Steve Jobs (2015) is a master class in what a biopic can be in terms of entertainment and representing someone’s life and experiences. Directed by Danny Boyle and starring Michael Fassbender, the movie documents the life of Steve Jobs through several big Apple product showcases. The sad thing is that this movie, written by The Social Network scribe Aaron Sorkin, never really got the commercial success or acclaim it deserved, unlike The Social Network.
If you like The Social Network and hard hitting biopics that are unafraid to show the truth about their subject, warts and all, then you need to watch 2015’s Steve Jobs. If you’re still not convinced, here is a breakdown of some of the best features of the movie by going through several of the key individuals involved in the movie.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
Aaron Sorkin’s Writing
Legendary Pictures
Aaron Sorkin wrote The Social Network, the TV show The West Wing, and plenty of other Hollywood screenplays. What he is known for, perhaps most of all, is his talent with dialogue. In an interview with Vulture, Sorkin mentioned how he grew up alongside people who were smarter than him, and he noted that he “likes the sound of intelligence.” This made Sorkin perfect for The Social Network, a story about college kids on the cutting edge of tech and the internet, and it makes him perfect to tell this story about Steve Jobs, whose life is defined by being a virtuoso that was so highly regarded. Sorkin’s dialogue shines in moments when Jobs is trading words with Steve Wozniak or John Sculley, where different intelligences clash.
It is an interesting choice to choose Sorkin for Steve Jobs, because many have maligned the entrepreneur for being the beneficiary of other people’s genius, Wozniak for example, rather than adding anything of his own to Apple’s success. Sorkin makes a compelling case for Jobs’ genius while also reckoning with the fact that he had numerous personal flaws and alienated many people in his life. Through this movie, Sorkin shows us how Jobs’ vision wasn’t just a bunch of hot air and good marketing, but instead a cohesive vision for how people would interface with computers that has become prophetic to the modern day. Steve Jobs pioneered a revolutionary idea of democratization in computers, where everyone would be able to have a computer, not just those with technical know-how. Despite this, we see Jobs at his worst in this movie, as an incredibly arrogant person with failings as a father who also bullies his workforce. We see both sides of him, the visionary and the flawed man.
The fact that the narrative itself is framed around three major product unveilings is another masterstroke of writing because it delivers the heart of what this movie wants to say about Steve Jobs and his legacy without necessarily feeling the need to give the audience a comprehensive crash course on the man. You don’t need to be intimately familiar with the life of Apple’s co-founder in order to appreciate this movie because even divorced from its historical content, this movie is an excellent character piece.
Danny Boyle’s Directing
Via Universal
Sorkin is the perfect writer for this movie, but he can’t have all the credit for its behind-the-camera brilliance. Film is a collaborative art, and among the many who worked on this movie was director Danny Boyle. Previously a person who worked on the movies 28 Days Later and Slumdog Millionaire, Boyle brings a lot of thriller experience to the table that helps make Sorkin’s dialogue-heavy script work and not feel flat.
The frank truth about this movie, which may put some people off despite this glowing recommendation, is that it is mostly just people talking to one another. It violates the age-old law of show, don’t tell. However, the cinematography and editing of Steve Jobs really helps make it feel exciting and immediate despite this. The movie never drags because of its incredible visual style; rarely is anything static in this movie, with people walking and talking, or moving in conversation. You don’t have boring shot-reverse-shot conversations, which you might get in a slower, more methodical movie. Instead, Steve Jobs offers a series of very intense scenes, where people argue or debate about things that feeling important because of that pacing and tension.
Michael Fassbender’s Performance
It must be stressed that there are many, many exceptional performances in Steve Jobs. Kate Winslet, as Joanna Hoffman, has to play a woman who is Jobs’ deepest confidant, who has to act as his right-hand advisor, and yet also stand up to him, and she plays that stress of having to manage a difficult personality perfectly. Michael Stuhlbarg plays the anxious Andy Hertzfeld extremely well, his nervous energy in scenes always makes you afraid that Jobs will snap at him at a moments notice.
The three girls who play Lisa all portray someone torn between her mother and absentee father at different points of her life. Jeff Daniels plays John Scully as a father-figure to Fassbender’s Jobs, who seems to care for him and yet also becomes his enemy, leading to one of the best scenes in the movie where the two argue about why the former fired the latter. Seth Rogen is an incredible surprise, and proof that comedy actors can handle dramatic roles with as much skill and charisma as they do comedies.
Despite that, Michael Fassbender’s performance as Jobs is, in many ways, something that carries this movie throughout. Fassbender expertly portrays every moment with a keen perfection demanded by the story. He has the Herculean task of portraying a man who threatens to publicly humiliate one of his workers if they don’t get a computer to sell on time as a human being who we can sympathize with. Fassbender takes to Sorkin’s dialogue like a fish does to water, much like Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network, portraying a person who always thinks he’s the smartest person in the room.
