The latest movie gets to essence of Steve Jobs.
Sorkin’s brilliant script distills ‘Steve Jobs’ to his essence
Throughout director Danny Boyle’s “Steve Jobs” biopic, the famed Apple co-founder (Michael Fassbender) trumpets each new product launch as a profound moment in history.
While Jobs was too complex and iconic to be judged merely by his massive ego — he did, after all, help revolutionize technology —it’s understandable to be wary of a movie seemingly obsessed with portraying him as a cultural messiah.
Then the movie ends — and everyone in the theater fires up their iPhone.
So, yes, Jobs matters that much, even to those of us who don’t ordinarily think of him that way or who view technology as a necessity rather than a passion. The fact that you understand this when “Steve Jobs” is over is one of the best indicators of how good the
movie is and of how well Boyle and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin have done their jobs.
Is it accurate? No, and many involved have gone on record to confirm that, including Sorkin, who won an Oscar for his take on Silicon Valley culture in “The Social Network” and is well-known for constructing stories that line up more with his artistic vision than with reality. In “Jobs,” adapted from Walter Isaacson’s acclaimed biography, he and Boyle have set out to capture the essence of their subject rather than the factual details of his life. And even this is inconclusive: Toward the end, the filmmakers move Jobs’ darker character issues to the side, and a more sympathetic, even heroic, man emerges.
The tightly shot, fastpaced film is set in three acts, each peppered with necessary flashbacks, built around Jobs’ first three big product unveilings, so what we get is three days in a life spread out over 14 years. Brilliantly, each is filmed using the technology of the period, evoking its essence in a visceral way.
In each of the three acts, somehow Jobs’ most meaningful personal clashes and ideological battles come to a head just hours before the rollout. At one point, after a heated exchange with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen) in front of a few dozen employees and hangers-on, Jobs remarks that it seems like everyone in his life stops at a bar on the way to his events to get juiced up for a confrontation.
The first 30-minute sequence (shot in 16 mm) takes place in 1984, just before the rock starlike Jobs introduces the world to the Macintosh at Cupertino’s Flint Center (where the scene was filmed). From the get-go, we see Sorkin’s influence, with characters in constant motion dispensing smart, snappy dialogue. Watching Fassbender, I couldn’t help but have flashbacks of Bradley Whitford’s Josh Lyman in “The West Wing.”
The film’s main conflicts are established early: Jobs fathered a child he rejects; his all-or-nothing drive alienates those he needs most, even if they somehow remain loyal to him; and he is still dealing with being rejected by his own birth parents. How Jobs deals with each situation shows the resilience of a man destined to be important.
Fassbender offers a fascinating, all-consuming and brilliant portrayal, even if he doesn’t start resembling Jobs until Act 3 in 1998, (shot digitally), when he rolls out the iMac.
In what might be his Jonah Hill crossover performance, Rogen is a pleasant surprise as Wozniak, who functions as Jobs’ conscience and may be the only person able to cut through his intimidating aura. The powerful exchanges between the two reveal a complex relationship and rate among the best scenes in the movie.
Kate Winslet plays Jobs’ loyal PR person Joanna Hoffman with a supposed Polish accent that’s either subtle or occasionally forgotten. Hoffman is Jobs’ classic “work wife,” the pained assistant who stays with him after his dismissal from Apple, through his formation of NeXT (which is portrayed rather cynically in the film with a Skylab analogy but makes Jobs seem even more of a genius) and his Phoenix-is-rising retaking of Apple.
Instead of having a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other, Jobs needs two angels — Wozniak and Hoffman. While Wozniak’s presence reminds the audience that Apple wasn’t a one-man show and provides a humane contrast to Jobs’ frequent harshness, Hoffman eventually becomes the healer in Jobs’ tortured relationship with daughter Lisa, which, like much of Jobs’ life, according to the movie, was complicated.
Jeff Daniels lends passion as former Apple CEO John Sculley, whom Jobs hand-picked to be Apple’s CEO and who winds up firing him. As Jobs’ father figure, Sculley is the catalyst for exploring Jobs’ childhood issues, which may have indeed been relevant to his life but come across in the film as a cheap subplot thrown in to explain why this brilliant man so often comes off like a megalomaniacal jerk.
Sorkin, who is arguably the real star of this project, injects some humanity into his protagonist by movie’s end — though barely — and manages in two hours to offer insight into the man as well as his massive impact on technology, an influence that continues to shape our culture four years after his death.
So, is “Steve Jobs” the final say on Steve Jobs? That’s hard to say. But like its subject, it should remain relevant for years to come.