| ||||||||||||||||||||
Frequently Bought Together
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
Special Features
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
If Gates has become synonymous with corporate conquest at its most striking, Pirates' interest lies more with Jobs, given a nervous energy and flashes of adolescent selfishness by Noah Wyle, who benefits from a reasonable physical resemblance to the Apple chief. Eyewear and a comb-over do nearly as well for Anthony Michael Hall, who also grafts some of Bill Gates's better-known mannerisms onto his performance and renders Gates as a smart if socially maladroit entrepreneur who, like Jobs, provides the ambition and business savvy to exploit his partner's computing talents. There are a few fanciful touches (Ballmer and Wozniak become Greek choruses, addressing the viewer as they comment on the principals), but the story plays out in straightforward fashion. It's tantalizing to consider how the Apple/PC melodrama might have fared with an edgier, more openly satirical script. --Sam Sutherland
Product Description
Customer Reviews
Kudos for the director, the casting director, and the fine performances from Hall and Wyle. In this film, we see the rise of the personal computer from two of most important players of the era, and along the way, we are shown how deeply power and wealth corrupts. Those of us that lived through this period are well acquainted with the first personal computers. Indeed, many of us have heard enough rumors concerning Steve Jobs' late night tantrums as he walked the halls of his empire, to know that this film depicted both him and Steve Wozniac fairly honestly. As far as the depiction of Bill Gates, there are those that agree and those that disagree. Obviously, artistic license was used on both sides. Steve Wozniac mentioned that he was surprised how accurately the movie portrayed the personalities, but indicated they got many of the dates screwed up (check his web site, he has many interesting comments concerning the movie).
As the title aptly suggests, both Steve and Bill gained their initial fame not just from their own creative genius (although both are considered geniuses), but as much from "borrowing" -- Jobs from Xerox PARC, and Gates from Apple Computer.
... Read more ›Shows Paul Allen (who now OWNS the Seahawks and Trailblazers pro teams) Bill Gates, Steve Jobs etc. etc. Dropping out of college to pursue a slow burning fire that would become the personal computer/windows software that we know today.
What is interesting is that it shows who talks and who works. Gates lies a lot, pretty much living by the saying "telling people what they want to hear" while Paul Allen grinds away at making code.
On the other end it's the same somewhat, rogue cannon Steve Jobs handling the business part while we get a sense that Steve Wozniak is a true tech who goes above and beyond Jobs' rantings to produce the final product.
What is so funny is the irony of this movie:
Loan Officer: "Sorry Mr. Jobs, but we don't think the ordinary person will have any use for a computer".
HP: "You think people are interested in something called a mouse?".
Xerox: "We build it and then they can come right in here and steal it from us? It's just not fair, this operating system is a result of our hard work!".
Jobs to Gates: "You're STEALING FROM US!!!"
Assistant to Gates: "Do you realize Apple has a pirate flag over their front door, and they just gave us 3 prototypes of their operating system?"
Jobs: "I don't want people to look at it like a monitor and mouse, I think of this as art, a vision, people need to think outside the box".
Jobs: "You stole it from ussss!" Gates: "No it's not stealing, you see, it's like we both have this neighbor, and he leaves his door open all the time. You go over there to get his TV, only I've gotten their first..and now you're calling me the thief?!".
... Read more ›I must say however, that Pirates Of Silicon Valley is brilliant. Every aspect of the movie appeals to me. It's visual style, it's pacing, it's characters, it's humor, and most engrossing, it's history. I knew much of the parallels between Bill Gates and Steve Jobs already and was pleasantly surprised to see much of the facts faithfully reproduced. The parts that were inaccurate were obviously for entertainment value, but they did fit the theme of the story and are forgivable (it is a movie after all).
The film makers were very original for two reasons. First, for focusing on the more interesting moments of computer history. Second for the brutally honest look at the two pivotal character's lives and personalities, they aren't depicted nicely. The movie flows from moment to moment, historical event to historical event, over the course of two decades, following the exploits of the two most influential men of the computer industry. We see thier origins, their beginning ventures in the industry, thier major deals, thier double-crosses and shady conquests, thier flaws, thier bad judgement, and ultimatley thier confrontation.
My favorite moments come from the bonehead mistakes that are made by the corporate types. IBM allowing Microsoft to retain ownership of DOS, Xerox not developing its own inventions (the mouse and the GUI), HP not even wanting ownership of the apple, and the biggest mistake of them all, Steve Jobs trusting Bill Gates.... Read more ›
This movie just wants to make you think about the future of computers and how far they will take us.
