Steve Jobs “is somebody I followed closely for much of my career, even spending a week in the mid-1980s embedded at NeXT, the company Jobs founded after being tossed out of Apple in 1985,” Joe Nocera writes for The New York Times. “And although ‘Steve Jobs,’ the movie, which opened in a handful of theaters on Friday, is highly entertaining, what struck me most was how little it had to do with the flesh and blood Steve Jobs.”
“Sorkin has arranged the movie like a three-act play, building it around three product launches, for the Macintosh computer in 1984, the NeXT computer in 1988 and the iMac in 1998, after Jobs returned to Apple,” Nocera writes. “Although this structure necessitates inventing virtually every moment in the film out of whole cloth, that’s not the real problem. The structure would be fine if, within its contours, it had conveyed the complicated reality of Steve Jobs.”
“But it doesn’t. In ways both large and small, Sorkin — as well as Michael Fassbender, the actor who plays Jobs — has failed to capture him in any meaningful sense,” Nocera writes. “There are moments in the film, like the big “reconciliation” scene with his out-of-wedlock daughter, Lisa, that are almost offensively in opposition to the truth… More important, the film simply doesn’t understand who he was and why he was successful.”
“As it turns out, Sorkin is quite proud of his disregard for facts. ‘What is the big deal about accuracy purely for accuracy’s sake?’ he told New York magazine around the time ‘The Social Network’ came out,” Nocera writes. “The problem is that Steve Jobs isn’t just a ‘character’; he was a real person who lived a real life… Sorkin and his fellow moviemakers are taking advantage of the feelings people have for the real Steve Jobs to sell tickets, yet the Steve Jobs he created is a complete figment of his imagination. It’s a con.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: And this is from a the guy Steve Jobs famously called a “slime bucket.”
Accuracy doesn’t matter — until you find yourself renaming rivers in order to match Hollywood concoctions.
Lie: “The graphical user interface was stolen from Xerox PARC.” Repeat a lie often enough, like on thousands of movie screens and countless upcoming downloads around the world, and it becomes “fact.”
And, BTW, Jobs’ NeXT, Sorkin’s “single biggest failure in the history of personal computing” as inserted into the mouth of a fictional “Woz,” is the basis for the Mac’s OS X, the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch’s iOS, and stands as the root of all of the success that Apple, the world’s most valuable company, enjoys today. If that’s a “failure,” we’d like to see Sorkin’s idea of “success.”
Can’t we just get someone who actually understands Steve Jobs, Apple, and what really happened to write the book and the movie? Is that really so hard?
SEE ALSO:
Paid consultant Woz on ‘Steve Jobs’ movie claims accuracy doesn’t matter – October 13, 2015
Universal releases new 2:20-minute scene from ‘Steve Jobs’ – October 9, 2015
The Steve Jobs in ‘Steve Jobs’ is a fictional character invented by Aaron Sorkin – October 8, 2015
Jony Ive joins chorus of insiders’ complaints about new ‘Steve Jobs’ movie – October 8, 2015
The Strange Saga of ‘Steve Jobs’: A widow’s threats, high-powered spats and the Sony hack – October 7, 2015
‘Steve Jobs’ director Danny Boyle warns of ‘tremendous, terrifying power’ of tech giants like Apple – October 7, 2015
Forbes reviews ‘Steve Jobs’: ‘An electrifying interpretive dance of abstract biographical cinema’ – October 7, 2015
Steve Jobs’ daughter Lisa skips movie screening, but parties with cast – October 7, 2015
Philip Elmer-DeWitt reviews ‘Steve Jobs’ movie: ‘I loved it’ – October 7, 2015
Aaron Sorkin: Steve Jobs just wanted to be loved – October 6, 2015
The ‘Steve Jobs’ movie that Sony, DiCaprio, and Bale didn’t want is now an Oscar favorite – October 6, 2015
Michael Fassbender already the odds-on favorite to win an Oscar for ‘Steve Jobs’ – October 5, 2015
Steve Jobs’ widow and friends take aim at Hollywood over ‘Steve Jobs’ biopic – October 5, 2015
‘Steve Jobs’ biopic too nasty to win Best Picture award – October 2, 2015
Andy Hertzfeld: ‘Steve Jobs’ movie ‘deviates from reality everywhere’ but ‘aspires to explore and expose the deeper truths’ – October 2, 2015
Aaron Sorkin blasts Apple’s Tim Cook over ‘Steve Jobs’ critique: ‘You’ve got a lot of nerve’ – September 25, 2015
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Arline M.” for the heads up.]
