What Intel has done for the microprocessor, we’re going to do for the home computer. – Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in the Hollywood movie Jobs

Steve Jobs was a Class A asshole in his shabby treatment of people around him.

Jobs was also an astute and wealthy businessman thanks to co-founding Apple and his role in launching some highly popular consumer products like the iMac, iPod, iTunes, iPhone and iPad.

Since the world has an abiding penchant for worshiping successful assholes, Jobs earned himself a place in the pantheon of heroes.

Much as I loath the asshole Jobs, I consider Apple products superior to the competition and use them daily.

This post is written on an a iMac computer.

Given my fondness for Apple products, it’s no surprise I would watch the Jobs biopic.

The movie is directed by a no-name feller called Joshua Michael Stern and written by Matt Whiteley.

Incomplete, Superficial

My three biggest complaints about the movie Jobs – First, it’s incomplete with too many of the important stuff left out; Second, there are no new revelations in the film; Finally, it skims the surface of Jobs but never seems to be able to get under his skin and help us understand the person who changed the computing and entertainment sectors.

The movie starts in 2001 with Jobs announcing what he calls the “insanely cool” iPod, the compact music device that could hold a 1,000 songs.

There is applause and then the film goes into flashback mode to 1974 when we encounter the barefoot Jobs at Reed College in Oregon.

From then the film journeys through the basic facts of Jobs’ life – his dropping out of college, the trip to India (yes, some bits were filmed in Mera Bharat Mahaan), his work at Atari, the founding of Apple with Steve Wozniak, the occasional cruel and mean streak, the cheating, his dismissal by John Sculley and the loss of the board’s support and his eventual return to Apple in 1996.

The movie stops in 2001, a decade before Jobs died.

I was shocked that the film does not cover the launch of the iPhone, the touchscreen smartphone that changed the face of mobile phones, or the iPad tablet that invented a category that did not exist before, Jobs’s illness, his bizarre reliance on alternative medicine and eventual death from cancer.

Apple’s rivalry with Microsoft gets about 60-seconds!

There’s also little about Jobs’ family life (the marriage to Laurene and their three children) although it touches upon Lisa Brennan, the child he initially refused to acknowledge was his.

In my view, not covering the crucial last decade of Jobs’ life is an egregious blunder on director Joshua Michael Stern’s part.

This was the period when Apple hit its biggest highs, most of it under Jobs’ stewardship.

Also, I’d have liked to see some new, hitherto undisclosed aspects of Jobs’ life. Again, no luck.

Much of what has appeared on Jobs in recent years is mostly repetitive hagiography, crediting him exclusively for all of Apple’s successes.

I was much disappointed that the film fails to dig deep into Jobs’ personality and therefore unable to provide insights into his motivations, his actions, his dreams and his ambitions. Skimming the surface won’t cut it!

No sane mind will ever accuse Ashton Kutcher of being a great actor.

But I must say Kutcher didn’t do a bad job of portraying Jobs on the screen.

It’s odd though to see Kutcher walk with a stoop and on the balls of his feet throughout the film.

Did Jobs really have such an odd walk?

For those like yours truly who already know the Steve Jobs story well, Jobs will turn out to be a disappointment.

  Steve Jobs