Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine (2015) User Reviews

A more balanced and fair argument than it's given credit for.

[Sergeant_Tibbs · 7/10 · 15 September 2015]

Despite his over productivity and well-known biases, Alex Gibney is always an essential documentarian to watch, especially since his Oscar winning film. He's already made the best documentary of the year thus far with his attack on Scientology, Going Clear, anything else is icing on the cake. While that film is a revealing call to arms, his Steve Jobs film The Man In The Machine tries those same tricks but it's coming a little too late, especially as the film frames itself over the outpouring of grief over his death. Not that the film is a poor effort. As Going Clear illustrated what we already knew, so does this film. It's not a 2-hour attack as reported - along with the justifications to question society's hero worship towards him are all the reasons he's beloved and considered a visionary that changed the world. Those later Apple announcements with the awed cheers for Jobs earn a similar spine-tingle as the Scientology congregations in Going Clear. It's more endearing here.

The negative reaction to this documentary's criticisms almost highlight that hero worship he still harnesses, but it's difficult to argue over the hard facts of his bullying, both minor and major as documented here. Ultimately, Gibney poses the film as a reflection on our emotional connection to our technology and how that extends to its creator, but while it's an interesting conversation it results only in vague existentialism asking similar questions that he started with. Yes, we've grown dependant on our tech and Jobs' death sparked fear that innovation will slow, that's more or less where the grief comes from and nothing to do with Jobs' life or business tactics. His image as an icon is Goliath and this film is a little David and it offers a small but fair chiseling of that towering statue. It's not Gibney's best work and it spends this year in the shadow of two significant films, but it's still solidly produced and worth a watch for an insight into Jobs' life, especially with Danny Boyle's biopic on the horizon.

7/10

All these reviews/reviewers are mental.

[pullmyfinger85 · 8/10 · 6 September 2015]

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine is being accused of not being a very uplifting view of Steve Jobs himself. The interviews and actually footage of Steve Jobs speaks for itself. It's not mean spirited; it's actual events, conversations and scandals that took place.

Make no mistake, Steve Jobs was a brilliant man. This well-made documentary is self aware of his genius mind and how he controlled and oversaw every aspect from concept to completion of Apple corp, products and NeXT. It explored how he was David and took down Goliath (IBM) and now in the 21st century, has taken the rein as Goliath and isn't afraid to stomp on the little man.

Director Alex Gibney poses the question(s): Why are we all so obsessed with Steve? Why did we all mourn for a man we've never met? What emotional connection ties us all with our products to the man himself?

If you're interested in this type of pop culture, definitely check it out. Great perspective on a man and company that have changed/dominated our culture in many, many ways.

The good, the bad and the ugly -- a balanced look at Steve Jobs

[KoalaBear33 · 8/10 · 22 August 2016]

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.

An eye opener to the world behind Apple! 6/10

[leonblackwood · 6/10 · 6 June 2016]

Review: After seeing the 2 Steve Jobs movies, starring Ashton Kutcher and Michael Fassbender, I personally thought that they didn't do Jobs justice but now that I have seen this documentary, he really was a calculating, manipulative and uncaring person. Nobody doubts the bare genius of the man, who had a unique vision which has taken over the world but his under hand tactics and dangerous minds games have damaged some people for life. When you hear the interviews from his fellow co-workers, who actually worked side by side with Steve, they all seem like there life's were hanging on a thread, so my question is, was it really worth it? I know that the Apple brand is one of the biggest in the world and that everyone has an iPhone but when people are committing suicide, mainly because of the bare pressure in the business, I personally would rather work in McDonald's. Anyway, this documentary gives more information than the movies did but I personally don't think that anyone would have said anything about the "goings on" behind Apple doors if Steve Jobs was still alive. You do have to have a cutthroat personality to make it in business, so it seems like he was the right person to dominate the technology market but if a lot of the stories in this documentary are true, I think he went a bit too far in a lot of circumstances. Anyway, this is definitely worth a watch, basically because everyone knows about the Apple brand, and I'm sure that people will come away with there own personal opinion about Steve Jobs and his determination to take over the world. Educational!

Round-Up: This documentary was written and directed by Alex Gibney, 62, who has brought you over 30 documentaries, which include The Armstrong Lie, Mr. Dynamite, My Trip To Al-Qaeda, Finding Fela! and many more. He has a way of getting to the gritty truth, even though it could damage people's reputation but that's what makes a documentary worth watching. 

