Product Details

• Actors: Galen Barndt, Guy Kawasaki, Shawn King, Daniel Kottke
• Directors: Kobi Shely
• Writers: Kobi Shely, Ron Shely
• Producers: Kobi Shely, Ron Shely
• Region: All Regions
• Studio: Chimp 65 Productions
• DVD Release Date: April 7, 2009
• Run Time: 55 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0025VLHD6
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #19,240 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Macheads" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

MacHEADS is a feature length documentary which explores the loyalty of Apple fanatics and their obsession with the company and its products. The film takes an in-depth examination of just what makes the Mac, the iPhone, and Apple's other products seem like cultural phenomena rather than just consumer electronics.

This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't love Apple, love the community, June 28, 2009

By	Allen Stenger (Alamogordo, NM USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a documentary focussing on the community of Macintosh computer users, and to a lesser extent on "the cult of Macintosh". Like most documentaries, this one is made up mostly of talking heads, but it is edited as a sequence of fast cuts, so each talking head gets only a sentence or two before another comes on, or we cut to a throng of Mac fans. These sound bites are very skillfully woven together to present a smooth narrative; in fact it is probably smoother than if we had stuck with each talking head for a longer period. A few of the interviewees get (and deserve) longer segments. Musician Galen Brandt is very articulate and charming. Internet broadcasting host Shawn King is very articulate and less charming, but has a very realistic (some might say cynical) view of the Macintosh community and its relationship to Apple the corporation. He sums it up as "Don't love Apple, love the community."

The narrative focuses on Macintosh consumers. The people who created the Macintosh and who develop hardware and software for the Macintosh are almost completely absent. The film says very little about the Macintosh itself, and if you didn't know what one was you would probably be baffled by this film. The only real Macintosh insiders who were interviewed for the film are Dan Kottke and Guy Kawasaki, and they talk mostly about perceptions of the Macintosh and not how it is built. The film takes a balanced view of the fans. For the most part it portrays them as ordinary people who have an extraordinary interest in Macintosh. There are also some farther-out items, such as the Church of Mac, sex columnist Violet Blue, and Daphne Kalfon's song "I Love My Mac".

There's a lot of discussion about whether the community will survive. It is largely ignored by Apple; Shawn King says "Apple is all about control now," and the fans cannot be controlled. There's some concern that the community is aging, with only the fans in their forties and fifties still participating in user groups while younger fans look up everything on the Internet and never get to know other fans. Andy Ihnatko points out that at user groups you are always hearing useful bits of information that you did not know existed and therefore could not have looked up on the Internet.

This DVD is manufactured-on-demand as a DVD-R. At 55 minutes it is short for a feature film. There are a few minutes of extras on the DVD, with some more archival footage and some outtakes and the trailers.

Another documentary released about the same time, Welcome To Macintosh, also looks at the Macintosh experience, but it is a very different film, and in my opinion much less successful. "MacHeads" is much more focused, while "Welcome to Macintosh" tries to cover everything about Apple, including a lot about the Apple I and II, and does it with much less continuity than "MacHeads" does.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent documentary, April 9, 2009

By	Luck Benson - See all my reviews

Excellent documentary film about Appl inc. and its "cult" following "MacHEADS". The mirror tha filmmakers Kobi and Ron Shely hold up to the Mac community is at turns flattering and embarrassing as it examines its subject from many angles. Ir strikes a careful balance between grabs from Macintosh luminaries and the rest of us. It's a story of joy and gratitude, showing to younger Mac Users Apple's incredible journey and reminding older stalwarts of the good old days"

3.0 out of 5 stars Fun, October 15, 2009

By	Eric Welch "Photo pro" (Carlsbad, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

A bit shrill in its "look at the bizarre people who use Macs" emphasis. But a lot of good, solid information in there when they're not trying to cast us all as hippies or obsessed with Macs/Apple/Jobs/whatever.

Glad Guy Kawasaki and Shawn King were in it to add some sanity to it all. And glad certain stripes of narcissists were left out - mostly. Some people are famous for being famous, and some people actually have intelligent things to say. They found a pretty good mix in there for most of the movie.

Definitely worth the price of admission if this is a topic you're interested in, or you want to catch some of what makes Mac users tick. Though I think a sequel is in order to show the more normal side of Mac users.