[Updates] Jobs movie, no spoilers

[Andrew Stone]

I haven't seen it, but a friend, Keith Ohlfs, who worked for Steve closely had this to say which leaves me to believe I'd be greatly disappointed:


I saw it last Friday at a preview screening at the Castro, and thought they should have named the movie "Lisa Jobs".  After the movie at a Q&A,  Sorkin said that he spent most of his time talking to Lisa, as she refused to be interviewed for Isaacson's book, while Steve was still alive, so her story was fresh news.  After hearing her story, Sorkin decided to make that the focus of his three act "play".  The other characters were composites used for  perspective around the character drama.  The screenplay was well written and Danny Boyle does a great job with the direction, so it was entertaining to watch.  Having not witnessed much of Steve's relationship with Lisa, I came away wondering how much of that was fiction, and wishing they had touched on the Steve I knew much, much, more.  Sorkin stretches the other characters a bit too far as well.  Really? Steve is going to meet with John Sculley before each intro?  I don't think so.
    The worst part of the movie was that they suggest NeXT was a stepping stone for Steve to get back to Apple, and that he never expected to be able to sell the NeXT computers.  Sorkin and Boyle acknowledged after the screening that they put that exchange in for dramatic effect, and of course Steve really wanted NeXT to succeed from the beginning.  
    Since the entire movie takes place behind the stage and never in front of the stage.. we don't get to see much of the work they went through to reproduce the intros accurately.  They had tons of NeXT computers and printers there and had a few versions of the OS, created some custom apps, name badges replicated, brochures, signage (although they took some liberties that would have Steve rolling over), and performers, and after months of prep, most of it goes on the cutting room floor and NeXTSTEP makes an appearance for about 3 seconds.  YEAH!  
    As a character drama about a man and his daughter, I give it an  A-, but as a movie about Steve Jobs?  I give it a C. 

My two bits,

Keith


On Tue, Oct 13, 2015 at 8:17 AM, John Karabaic <jk at exnext.com> wrote:
'More important, the film simply doesn’t understand who he was and why he was successful.
'For instance, one character mentions Jobs’s ability to create a “reality distortion field.” But we never see the charismatic man who could convince people that the sky was green instead of blue. Especially in the NeXT section, Sorkin’s Jobs is a cynic who knows his product will fail, rather than the dreamer he was, certain his overpriced NeXT machine will “change the world.” Most important, Sorkin fails to convey Jobs’s unmatched ability to draw talented people to him, and get them to produce their best work.'





http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/13/opinion/aaron-sorkins-steve-jobs-con.html?smid=nytcore-ipad-share&smprod=nytcore-ipad

The screenwriter says his new movie is not a biopic. So true. The film simply doesn’t understand its subject.



--
Andrew Stone
@twittelator
http://stone.com

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