I recommend this movie to people who are into their documentaries, which give an in depth look into the private and personal life of the late Apple CEO, Steve Jobs. 6/10

Vices & virtues of Steve Jobs

[visualandwriting · 6/10 · 1 November 2015]

Steve Jobs does not need any introduction. The owner and co-founder of Apple - personal computer and mobile devices have established the trends for the coming years. The guy in a black turtleneck, jeans and sneakers has become not only an entrepreneur but entered the pop culture hall of popular. A wide audience is known as a man of success, the fulfillment of the American dream, confirmation of the thesis about the human capacity for self-determination. But is there a scratch on this perfect facade? What price paid Steve Jobs to became successful. In the film Steve Jobs: Man in the Machine Alex Gibney tries to present a full-sized figure of Steve Jobs, with all his vices and virtues. The movie is not a congratulatory scroll to honor entrepreneurship; it also does not attempt to overthrow his monument. Is rather a quest for answers to the question: why Steve Jobs was worshiped? Unfortunately, the film is designed for people who know the subject superficially; it doesn't bring something new to the table. Most of the information contained in the film appeared in the biography book. If someone read even one book about Jobs, the film will be for him an only reproduction of this information. The film was made without the authorization of the family.

Steve Jobs: Man in the Machine consists of archival photos, videos, and interviews with Jobs coworkers, friends, and family. Commentaries on the image put his colleagues including Steve Wozniak, Lisa's mother- as well as people associated with the industry such as technology journalists. Everyone says both positively and question some decisions, behaviors of Jobs. The authors perform video showing life events in chronological order. The story of his family, studies, interests, and eccentric decisions. Walking barefoot on the university campus, driving without license plates Silicon Valley. His unbridled interest in technology and the dash in obtaining work has become a legend in his lifetime. The creators are not trying to deny that Steve Jobs is a man of success. Interestingly, in some materials the film shows his marketing and salesperson skills, quite often overlooked and accountable for Apple popularity. Speaking about the vision comes homes to Steve easily, backed by a force of persuasion it reveals the strength of his success. Not surprisingly, the fact that his original approach to technology made people think and learned how to use and look at Apple's products. He showed alternative possibilities that technology can offer. That film is the story of Zen philosophy as the source of his inspiration. But Steve Jobs had a dark side, which the authors are not afraid to mention. The story of his ups and downs - lay off his own company, reconciliation with unwanted daughter and the exorbitant payment of fees makes the character of Steve Jobs in the film seems to be more complex, more dual. Alex Ginsbey shows Steve's social disabilities. His fetish of technology and success drive pushes off social skills. It wonders. Isn't Steve Jobs a man who is stuck in the machine? Are the devices that he built an attempts to establish a relationship with people? Not one, not two but with million? Or maybe his popularity comes from the people need to socialize. Are we using these technologies trying desperately to connect with other people? Or perhaps we need to contact with the machine rather than a human? If so, then crying, grief, and the sense that we needed the mediation contact? These questions seem to be the starting point for the director biography. Alex Gibney is known documentary director whose films often undertakes essential matters in the contemporary world like sexual abuse of Catholic priest, Scientology, etc. But Steve Jobs can't be a match for those issues, although there is a Gibney wonder in this biography, this documentary isn't revelatory.

The film Steve Jobs: Man in the Machine is a proposal for those who have the fat biography of Steve Jobs did not have the courage to reach. But this film is not only audiovisual biography, but the strength of this film also seems to be the context in which compiled this character. To doubt the morality of Jobs actions, whether his character sometimes does not reflect the current state of the human spirit. A spirit that closed in the machine - iMac, iPhone, iPod. But what is clear from this information, it leaves open for further reflection.

Solid movie

[doomedmac · 7/10 · 26 March 2020]

This is a solid documentary about Steve Jobs. He's was a genius, but also a jerk, and this movie explores both of these aspects of him well.

Now we get to see the Real Steve Jobs

[ezriderz · 9/10 · 12 September 2015]

I loved the parts about how they built "blue boxes" to hack the phone company way before they ever considered Apple. I'd read about Captain Crunch (John Draper) and the phone hacking boxes about 50 years ago when I was in college and this just confirms the story which was also published October 1971 issue of Esquire magazine.