Ironic that Nocera writes this. In 2008 he received an email in response to articles about Jobs’ health. “This is Steve Jobs. You think I’m an arrogant [expletive] who thinks he’s above the law, and I think you’re a slime bucket who gets most of his facts wrong.”
Nocera and Jobs obviously weren’t friends but Jobs did have an impact on him.
Can’t imagine SJ ever calling Woz, “little buddy.” Disregarding speech & facial expression, Steve moved uniquely…this actor isn’t even close. I’ll probably see it, nonetheless.
Aaron Sorkin is a piece of shït.
Spoken like a true one-dimensional jackass. That’s the best you could do?… Donald Trump must be your father.
Auramac is a piece of three-dimensional shït.
Did Woz ever call Steve “skipper” ? 😉
in POS Sorkin’s “world,” Jobs preferred the name “Mary Ann” for the Lisa.
I’ve already decided not to see this movie. This is in part because of the way Aaron Sorkin went after Tim Cook for truthfully stating that the movie is opportunist, but also because the actor playing Jobs does not seem to capture Steve’s personality. Add to that all of the inaccuracies. That pretty much does it for me.
You aren’t missing much. Anyone who knows Apple’s history will largely be infuriated for the negative liberties taken. This is not the Jobs movie you’re looking for. You can go about your business. Move along.
Next- hold your breath until you turn blue. That’ll show ’em!
Why would I do that? I don’t give a damn.
Why did they need to lie? Why didn’t they just flesh out a scene where Steve cackles with pure Machiavellian evil in persuading Xerox PARC to sell him a right to use the GUI they seemed intent on ignoring? They must have known their lie would be found out by anyone with an IQ beyond that of a one legged, mentally confused chicken.
Exactly. I also was thinking a much better and more effecting movie could be made sticking to the truth. But Sorkin prefers to deal with traditional dramatic flair regardless of how he gets there and is willing to sacrifice real life people on the altar of histrionic cinematic conflict.
You’re spot on. There’s so much juicy stuff that really happened (good, bad and ugly) that it could have filled a mini-series. Why Sorkin decided not to use any of it is a mystery. And it will relegate his film to the lofty ranks of the weak and forgettable. Very unfortunate all around.
Aaron Sorkin is a liberal. Liberals lie all the time. His purpose is to attack a successful capitalist. One of the most successful capitalists of all time. The left always attacks successful capitalists, unless they are huge bankers like Golman Sachs or billionaires who find them like Warren Buffett and the Steyers or billionaires like the Clinton’s who are the Left. Lies are very important – that is why a person like Hillary is successful on the left, because she is good at lying whenever she speaks. Sorkin lies in every single thing he produces – to advance the agenda.
You realize Steve was very leftist too, right? The guy was a hippie ffs. This has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with bad taste. What’s with the extreme and tiresome politicizing of every article on this site nowadays?
Excellent question. Steve, Tim, and most of Apple are all liberals, for one thing. Only a brainless, maniacal idiot would obsessively troll about rightwing politics regardless of topic.
You are a moron. All of Sorkins work is filled with lies including this movie. His TV shows are leftist propaganda pieces filled with typical leftist deception. Jobs was a liberal but also a capitalist and capitalism must be attacked. And Jobs criticized leftist dogma like the existence of teachers unions. And he criticized Obama for various things. He lived as a conservative in building a huge and successful business using the American system of free enterprise.
You mean like conservatives lie all the time about science and fiscal responsibility?
Here is current US politics: Politicians on either side lie and most people buy into the lies of one side while thinking how smart they are for spotting the lies of the other side.
Each side clings to the ideals of their side, even though their team of politicians is bought and paid for by special interests, not ideas of good governance.
We need more independent thinkers, more party options, and less blatant corruption of government and elections by special interests. But that won’t happen while the average voter argues about “liberal” vs “conservative” as if politicians actually were deep political thinkers in either category.
With the incredibly distasteful (at least to me) field of candidates the Republicans and Democrates have given us for the presidential election in 2016, it seems like a very good opportunity for a centrist independent to step in and save the day. Enough with the destructive polarization of our country by the left and right! Someone, Please, save us!!!
