The film tells the story of Steve Jobs the man behind all the technological advances, as many around the world grieved when he died. It is a special look at Steve and his legacy that includes interviews with a handful of people close to him at various stages of his life. The film embodies more secrets, the essence and values of the Apple myth that shape the culture of Silicon Valley today.
There is practically nothing in this film that was not already raked over in Walter Isaacson's 2013 biography or in the many thousands of articles about Jobs over the years. But there is something about seeing and hearing this story onscreen.
A chilling portrait of an icon who remains revered for spearheading so many technological innovations despite his general contempt for humanity and his utter lack of people skills.
Little here is new, but the archival footage is well chosen, the interviewees are illuminating, and Gibney, as usual, potently synthesizes what's out there.
Gibney is never able to join, or understand, the choir of millions singing the praises of Steve Jobs. Perhaps because of this, the documentary he has created seems a lot closer to the truth than anything else I've seen about Jobs.
Not only on a biographical account of Jobs, but also a look at the way in which big business and consumers at large engaged with the mythic personal narrative he fostered.
Despite the movie's journalistic substance, the pleasure-free banality of its style gets in the way of a view of Jobs himself, whose work is as much aesthetic as it is industrial.