Steve Jobs was not a very nice guy. He ripped off his friends, denied his own daughter, and bullied his employees. He was also a genius and designed excellent products that have changed the toy-box of America and the world. Without Steve Jobs ripping off Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) of their graphical user interface, the mouse, laser printers, and ethernet, these technological advances might have languished on the shelves of that Ivory Tower for years before they made it to the public market place. And remember that Steve Jobs designed the first real usable smart phone and pocket media player.

Unlike other Steve Jobs movies, this one is a documentary with real camera footage of the two Steves (J & W) in their early and later days. The Dylan musical background made me want to skip back to play some songs again and again.

This movie does not glorify nor defile Steve Jobs, but only tells it like he really was, with home movie footage to back it up. Very well done and easily held my interest and attention.

A reflection of the magician

[amitrpatil · 6/10 · 5 September 2015]

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.

The Machine in the Man

[jkbonner1 · 9/10 · 6 September 2015]

This documentary covers many aspects of Steve Jobs life but its salient features can be summarized more succinctly:

-Hundreds of thousands of people turned out to mourn Steve Job's death in 2011. Why? After all, he wasn't a prominent entertainer. He was just a CEO of a large corporation. The director (Alex Gibney) claims this was the impetus for his creating the movie in the first place.

-Steve Jobs was adopted. His biological father was a Muslim for Syria. His biological mother was from Wisconsin and of Swiss-German descent and Roman Catholic. Her father would not allow her to marry a Muslim. His step-parents were not well-to-do, but they supported his precocity.

-Steve Jobs was precocious. His mother taught him to read even before he entered school.

-Steve Jobs at an early age developed an intense interest in electronics.

-Steve Jobs befriended Steve Wozniak (the Woz) at an early age and both worked together on several projects before cooperating on their first personal computer. Steve ripped the Woz off in one of their cooperative deals even though they were friends.

-Steve Jobs read Thomas S. Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and proclaimed he was going to be a paradigm-shifter. One can speculate that this book may have played a seminal role in turning Jobs into a man with a mission. A driven man actually. A visionary who would turn electronics technology on its head and who was determined to see it through no matter what the cost to those around him.

-Steve Job's impregnated a young woman and had a daughter by her. He refused to help her financially and insisted the child was not his. At this time Apple was raking in a fortune from Mac sales.

-Steve Jobs was a seeker of Enlightment and sought out a Zen Buddhist monk to help him along the way.

-Steve Jobs had three ways of treating Apple employees working on his technology projects: praise them; vilify them; ignore them.

-Steve Jobs flagrantly broke the law by facilitating illegal stock options purchases through backdating for employees he wished to keep.

-Steve Jobs made electronic technology accessible to the ordinary user through a series of brilliant products-the Macintosh, the Lisa (he manipulated so that his daughter be named this to coincide with the name of this computer and not the other way around), the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad. All wildly successful and all have changed completely the way ordinary human beings interface with technology. He was astoundingly prescient in his prediction that he would carry out a major paradigm shift.

-Steve Jobs made Apple what it is. He was a brilliant marketer. He always knew exactly what tricks needed to be pulled when a new Apple product was introduced to the market.

-Apple moved its production to China and treated its employees like serfs on the estate of a feudal lord.

-Apple is now one of the largest corporations in the world.

-Hundreds of thousands of people turned out to mourn Steve Job's death in 2011 because his electronic products were made to be used by ordinary human beings. He humanized technology and created a way that millions, even billions, of human beings could communicate with other human beings. He shrank the globe.

Did he change our world forever? Most certainly a resounding Yes. Did he push people to realize what they were capable of that they themselves didn't even realize? Most certainly a resounding Yes. Did he have a streak of dishonesty in him? Most certainly a resounding Yes. Did he treat people like excrement at times? Most certainly a resounding Yes. Did he take advantage of foreign laborers? Most certainly a resounding Yes.

Who was the real Steve Jobs? Secular saint or sociopathic sinner? This movie suggests in his own unique way Steve Jobs was both. It all depends at what angle you view his life.

In summary, Jobs is a sterling example of where modernity is taking us as exemplified by his driving desire to create a new paradigm for the development of technology and which has to date succeeded smashingly well. Where it takes us, that remains to be seen.

