Editor’s note: This article was first published in September 2013, as an opinion piece on the film Jobs, written shortly after its release.
What promised to be one of the best films of 2013 has, in my opinion, turned out to be an absolute, colossal dud, not to use the word “crap”. With all the material and documentation that Steve Jobs‘s life has to offer, they ended up rushing through his story, lingering on trivial details, using only a few of the handful of lines we all already know, and ignoring Jobs’s real struggle.
If someone doesn’t know who Steve Jobs is, they still won’t know Steve Jobs after watching the film, because it shows neither the genius nor the “monster”, nor does it show his greatness. Nor does it show the relationship between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs; in fact, Gates doesn’t even appear in the film. And the truth is that telling Jobs’s life without Bill Gates (his greatest rival and friend) is like making the film Troy without Prince Hector and Achilles.
Any documentary about Steve Jobs does a better job than this film. The only thing that redeems it is the monumental performance by Ashton Kutcher, who prepared for the role thoroughly so that we feel we are watching Jobs himself, albeit within a dreadful script.
See also: What Steve Jobs and Bill Gates really thought of each other
Featured image: PunkToad, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
