invented stuff, but excelled at perfecting stuff. He revolutionized, or helped revolutionize, the computer industry, film industry, phone industry, music industry, the web, and more. Early world wide web stuff was written in his Next – later to become Apple OSX – language, as were early forms of phone apps. Jobs was a genius, but mucho kudos too to all the folks behind him at Apple over the years. Kinda like Steph Curry, who’s great and re-inventing basketball, but he needs the rest of the talented and jelling Warriors to get a ring. Damn, I thought I could get out of here without a sports analogy. Ah well….and Go Giants – an even year!
Roy, like you I enjoyed the Ashton Kutcher JOBS movie, too. Both movies show different aspects of Steve Jobs and APPLE. I’m sure we haven’t seen the end of films about Jobs. He’s a key figure in our techno-culture.