“I’ve been a witness, and I tell you, I’ve been complicit.”
Notice: The following contains spoilers and rambling thoughts about the movie Steve Jobs.
If you want focused writing, read The Atlantic.
Steve Jobs was a visionary in the tech industry, famous as the cofounder and later CEO of Apple. For many, though, Jobs was a figure on a stage, introducing them to his world of the future – the world of Apple. It is fitting, then, that director Danny Boyle structured the movie around three product launches – the Macintosh, the NeXT, and the iMac – and a cast of characters that surround, aid, and hinder the titular character.
The movie begins with a prediction by sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke, explaining personal computing and the Internet in 2001. An interviewer asks questions, asking if we will become a “computer-dependent society… if our whole life is built around the computer.” Clarke confirms this, but responds that this will be for the better, noting that “any businessman and executive could live almost anywhere on Earth” and still work – a very topical point in 2020.
Steve Jobs wants to make that society happen, seeing himself as a harbinger of progress. From the initial product launch of the Macintosh, he believes himself to be a force for good, talking about Apple’s donations to schools and the possibilities of the new computer. Jobs’ fatal flaw, however, is his conviction that the only way to get to a better future through computing is his vision; It leads him to close himself off from other possibilities. Steve Jobs’ genius makes it exciting to watch him as he overcomes obstacles by any means necessary to achieve his goals, but one of the film’s great successes is showing the cracks in his persona – through his personal relationships with his friends and daughter Lisa, and his flawed personality. And if Danny Boyle is the architect behind this representation, then writer Aaron Sorkin builds it.
Aaron Sorkin earned fame off the back of his fast-paced, task-oriented dialogue, as in political drama The West Wing or The Social Network, a study of another flawed visionary. This dialogue anchors the movie; All of the main characters, with the sole exception of Lisa, are task-oriented people in high-pressure situations, swearing and moving through a House of Cards-like work environment. These characters revolve around Steve, rarely getting attention or lines on their own, acting as reflections and foils to emphasize his character or else move the plot forward. Sorkin’s writing brings tension to the Macintosh launch as the film opens on Steve conferring with his engineer Andy Hertzfeld and Joanna Hoffman, his head of marketing, fixer, and confidante. The Macintosh fails to say “hello.” Given that this one feature is relatively unimportant, unannounced, and also one of a multitude, Joanna suggests cutting the segment. Jobs forbids this: To him, no part of the launch is unimportant, down to the mandatory exit signs still being on. Him stressing this small aspect of the launch immediately conveys to the audience his exacting nature, and the actions he takes to protect his vision showcase his potential for ruthlessness, as he intimidates Andy Hertzfeld with public humiliation. Sorkin balances this, though, with his charisma as he explains his vision and rationale.
Danny Boyle does not place cinematographer Alwin Kuchler’s work front and center, as it might be with an action movie, but it still works to further Boyle’s message. The still shots before the Macintosh present the audience with the high expectations that are accompanying the launch, and the ingenious shot of the Macintosh covering Jobs’ head reflects his calculating, single-minded nature. This cinematography is complemented by the excellent acting.
In her own words, Joanna Hoffman is “the one who has to explain [Jobs] to people,” and this includes the people who work for him. This role supersedes her actual job. Kate Winslet’s care in playing Hoffman is evident, particularly in her accent work. Joanna mentions winning an award at Apple for being the one person who could stand up to Steve Jobs, and this shows in her deft maneuvering; She has to manage his scant time, his megalomaniacal expectations, and his destructive impulses. Fassbender similarly achieves a good representation of Jobs’ vocal qualities, and uses his physicality to emphasize Jobs’ overbearing nature, as when he intimidates Hertzfeld. Fassbender’s Steve Jobs is charming, intellectual, and intense, with a penchant for brutal honesty, and his complexity of character allows the audience to be inspired and horrified by turns.
Seth Rogen gives an amiable yet earnest depiction of Steve Wozniak, a friendly man with a strong sense of right and wrong that sees himself as the only person who truly knows Jobs, who knows that the genius persona is “someone [Jobs] invented.” His rationale behind a decision boils down to “It’s right,” and it is for this reason that he fails to understand Jobs in the end.
