Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine (2015)

Alex Gibney does his typical bang-on job with this documentary on Steve Jobs. As a lifelong Apple follower and consultant who has pretty much read and seen every biography of Jobs and Apple (and Gates and Microsoft), I think Gibney covered the panorama of Jobs' life and sins in a balanced fashion, all while working to answer the question: Why was there such an outpouring of emotion at Jobs' passing? Personally, I learned some new things, I heard from several persons in their own words for the first time (like Lisa's mother Chrisann), and I feel Gibney omitted hackneyed stories like the "reality distortion field" while maintaining a serpentine bead on the target question. My own feeling is that Jobs was an Edison for our age, as well as a trendsetter and an iconoclast. He deeply believed in the empowerment of the individual and, despite his tactical and sometimes strategic ruthlessness, it was always about delivering the purest version of each product that he envisioned. Gibney was right to cite Sherry Turkle, because the Macintosh, and then later the iPhone and iPad, proved to be intuitive mirrors for our minds. Apple's interfaces by design work as one would expect them to, often with no need to read a manual; and they work elegantly. No one loves an Android like an iPhone because technology that gets out of the way and lets you do what you want to do is what people will love. Apple products let you feel close and intimate to your writing, your music, your reading, and so on. Remember, Apple invented (was first to the consumer market with) the mouse-and-icon interface (Macintosh), professional typography and the laser printer (LaserWriter), handwriting recognition (MessagePad), Napster in your palm (iPod), Napster and Web and apps and camera and touch-screen interface and voice-command interface in your phone (iPhone), Napster and Web and apps and camera and touch-screen interface and voice-command interface and books and magazines and music composition in your hands (iPad), and more. Apple, not Google, first delivered a boatload of innovative technology in a beautiful, accessible, and addictively sized design. Google had, what--Sergei? Bill Gates was the only industry leader who was arguably more famous and influential than Jobs -- until Gates turned to his philanthropy and Apple became the highest-valued company in America. Jobs was always a bit of Rasputin and, in his pre-Pixar days, a bit of a sociopath. Yet where Gates commanded engineers, Jobs commanded engineers who were also artists. He believed that Zen simplicity and beauty were good in themselves but could also transform technology and how people use it. Gibney ably portrayed the complexities of Jobs. Would you expect Jobs to be anything else? 5 stars. (5-9-2016)