9 out of 10. Well worth watching regardless of what you think of Steve Jobs the man.

Neglects The Machine Qualities Of The Man, Focuses On The Inhuman Qualities Of The Machine

[CinemaClown · 29 November 2015]

From the director of Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine is another entry in the long list of films that have been pouring out ever since the greatest visionary of our time breathed his last. And while there's no denying that it's an intriguing examination of the legacy he left behind, this documentary takes a very one-sided approach and focuses only on the imperfections of a gifted individual.

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine begins with a segment focusing on the intense hoopla surrounding Jobs' death, questioning the outpouring love from everyone around the world for the man they barely knew. The film then briefly skims through Apple's history & its late CEO's life before delving into the darker stuff concerning the way he manipulated his friends, his employees & almost everyone to get what he wanted plus also covers Apple's rise from a rebel company to the Goliath itself.

Written, produced & directed by Alex Gibney, there is an attempt to balance both aspects of Jobs' life but as the plot progresses, it is easily seduced by the darker side and simply skips over how his immaculate vision & his products single-handedly went on to revolutionise not one but six different industries (personal computers, music, movies, phones, tablets & apps) and in the process completely changed everything about how we live & communicate today. Instead, this documentary is a wonderment if idolising him makes sense.

Steve Jobs was an insanely complex human being & a persona of sharp contrasts. His love for what he did & his philosophy of life is clearly reflected in the pristine design of his products for its elegance, beauty & simplicity is an ideal marriage of technology with liberal arts. It captures how he pushed his employees beyond their limits to accomplish what they considered impossible yet on reflecting upon it now, they call it the proudest work of their entire life, something it almost chooses to skip over.

But then, one can't blame it for emphasising Jobs' infamous characteristics considering the fact that negative portrayals always attract a wider crowd, thanks to our morbid curiosity in such stuff. The film goes through events like Jobs dumping his girlfriend when she got pregnant, him not being around for his daughter, his souring relation with Steve Wozniak, his ruthless marketing strategy, complete disregard for rules, the isolation his products have created in society, labour practises, tax exemptions & other controversies surrounding Apple Inc.

It's not that whatever it puts on screen has an unverified source for it picks its stories from incidents that were in news when they happened but it's biased in its portrait of a man whose vision changed the world yet who failed as a human being for he saw everything in binary form, had no compassion for people who didn't matter to him, and was more devoted to his work than anything else in life. Like most people who pushed this world forward, he was a misfit and yet people complain that he wasn't a nice person as if it's a necessity to succeed in life.

The interviews are from people who were close to Jobs at different times yet there isn't anyone who was around him in his last decade. It covers some engaging topics, sheds further light on things that weren't really in the dark but was still forgotten, and tries to challenge the grievance felt when he was gone. Gibney's narration is undeniably enthralling and keeps a firm grip on viewers' attention and blends recorded interviews with archival snippets of Jobs' earlier convos & cleverly chosen images, all edited together in a manner to make its point across. At times it succeeds, at times it doesn't.

It also takes a dig at iPhone which actually put the smart in a smartphone from the moment Steve Jobs unveiled it during that legendary keynote at 2007 Macworld. Instead of criticising people's own inability to handle their instincts, it blames iPhone for isolating its owners from outside world as if it's not the case with other devices that were inspired from it. iPhone had the same aesthetics, art & simplicity of other Apple products but it did far more than what people ever imagined something in their pocket could do and yet, all it focuses on is an unintended side effect than the groundbreaking change it inspired in global cellular industry.

There's... one more thing! As evident in anything that inspires a devoted fan following, Apple has its share of blind followers who are horribly smug & can't offer any valid reason behind their Apple product purchase but there are also many who've stayed around as loyal customers only because they're extremely happy & satisfied inside this company's ecosystem. No other technology company has as passionate a fan base as Apple, which was only made possible by consistent delivery of quality products that scored high on design aesthetics, simplicity, ease of use & overall satisfaction, and the combination of it all contributes to why this company & its late CEO are beloved like no other.