All three actresses do a fantastic job in portraying Lisa, their task made yet more difficult by the fact that each have so little time to make an impression and continue her characterization. Casting a character at different ages presents a challenge, but thankfully Makenzie Moss, Ripley Sobo, and Perla Haney give some of the most affecting performances in what can be a clinical, fast-moving business drama.
This business focus is the entirety of the second product launch, the NeXT computer in 1988. Steve Jobs’ prior computer, the Macintosh, was a failure, and when he forced a vote to fire him or John Sculley, Apple jettisoned the company’s founder. All this, however, plays into Jobs’ unending quest for more control, and he hatches a plan: The root of the scheme – to make his vision a reality, he must oust opposition and make himself inseparable from Apple. He does this by centering his whole new company, NeXT, around markets Apple depends on, and cultivating the story that he was fired, instead of engineering his own removal. The Machiavellian gambit pays off, and his version of events “quickly bec[ame] mythologized,” ruining John Sculley’s reputation despite the fact that the NeXT computer does not actually work.
Woz, with his technical prowess, can see that his friend’s computer will fail. Jobs, however, sees this and also what will happen as a result; Because of this, he does not need Wozniak’s companionship, his friendship. Or at least, his exterior – his persona, the man he “invented” – projects this. The truth peaks through in his confrontation with John Sculley, where he warns his father figure not to set Wozniak against him, because Jobs is ”always gonna protect him… That’s what men do.” His confrontational nature remains constantly at the forefront, and only rarely does he display affection about a person when they are in the room; Hertzfeld certainly couldn’t tell that Jobs “always liked [him] a lot,” for instance.
The movie’s balance allows the audience to empathize with Jobs without supporting him, to see his faults without demonizing him, and it is a difficult knife’s edge to walk. Danny Boyle manages to keep the film feeling fresh and exciting, so much so that Steve Jobs still feels like it’s beginning at the halfway point. The dialogue and Sorkin’s famous walking sequences aid in this, of course, as do the transitions between the thirds of the film. The news montage is a well-known trope, but handled effectively. Another aid in maintaining the movie’s forward momentum is the deft changes in tone, as when Steve leaves his second conversation with Sculley to talk to Hoffman. Anger and resentment switch to hope and discussion of the future, and rather than being jarring, these switches prevent the movie from being bogged down.
Jobs’ severity is a hallmark of the film; However, he acts tenderly with Lisa, naming the Macintosh’s predecessor after her. Even when directly accused of being her father, he can’t bring himself to deny her to her face, always stopping short of saying, “I’m not her father” in her presence. Each time they see each other in her childhood, she asks to be a bigger part of his life, yet he can never take the final step to call her his daughter. Tense before the first product launch, with multiple things going wrong, he still takes a moment to teach her about the Macintosh and encourage her to play with it. He ends this conversation with her mother, Chrisann, by agreeing to buy her a house and fund her, setting off a pattern; Aside from brief moments of teaching, Jobs really only knows how to parent through money. He gives it to school and house Lisa, and withholds it to punish her, going so far as to threaten her with not paying for Harvard when the two fight.
This is an outgrowth of his need for control. He never lets a point go without having his say, even when his words will have no effect. Twice, Jobs compares himself to God, and it is ironic that the famous 1984 Apple commercial is about liberating people from sameness, when sameness is exactly what his system of end-to-end control brings. He demonizes IBM for wanting a monopoly on information, and truly believes in what he says, but perhaps the main issue is that it’s not his control. It is easy to forget, in the grand sweep of his vision and the many possibilities, that Jobs’ ideas are not actually good for the consumer, and the film perhaps strays too far in favor of his vision, playing up the slick visuals in the final product launch.