The Left created the lie of “global warming” which has not occurred for 20 years so is now renamed “climate change” which is a stunning and very scary thing, since the climate has always been changing and man is in no way capable of even knowing fully how it is changing or have a clue about how to regulate the worlds temperature. And the people who are most vehement about scaring everyone about the catastrophe of he climate are some of the most piggish users of fossil fuels, like our idiot big eared President, Al Gore, the Clinton’s and the entire Hollywood elite, who all use vast amounts of jet fuel to satisfy their lust for material comfort and simply to waste money. So, the crisis cant be that great since these prophets of doom all use the very stuff they say is killing the planet. But then, they are liberals so they lie whenever they speak. Like you
I am so sorry. But you are a complete idiot.
Say Kent, buddy, could you please supply one verifiable example of a lie that all Liberals tell? Only one, that’s all I’m asking for. I’ll google it, of course, so please be careful not to throw out some breitbart quote that has no basis in reality.
waiting…
Life doesn’t begin at conception, it just magically begins way later, so I can have a convenient time period in which to commit murder and get away with it.
I copied and pasted that quote into google and could not find a single Liberal who said it. Almost as though you made it up. How odd, but I’m sure George Soros had it removed from the internet, right?
Liberal Lie:
You can have all kinds of free government services and somebody else will pay for them. Just ignore those trillion dollar deficits, they’ll never come home to roost.
Firsty, you never disappoint! But I’m sure there’s always money to go to war against a country that did not attack us, right? And wars are FREE! Look out, Iran, President Trump is gonna turn you into a parking lot!
1. Obamacare will allow you to keep your doctor.
2. Obamacare will allow you to keep your plan.
3. Obamacare will not pay for abortions.
4. Obamacare will save the average citizen $2500 per year.
5 Global warming exists.
6. Obama – in my first term I will cut the deficit in half. (he had a full Democrat Congress his first two years and has always gotten the exact budget he demanded with threats of shutting down the government if he didn’t). The deficit meanwhile has gone from $10 trillion to 518 trillion under Obama.
7. Obama will conduct a transparent administration. His administration has beem the most secretive and controlling of media ever.
8. Dan Rather and his entire report on Bush’s draft status, which relied on fabricated stories which he knew were fabricated.
9. Obama – promised to bring racial harmony and has instead done everything possible to stoke racial hatred in America which has been evident since he became President.
10. Democrats support choice – they don’t/ They only support abortion.
11. Democrats support the Constitution. They don’t. They only support whatever it takes to stay in power and they never try to defend or even understand the Constitution. In fact, Democrats openly detest the Constitution because it was created by white European descendents who liked Western culture and ideas. Liberals hate all of this so naturally they now work to destroy the Constitution.
11. Benghazi – for a year Obama and Hillary blamed the Benghazi attack on a very minor immigrant in California who posted a video on Youtube that had about 200 views. They said this caused the attack on the Embassy and the deaths of the Americans. THey knew this was a complete lie because they had instant and real time intelligence telling them it was an organized attack by Muslim revolutionaries. The poor video producer was arrested and is still in jail. And he did nothing. And Obama and Hillary keep their iies intact about all that occurred.
Basically everything a Democrat says is a lie. Their heroes and teacher like Saul Alinsky tell them it is right to lie to gain power. That is your party. It is killing America. On purpose.
Have a seat, Kenty, this is gonna be a shock. Obama is not a Liberal.
Oh dear, he’s gone into cardiac arrest.
Here is a shock. Montex is not a person. He is a drone without a brain. Obama had the most liberal voting record in the Senate during his brief career. Philosophically, he is a Marxist, which makes him very liberal. Your comments show you to be certifiably stupid.
It is not a biography- it is a work of fiction that should not have been made.
I am not sure what anybody expected from Comcast/Universal except something that was designed to sell tickets.
I see an opportunity for an awesome AND factual TV series relating the uprising of the personal computer in the mid/late 70’s. Hey Netflix, you listening?
This is a “jobs” for Ken Burns.
You’re absolutely right about that. The story can not be contained within a movie running time constraints format.
Why Netflix? Why not an Apple TV exclusive? 😀
“‘Steve Jobs’ movie is fiction” … Um yeah. So sayeth Sorkin himself. Don’t you get it? A cradle-to-grave biopic is neither interesting nor original. In some ways that story, the true story of Steve Jobs’ life, is a boring movie.
Sorkin wrote a 3 act play, messed with the true story to make it more dramatic, and admits to doing so. I’m looking forward to seeing it. This is not a doc.
Welcome to postmodern “truth.” If I don’t like reality, I can simply redefine it any way that suits me. Logic and historical facts are simply inconvenient irrelevancies.
Take a deep breath and repeat “It’s a movie, not a historical document”.