On an overall scale, Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine is another impressive investigation but it's not as intensive, informative & absorbing as Gibney's previous work. Its casting of a dark but ineffective spell on the legacy of Steve Jobs is understandable given his shady personality but a balanced insight would've made for a far more rewarding experience for Jobs was a creative entrepreneur whose passion, vision & obsession with precision, perfection & simplicity remains in a league of its own and who's directly or indirectly responsible for the way people go about doing their daily things today. In a sentence, The Man in the Machine chooses to neglect the man & focus only on the inhuman aspects of a machine.

Better Than Average Documentary - Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine

[arthur_tafero · 6/10 · 8 January 2019]

There are no professional actors in this documentary, but it has the feel of a Rob Reiner mockumentary. That being said, it seemed to be even-handed and a fair assessment of the events leading up the unfortunate death of a media genius. Sometimes, the material seems to be a bit plodding, and other times moves at the speed of light, so the pacing is a bit uneven. Also, there is no mention of Jobs' wife or daughter, as highlighted in the Hollywood version of his life. His relationship with Steve Woz is also glossed over pretty much in this documentary, while in the Hollywood version, it is painfully examined in detail. I believe that Danny Boyle did a much better job, which is why I gave that film a higher rating.

The best documentary account we have so far.

[zacherybharrington · 9/10 · 21 November 2015]

This documentary deserves 9 stars because it is the best doc/feature we've seen thus far in it's delivery of the factual events of Steve Job's life and the scope in which it does so. I chose NOT to give this film a 10 out of 10 because,

there are some events where the narrator's script seems to deliver biased moral opinion on the events and choice made in Steve Job's life even if it is often both positive AND negative. Because there seems to be a bias at times, it detracts from the documentary's potential as a film for the preservation and posterity of Steve Job's historical life and actions but,

if you're capable of thinking for yourself and listening only to the wonderful facts that it presents and are capable of forming your own opinions and ignoring the occasional political spin. This is the best doc/feature we've had in the last 4 years since his passing in terms of delivering a full account of all the man's most notable works and his own personal life.

Excellent work.

Lacks direction and purpose

[garlandsmith · 3/10 · 7 September 2015]

This film was a rather bizarre affair.

It starts as a love letter to Steve Jobs. A tribute even. Then you realise that you're actually watching the history of Apple and this is not a Steve Jobs biography (which is what I expected).

However, then, you realise it's actually a hate letter to the whole of Apple. You spend quite a long time hearing about Foxconn which is the Chinese company that produces most of Apple's products and you're not exactly sure why and how it fits in (it doesn't).

Then follows some more personal attacks on Jobs including, people who make indirect accusations and who imply negative facts without actually explaining why they say what it is they are saying on film.

The film lacks direction and purpose. It is a waste of time (unjustifiably too long), money and effort (on the part of the audience).

See This For Some Needed Inside Balance While You're Glued To Your iPhone

[AudioFileZ · 8/10 · 3 November 2015]

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.

A Key Piece of the Puzzle

[gavin6942 · 8/10 · 28 April 2016]

A look at the personal and private life of the late Apple CEO, Steve Jobs. According to critics, a very biased and negative look at these aspects, but who knows? I personally didn't find it to be that negative. Yes, some bad things are said about Jobs, but those are the opinions of the speaker, and the fact is that he was involved in some shady things. Overall, I thought this was pretty fair.

We get a good overview of computer history, phreaking and more. I have to compare to "Steve Jobs", the Oscar-nominated film. As good as that was, it did not touch on some of the best things of this documentary. The hacking? I would love to have known more. I also now see why Ashton Kutcher was cast in the other Jobs biopic. Fassbinder is the better actor, but wow, Kutcher actually bears a resemblance to Jobs. It is remarkable.

Swipe Left

[brendan-19 · 3/10 · 19 September 2015]

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine (2015)

Why do so many care so deeply about someone they've never met that they could be moved to tears at a drop of a candlelight vigil? This becomes the entry point to a documentary that seems to neither really attempt to answer the question nor offer any new insight into Steve Jobs.

People probably become strongly connected with things because they bring them so much joy, opening a virtual font into self-expression. And in many ways they/we are perhaps weeping for the countless memories that are washing over us, of the realization of who we are and who we can still be. And perhaps also, a genuine and deep human bond for someone responsible for so much happiness and influence in our lives. There are millions of examples across millions of products and people, originating sometimes in far less than the saints that poster our walls and have witnessed the millionth profundity of our inspiration.

