Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine

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source: Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine

Almost all documentaries have a color or flavor. This one chooses to be, in my opinion, overly dark and negative. Yes, Steve Jobs was an unpleasant person and very difficult to work with but I don't like the Foxconn part because it's not about Steve Jobs but about tech companies in general who don't care about cheap labor. The iPhone 4 story misses context and is very one sided. Sure it was wrong but not as dark as being portrayed. I miss balance in this documentary. It glosses over success and focuses on failure and negativity. Both should be equally represented. It's also how the story is being told, the middle part is mildly positive but the last half hour is just dark negativity and that doesn't do Steve Jobs justice in my opinion. It feels like the producers wanted to make it overly clear that they have not drank the Apple cool-aid. Job well done in that regard. In conclusion you are better off reading the awesome Walter Isaacson bio which does Jobs justice. It's well informed and tells a truthful story, both positive and negative with a correct balance.

At times during the viewing of this film I felt as if the mischievous kid who loved getting one over on the phone company never really changed...only he could do what he wanted on a much larger scale. There is a kernel of truth wrapped in this and it was that Jobs was like a child right up until the end. He lived within his own reality and he was trapped by it. How can you dislike Jobs just because we all had to grow up and abide by the rules while he didn't? Well, in fact you can if you realize that Job's ways and means were at times costly which this film quickly goes to. To his closest friends and associates the cost was regularly painful, as well as life-changing often for the worse even if they prospered financially. Often a bully to employees if you were one who he considered an enemy you might be advised to move out of Palo Alto altogether, that is if you needed employment. This is a good expose' because it dares to show the lofty groundbreaking successes were achieved at high costs including eschewing philanthropy and the occasional disregard for high morals and the law itself. We're suppose to believe if you read another reviewers thoughts that this is the way it is done in the mega-business world and if Apple did it better, well, they just became more successful. If we applaud this as the American business model we're past just a slippery slope because, in time, we all suffer. Suffer as we're mesmerized and hypnotized looking into our Apple screens. Jobs had both visible (Al Gore to name a known face) and invisible shields in the highest places and though he could have possibly served prison time he was never even indicted for anything. On a comical side he may have been the only American who found a way to never buy a car tag...and he wasn't even called out for even this. By the way try this to see if it works for you...I was ticketed a few years back because I forgot to put my yearly tag renewal sticker on the actual tag - and I had it in the glove compartment at the time and showed it to the officer to no avail. I think Jobs took pride in being able to do what others dared to, even the tag thing speaks volumes. If you seen several other Jobs documentaries (I know they're 2 on Amazon Prime Video for example) I'd recommend this one because you probably don't have the balance of the darkest sides of Jobs and Apple. Apple, and Jobs, didn't directly murder anyone, but there were lives lost and destroyed regularly in the Apple eco-system. In the end while the film certainly applauds the success, it moves one to feel anger at the lack of empathy Jobs and Apple lacked, it will prompt disbelief of the disregard for the laws the company (i.e. Jobs) felt they were above, and do so even as one feels sorrow as well since the darkness was cloaked by success - like a wolf disguised as a sheep. Maybe the thing that stings the most is while Apple relishes being called the greatest American business success of the 20th century they don't even pay but a fraction of the taxes they should because of sending their wealth to Ireland, at least on paper (electronically of course). A needed less than stellar view to balance the many accolades it would seem. You get the feeling we've been so mesmerized by all things Apple perhaps we've all been brainwashed. See this film if you watched others because it takes an important different look inside the man who was, indeed, in a darker machine benignly called Apple.

Film Review: Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine. Academy Award Winning Director Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side - 2008) loves his "behind the scenes" look at people and events (Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief - 2015). So, it 's no surprise he's ready and able to take on Steve Jobs. This look at Apple/Jobs moving quickly pass the start up years of Apple, and focuses primarily on Jobs' work ethics (and/or lack there of). Through select interviews and replaying of testimony, the viewer is provided a unique look into Jobs' personal, public and work life persona - all showing a bundle contradictions. However, be this information new or old to the viewer, there is no question the Man behind the Machine (Apple) produced one of today's most innovative products.

I feel that a lot of content about Steve Jobs, whether film or TV interviews or books or written articles, often present a simplistic, one-sided, view of Steve Jobs. Many present just a portion, such as the technological achievements; others just cover certain time periods--the resurgence of Apple after 2000--and doesn't clearly convey the character of Steve Jobs and his history. This documentary is something unique: it presents a balanced view of Steve Jobs. It is mostly about Steve Jobs as a person and less about Apple or technologies he was involved in. Steve Jobs: Man in the Machine covers not only the good side, including his spiritual journey, but also his terrible personality, some serious ethics lapses (such as the options backdating scandal or the secret deal with other companies to prevent tech workers from getting jobs elsewhere), and some controversial manufacturing practices sanctioned by Apple (regarding its suppliers in China and elsewhere). This coverage of the controversial issues is what makes this a great documentary; it doesn't whitewash anything at all. If you are looking for something more about the technology or how he made Apple into a success, you should check out other material. But if you are looking to learn about how Steve Jobs was as a person, I highly recommend this documentary. I have seen or read quite a bit about Steve Jobs (since the 90's) and this probably does the best job of covering his complex personality and his decisionmaking.

Wow this really sucks! It doesn't even need a review, it just sucks. Pretentious, driven (don't know what Jobs did to the director to produce such an obscenity) and technically pathetic. The music is bad, the editing is worse, the script is absolutely awful and it doesn't connect you to the story; and last of all points, but maybe the most important, it lacks of intensity which the man certainly had, it lacks of passion which the man certainly had and it focuses on the first part of his life when for Jobs' own confession he made mistakes. If you want to know anything about the man behind the most innovative and successful company on the planet (data-analysis say that) read the book of Walter Isaacson. That is complete, not driven (neither in a good or a bad way), truthful and fluently written.

Steve Jobs was surely like a magician whom the world waited for to show new tricks. And rightly pointed out in this documentary the sorrow that everyone had when he left was maybe because the world now new he will not show his tricks any more. Its a very well made film that highlights the non biased, non sugary perspective on jobs. Which in any of the alternate realities jobs would have easily disqualified and his fans will disqualify now. What is brilliant for the director is that he doesn't really put forward merely negative elements of his personality, but neutralizes both his unique capabilities and the impacts of those on a broader world which we lack to see in the illusion of the magician.

really now they make a movie about him ,let me tell you something did you know who is "Dennis Ritchie" if you know who he is then you know he is batter then Steve jobs and no one care about him and if you don't know him he invent UNIX and c the the creation of apple without him there is NO windows no UNIX no c no programs a large setback in computer no generic text languages we wold all read in binary ,and what Steve jobs AKA"a hipster sell stolen ideas"do ?? a !@#$ing i-products and expensive laptop Kathe died in the same years but it seems only few notice the death of Dennis Ritchie compared to Steve jobs , no wander why i hate this movie without even see it because i always well remember who is the man behind the creation of apple