The unfortunate thing is people not in the know will treat it as fact so filmmakers DO have some responsibility not to outright lie about their subject matter if it’s a real person. It’s why Sorkin should just stick to fictional characters.
Haven’t seen the flick, waiting for it on iTunes, but you have to remember, Aaron Sorkin is NOT a biographer, he’s a screen writer. Screen writers are not required to accurately depict historical events, but they are required to write something compelling and entertaining. If you want a biography of Steve Jobs, then read one, if you want to be entertained, maybe go see this movie, IDK.
One could say the same thing about a book: “It’s a book; not a historical document”. Or how about a CV? — “Hey, it’s just my resumé, it is not a historical document ! ” You can almost say it about anything.
The “It’s a movie, not a historical document” excuse is a cop-out. There is no reason a movie about Steve Jobs could not have been captivating and truthful. The real Steve Jobs is a legend. And there is plenty of material to work with, it seems, without making stuff up.
Beautifully said Doctor.
Is almost seems like someone with an interest to rewrite history has had a hand in influencing this story.
Who would have interest in changing Steve’s legacy?
How about our good buddy Mr. Gates?
Just throwing that out there.
Apparently, It’s a decently enacted piece of fiction film art!
But those aren’t Woz and Jobs. This is no biographical piece.
NeXT, the company Jobs founded after being tossed out of Apple in 1985… <–RUBBISH.
Let's, yet again, point out that Steve Jobs was NEVER 'tossed out' of Apple. He personally decided to leave after an outrageously insulting demotion and sequestering away from the main campus by then CEO John Sculley and the Apple board.
Ask Woz:
Steve Jobs left Apple on his own, wasn’t forced out, Wozniak says
By Sam Oliver, AppleInsider
Sunday, September 13, 2015, 08:53 pm PT (11:53 pm ET)
“Steve Jobs wasn’t pushed out of the company. He left,” Wozniak wrote on Facebook. “After the Macintosh failure it’s fair to assume that Jobs left out of his feeling of greatness, and embarrassment about not having achieved it.”
Ask John Sculley:
“It was after making the pitches [regarding Macintosh Office] that the Apple board asked Steve to step down from the Macintosh division for being too disruptive in the organization,” Sculley said in an interview earlier this year.
“Steve was never fired. He took a sabbatical and was still chairman of the board. He was down, no one pushed him, but he was off the Mac, which was his deal – he never forgave me for that.”
If it’s “just fiction”, then just make it total fiction – about no real person. Nobody would go to see it. Its appeal is ALL because it’s supposedly about Steve Jobs, and therefore, it should actually BE about Steve Jobs.
I agree. Sorkin should have just drawn up an imaginary amalgam of many tech figures and created a Grand Guignol piece of tech soap opera fiction. Now THAT would be cool.
Precisely, Sean.
Well said.
Not paying for this pretend stuff.
The movie is called Steve Jobs..a real person most of the world is familiar with to some extent ..
But yet sorkin says .. Ehhh. Who cares what reality was… Let me tell u what i think he was !
Who the hell does sorkin think he is ?
To paint his imagenery fictitious version and slap a real mans name on it and throw it out there.
The movie should start with a disclaimer:
” all characters and events are fictitious and not representitive of reality… Do not be misled by names of the characters”
As it stand the movie is a misrepresentation of reality.. Not an inspiration !
I will even go as far as saying someone can sue the production for misrepresentation if the movie does not start with a disclaimer !
This of this as the movie industry’s “Reality distortion field”.. 🙂
Okay, It’s not a biography. Then why do they say it’s based on a biography? And then, that biography is invisible in the film? Just as well, Isaacsons book is a piece of shit.
Sorkin may be a great screenwriter, and Boyle a splendid director, the actors all top shelf, Rogen excepted, so how did this happen? How is the centrepiece of this film Jobs’ daughter? Drama? C’mon Sorkin, you’ve used your position to opportunistically cash in. Tim wasn’t referring to you or your film, so why the overblown reaction?
I will see this movie, just as I bought Isaacsons book. Neither satisfies the need for a real biography, so there’s still hope that the real deal will one day appear, until then, you can find out more about the real Steven P. Jobs just watching random YouTube videos than you’ll learn from Isaacson’s book or Sorkin’s film.
Cheers!
dmz
I wonder what Sorkin would say if someone made a movie where:
We have a character called Sorkin who is completely useless , keeps sniffing glue while his teenage assistant (PA) does all the work on his biggest movies like “Social Network” ….
(hey, Sorkin we just ‘bent’ the truth for DRAMATIC effect…. )