During the first hour of this documentary I was engaged and hopeful for where it might be taking me, despite my concerns that we were heading towards the ditch. But by the second hour I started getting whacked hard about the face and head with little more than darkened conspiracies where people in ever-increasing simplicities of slow motion are backed by foreboding music tuned to the binary depth of a political smear.

We all deserve far greater depth. We are all so vastly more layered, complex, and informed.

Why weren't more people let into the story? It's as if this film were constructed by the comments found on the Internet — with little debate from people who might be able to offer an alternative to their merits — before being pasted together to form the collage its maker perhaps saw in their head before they even secured the financing needed to deal with their own feelings of guilt.

This is the same documentary filmmaker who thrilled me with his take on "Scientology." I'm now traumatized enough by this film on Steve Jobs that I'm seriously doubting my love for something that I know far less.

But perhaps I'm being too hard on myself.

The cult template seems to be fully present here but Steve Jobs is light years from L. Ron Hubbard and Apple is definitely no Church of Scientology no matter how many examples of superficiality and stupidity one can find waiting in line. And corporations are not evil, cynically existing only to please stockholders; they are part of what allows us to live and love, employing millions of good, hardworking people who are always there by choice. And despite its constant presence, there is no mystery here beyond why so many of us reserve such a broad brush for those who hold opinions different from our own.

Shown quite beautifully in the opening of this film, Steve Jobs makes himself so sick before his first national TV spot that he pleads for a restroom where he can throw up. Now there's a starting point that could end up offering the wisdom and multiplicity needed to command the hairs to stand on the back of our dead skin.

3 out of 10

Jobs is a bundle of personal, public and work life contradictions

[ccorral419 · 8/10 · 11 September 2015]

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.

Great movie

[markogranic · 8/10 · 14 September 2016]

Great movie about great man! Steve Jobs was a genius, but a strange person. This biopic helps to understand him a little better. Everybody is talking about that his communication with his colleagues was harsh and that he was tyrant, but we can see now that is necessary to get the job done. His love and passion for Apple and his products was fascinating. Great innovator, talent to change things in a way that is unexpected. He changed people habit of working with technology. Downside was his obsessive controlling disorder and his arrogance. It helped his to make great new gadgets, but made a lot of enemies around him. In some cases he acted like a spoiled child. Anyway, you should see the movie and judge for your own.

Not much new, but accurate portrayal of complex man and his fans

[josephblow-55636 · 9/10 · 22 December 2015]

I have seen and read most everything about Steve Jobs. Although there is not too much new here, the author looks at Jobs from an interesting perspective. Why is it that so many people who never met or knew Steve Jobs worship him so much. I guess the same could have been said about Michael Jackson fans.

I have read some at Apple were critical of this film even though they may not have seen it. I found this to be very objective and balanced, it did show the great things Jobs accomplished along with his misgivings. There were a few parts that were weak, like when Jobs zen master talked about Jobs, it was hard to understand, Gibney should have used subtitles.

Gibney was a bit critical about Jobs first girlfriend, Chrisanne Brennan, who said Jobs blew it by saying Jobs produced some of the most successful products that everyone loved. Well that isn't exactly true, I never owned an Apple product until recently and never fell in love with a consumer gadget. The point was she was making that Gibney missed that as a spiritual seeker who Jobs was in his youth, he wanted peace and love in the world, but what he became was a cold hearted business person who valued products over people.

Some have said that he mellowed out and changed over time, but it was very clear he did not. He was responsible for illegal backdating of options, but let others take the blame. Didn't seem to care much about workers in China committing suicide, did away with Apple's corporate philanthropy even when it had huge cash reserves, entered into illegal agreements not to poach workers for rivals, abused his power by having police search a Gizmodo reporters house for a prototype Iphone, lied at his Stanford graduation ceremony about when his doctors detected cancer that he got it treated immediately when in fact he thought he was smarter than his doctors and waited 9 months and didn't disclose his health issues to the board of this large listed company.

I liked the author's conclusion at the end. To answer his question about why people cared so much about Steve Jobs, a man they never met, was really more a question about those who worshipped Jobs and Apple products rather than Steve Jobs himself who was a flawed individual.

The expression of a very personal view on the man and the company

[ruy-flavio-1 · 2/10 · 6 September 2015]

It seems like Gibney's approach to this film was to first answer to himself the question "what do I think of Steve Jobs and how do I feel about Apple?", and then set out to find material that fit the narrative he previously decided on.

