Elisberg Industries
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Products
    • Books
    • Movies
  • About Elisberg Industries
    • Our Corporate Board
    • Information Overstock
    • Elisberg Industries Entertainment Information
    • Elisberg Statistical Center of American Research
    • Consultancy Service
  • Contact
    • How to Find Us
  • Kudos
  • Good Things to Know
    • The BOB Page
    • Sites You Might Actually Like
Decent Quality Since 1847

Pirates of Silcon Valley

11/9/2015

0 Comments

 
For all the intense debate about the Steve Jobs movie that was recently released -- very high-profile with major talents involved from screenwriter Aaron Sorkin to director Danny Boyle and its A-list cast -- there was, in fact, another movie that covered some of the same subject matter and got completely lost in the discussion.

The film was Pirates of Silicon Valley, made for television that aired on TNT 16 years ago.  It was based on the book, Fire in the Valley: the Making of the Personal Computer and looked that the competitive battle between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs from before they founded Microsoft and Apple.  It was really quite well-done.  Noah Wylie starred as Steve Jobs, and Anthony Michael Hall played Bill Gates.

Its style and pacing is perhaps just a bit dated today, and being made-for-TV its budget was far lower (and the production was far less flashy), but it was thoughtful, generally well-acted and covered the ground in a reasonably accurate and low-key way.  Indeed, the writer/director Martyn Burke began his career as a journalist in Vietnam and got into films by making documentaries.

If you haven't seen it, the movie is available on Netflix and well-worth checking out if you're interested in the subject matter (or saw the Steve Jobs film and would like to see an expansion on the topic).  One historic note is that when it was made, Microsoft had largely come out on top of the battle, with Apple at its low point.  Since then, of course, the iPhone and iPad have turned around Apple's fortunes.

(Also, this is a very good article here on the well-regarded CNET tech website.  It revisits the film and looks at it from a technology accuracy perspective and how it holds up purely as a movie.  Not to worry, this is not remotely a geek article, but thoroughly accessible and interesting.  The short version is that they feel the movie still holds up quite well. And they end with saying, "As such the film is an enjoyable primer on the foundation of Apple (and Microsoft) and an interesting look at the first act of the Jobs legend. Perhaps the new 'Steve Jobs' movie will shed more light on the second act.")

​Here's the trailer --

And as a bonus, here's an extended three-minute scene of a critically important moment in the history of the two companies, when Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and other young Microsoft executives are invited by Steve Jobs to come over to the Apple offices and get a tour, where he showed up Apple's new graphical interface -- from which Microsoft developed its Windows operating system.

One of the many things I like about the film is that it puts this famous event in perspective.  While so many Apple fans like to point at this as being when Microsoft "stole" Apple's operating system, the movie rightly shows earlier that Apple itself "stole" the graphical operating system from Xerox.
​
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Picture
    Elisberg Industries gets a commission if you click here before shopping on Amazon.
    Picture
    Follow @relisberg

    Author

    Robert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 

    Elisberg is a two-time recipient of the Lucille Ball Award for comedy screenwriting. He's written for film, TV, the stage, and two best-selling novels, is a regular columnist for the Writers Guild of America and was for
    the Huffington Post.  Among his other writing, he has a long-time column on technology (which he sometimes understands), and co-wrote a book on world travel.  As a lyricist, he is a member of ASCAP, and has contributed to numerous publications.



    Picture
           Feedspot Badge of Honor

    Archives

    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Categories

    All
    Animals
    Audio
    Audio Land
    Books
    Busienss
    Business
    Chicago
    Consumer Product
    Education
    Email Interview
    Entertainment
    Environment
    Fine Art
    Food
    From The Management
    Health
    History
    Huffery
    Humor
    International
    Internet
    Journalism
    Law
    Los Angeles
    Media
    Morning News Round Up
    Movies
    Music
    Musical
    Personal
    Photograph
    Piano Puzzler
    Politics
    Popular Culture
    Profiles
    Quote Of The Day
    Radio
    Religion
    Restaurants
    Science
    Sports
    Technology
    Tech Tip
    Theater
    The Writers Workbench
    Tidbits
    Travel
    Tv
    Twitter
    Video
    Videology
    Well Worth Reading
    Words-o-wisdom
    Writing

    RSS Feed

© Copyright Robert J. Elisberg 2023
Contact Us    About EI    Chicago Cubs
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Products
    • Books
    • Movies
  • About Elisberg Industries
    • Our Corporate Board
    • Information Overstock
    • Elisberg Industries Entertainment Information
    • Elisberg Statistical Center of American Research
    • Consultancy Service
  • Contact
    • How to Find Us
  • Kudos
  • Good Things to Know
    • The BOB Page
    • Sites You Might Actually Like