During the final montage, we see Jobs’ scheme come to fruition. When Apple flounders with a failed product, they purchase NeXT in exchange for his return, this time as CEO with absolute authority. The final launch – the iMac launch – seems to introduce Jobs at the height of his powers, in his classic black turtleneck, blue jeans and rounded glasses. He knows the material backwards, casually ad-libbing, and praises his employees, having a pleasant back-and-forth with both Andy Cunningham and Steve Wozniak. But off the stage, Hoffman seems tense, ignoring the positive quotes from the press and blowing off Jobs’ sincere appreciation of a positive quote from John Sculley. Her tension has nothing to do with Apple, though, and everything to do with Steve Jobs’ personal failings as a father; He has cut her off financially for siding with Chrisann in selling their old house, and all throughout the final third of the film he struggles to meet with his daughter, talking to his colleagues, vanquished enemies, and disappointed friends in the meantime.
Wozniak’s knowledge of his friend becomes bitter as the film draws to a close, and their playful banter becomes another heated discussion over the Apple II. Jobs accuses Wozniak of leading the company to ruin without him, and Wozniak finally renounces his friend, saying that the main difference between them is that “Steve’s an asshole.” His final conversation with Wozniak and the reaction from the audience encapsulates his nature and relationship with Lisa – he is brilliant in having saved the company, but terrible in how he treats his people. The truth comes to him at the final launch, as he sees both how much he has failed Lisa and exact mechanics behind the final argument between him and Wozniak, denying Joanna’s excuses for his behavior.
This segues into a final meeting with his father figure. John Sculley looks grey in 1998, but accepting of his failure. He seems to have made peace with the fact that his only entrances can be through side doors, and that his time has passed. He earnestly wants to help Steve, as when he tries to reassure him that there was nothing an infant Jobs could have done to warrant being returned, and passes the torch willingly to his protege after it was taken, saying “I don’t need to school you.”
Flashbacks of Lisa, and the presence of his former mentor, cause Jobs to reminisce on his first adoptive parents, who gave him back. Sorkin, in having Jobs talk about his history, cleverly conveys to the audience that his takeaway was that you can refuse to love someone right as he realizes his failure with Lisa.
His quote to John, “Did I do this? Screw it up?” reflects how all of the events of the movie have happened because of Steve, from Lisa’s upbringing to the Macintosh to his gambit to become CEO. With the small exception of Wozniak fighting him on the Apple II, Jobs’ need for control has enveloped everything between 1984 and 1998, including and especially the events that have hurt him the most. Sculley’s most valuable advice to Jobs is his final piece – “Let’s let it go now. Has to be time.” Steve Jobs has made his decisions, and influenced millions, and won, and the choice to unburden himself of the weight of his past opens the path for him to reconcile with his daughter.
Our main character makes decisions quickly and decisively, able to disregard ramifications that would make others hesitate due to his seemingly instantaneous cost-benefit analysis and relentless, single-minded obsession to his vision. This vision could not encompass his daughter, and his meetings with Hoffman and Hertzfeld at the end reveal the glaring gaps in his life that have been left out of his control, and voluntarily so, since Lisa asked multiple times to live with him. He believes “the nature of people is something to be overcome,” but fails to separate himself from this nature, and only realizes at the end that it can be an asset.
He, like the original Macintosh, is “poorly made;” a newscaster even calls “end-to-end control” the “Shakespearean flaw” for “a machine that had potential.” Perhaps most damning is that he gave the same pain he had to his child; Just like himself, she was “out of the loop when the most crucial events in [her] life were set in motion” – thanks to him.
The use of “We Grew Up at Midnight,” which was released in 2012 and not ‘98, encapsulates the movie’s prioritization of feeling over fact; The chronology doesn’t check out but the song works best in the scene, just as having Joanna Hoffman as a potential love interest does not necessarily match real life, where Hoffman is married. More broadly, the music score is used subtly to emphasize the tone throughout the movie, such as when symphonic music begins playing in the opera house.
The film, playing flashbacks across the applause and music of the iMac launch, acknowledges that the revelations and decisions to change are not an instant cure-all, but rather the beginning of healing. This is seen in the final shot: Lights flash across Lisa’s face, and her father’s, as he slowly approaches her from the stage, and the camera loses focus, until finally a camera flash engulfs the whole image and leaves blackness. Steve Jobs is a character study that takes liberties but remains riveting throughout its two hours.
A
Disassembly 