Music score, interviewees, aspects of his life, all meticulously chosen to paint a very particular picture of SJ, and not a flattering one at all. Not that the man wasn't an a-hole, of course, as there is a plethora of evidence to that assertion. Stealing from Woz in the Breakout deal, denying paternity, throwing Fred Anderson and Nancy Heinen under the bus in the backdating scandal are some of the most poignant examples, to be sure.

But then you see Bob Belleville's testimony, a heart-wrenching interview with so much grief and sorrow. His reading of the text he published when Steve died almost drove me to tears, so much sadness, hurt, love, hate, despair was packed in the feelings he was projecting as he read those lines. My first reaction was to think something along the lines of "how could Steve have willingly or simply casually have caused so much pain to this man (and, by induction, to so many others)? But the deeper understanding that has to come from this is the fact that Mr. Belleville never had a gun to his head preventing him from leaving Apple and Steve at any moment he chose. He always had a choice, and he made the choice over and over to stay aboard. Yes, Steve, it seems, was charming, and could supposedly charm people into doing his bidding with an almost Jedi "these are not the droids you are looking for" ability. And yet, in the end, there is always the choice to put on a scale everything that is happening—on one hand, the unique opportunity to work on a revolutionary computer, on the other, the damage it is causing to one's personal life—and choose a different path. Personally, I have been submitted to a similar treatment, by a mercurial boss—albeit one admittedly a couple of orders of magnitude less intense than Steve Jobs—and I somewhat know how it feels. I learned a lot, I got tons of experience, I got hurt a lot. I am a better professional today because of such experiences, but in the end I decided to leave, when balancing everything out I found it wasn't worth it. And that extremely important facet of what happened to Bob Belleville is never even touched in the documentary. Neither are told the stories of Bob Mansfield, Scott Forstall, Jon Rubinstein, Eddy Cue,Tim Cook, Jony I've and several other Apple executives who worked under Jobs for several years and were able not only to "endure" it, but to thrive.

And then there the blatant double standards: working conditions in China, that every single company that designs in their own country and outsource manufacturing incurs; tax dodging schemes that every single multinational company avidly seeks and implements; and the most absurd and pernicious of all: the sense of alienation supposedly provoked in the users of modern electronic equipment. All of these traits are by no means exclusive to Apple, but they are treated as if Apple is not their sole perpetrator, but also their inventor. That approach is simply not fit for a documentary aiming at the truth.

On that last point, the thesis that Apple's products foster alienation, it's particularly pernicious because it aims to vilify what actually is one of the best characteristics of Apple products: they are exceedingly good at their jobs. We want to use these products—and supposedly alienate ourselves while doing it—because they make our lives so much easier. I can do my job better; I can be in better contact professionally and personally with people around me; I can be more productive; I can be more well informed; I can be more creative. The list goes on and on. Alienated? I never had the opportunity to be in so much contact with so many people before I started carrying a smart-phone with me all the time. I constantly message friends and family that live hundreds and sometimes thousands of kilometers away at a negligible cost, thanks to modern communication technology. Is Apple better at all of these things than the competition? Although I have an opinion on the matter, of course the subject is absolutely debatable. And if, say, Android's users aren't so much into their own devices as Apple users, that is not an advertisement point for Android. "Our products are better because they are crappier and you won't be drawn to them so much" is not a viable campaign motto.

If we use the "bicycle for the mind" analogy, it's as if Apple invented the best possible bicycle (to date), and the critics are ranting about how nobody walks anymore. Yes, everybody is getting everywhere faster and more efficiently, but very few people are going out for strolls anymore! Not a valid complaint at all, IMHO.

OK, this is a long rant, and I apologize for it. Go see the documentary for yourself and reach your own conclusions.

It'll show you both sides of coin. Steve Jobs life in a real way.

[raza_bukhari1 · 9/10 · 24 August 2016]

He was an artist who sought perfection, but could never find peace. He had the focus of a monk, but none of the empathy. He offered us freedom, but only within a closed garden, to which he held the key.

It's an amazing documentary about a person who was a maniac and totally insane about his dedication to his company, his ideas and his products. The story of person who gave ace to Apple, saved it, all the up and down of company. It worth something. This documentary will give you both perspective of Steve Jobs personal life, all the hard times and the thing we never knew about him, the side of coin we never noticed or watched, gadgets and their usage in your life, how you get intimated with those toys, how they effected and changed you life and living era. This documentary is perfect thing that puts a light towards soaring technology domain surrounded by more and more gadgets, technology and products. Don't miss it. You will find more interesting things out there.

Incredible documentary

[fredpeterson · 10/10 · 28 September 2017]

Has got be my favorite documentary ever. Really dives into Jobs personal life and shows the type of person he was. From abounding his to daughter to taking shortcuts with the law this documentary covers all of it really makes me wish I could have met the man. Apple still isn't my favorite company though I'm not a fan of how closed in their products are and think Steve really screwed up the company by making it a luxury brand

Decent documentary of best innovator of his time.

[MuviFan73 · 8/10 · 13 December 2018]

A stylish music player (iPod)

a stylish mobile phone (iPhone)

a stylish tablet (iPad)

a stylish desktop (iMac)

a stylish laptop (MacBook)

and all their variants.. credit's goes to one man Steve Jobs.

As people have sweet tooth what I have is style appeal, and Jobs was amongst first to put it into work. Disadvantages like price, not being open source still prick me.

Jobs was certainly not the best person out there, but best came out of him in trends of technology.

It was nice to know Apple became the biggest corporate giant two weeks before his resignation. RIP Steve Jobs.

Save your cash and wait until it hits Netflix

[CyberZeus67 · 2/10 · 15 September 2015]

I hate to say it but Gibney seriously missed the mark here. I think his recent trips through Land O Lance and Scientology have gone to his head big time. It seems pretty clear that Gibney, who's become known for the revelatory nature of his films, sought to do a "here's the real deal behind the guy you thought you knew" piece - and he failed miserably. First of all, his mission is doomed from the outset due to one very simple reason - it's simply impossible to deconstruct anyone's character inside of a 2-hour documentary. With the Armstrong piece, the scope was limited strictly to the fraud that is integral to Armstrong and even then, only to how that fraud infected Armstrong's cycling career. But here, Gibney decided to go for the whole enchilada. Second, there's nothing at all new or revealing in this piece. Everything Gibney brings up is all well-known by virtue of two very recent Jobs bios as well as the public domain. Rounding out the trifecta, Gibney tried to get in a few shots through the proverbial heart by interviewing some apparently key individuals to help in his deconstruction debacle - but alas this was also a nogo...none of the folks he interviewed really have any creditability on the subjects they were being called on to discuss and even if they did, again, nothing revelatory at all.

It's clear within the first few minutes that what Gibney is really trying to do, via deconstruction, is to understand why so many loved Jobs. The problem here is that the question is not that hard to understand nor answer. The connection we feel is disguised as being to Jobs when in reality it's to what he has given us. It's the exact same as with anything we become emotionally attached to - music, a movie, etc. Sometimes those things evoke a strong emotional reaction and that single thing is the seed from which the resulting attachment grows. Apple products have been, and continue to be, engineered (as Jobs himself said) at the intersection of art and technology. They are meant to change how we express ourselves and interact with technology. And through that interaction, they are meant to truly enhance (hopefully by orders of magnitude) how we experience life and the people around us. And while Jobs didn't directly design nor build every amazing product himself, he was definitely the backbone and driving force behind the ideas and culture from which all on the team derived direction and motivation. Christ man, how could we not have an emotional attachment to Jobs and the products his teams brought to us??? Frankly, people either get it or they don't - And if they don't then fine but don't spin too many cycles on it because as Billy from The Departed says "It ain't supernatural".

Unfortunately, Gibney did spin the cycles. After telling us he's made literally zero progress toward answering "Why do we love Jobs?", he closes with what appears to be a soliloquy\wax poetic of the contradictions that are Jobs - as if Gibney had a clue. People that were far closer to Jobs and who knew him a lot longer and went through a lot more with him oddly arrive at far different conclusions - who you gonna trust??? Yeah - this is the part where you walk out, go to the ticket booth, and demand your money back.

Net-net - to those yet to see this film, I strongly urge you to save your $$$ and wait for this thing to hit any number of free streaming outlets. To those who did pony up the cash - me included - BUMMER.