Pirates of Silicon Valley

Plot

Steve Jobs (Noah Wyle) is speaking with director Ridley Scott (J. G. Hertzler), about the creation of the 1984 commercial for Apple Computer, which introduced the first Macintosh. Jobs is trying to convey his idea that "We're creating a completely new consciousness." Scott is more concerned with the technical aspects of the commercial.

Next in 1997 with Jobs, returning to Apple, and announcing a new deal with Microsoft at the 1997 Macworld Expo. His partner, Steve Wozniak or "WOZ" (Joey Slotnick), is introduced as one of the two central narrators of the story. Wozniak notes to the audience the resemblance between Big Brother and the image of Bill Gates (Anthony Michael Hall) on the screen behind Jobs during this announcement. Asking how they "got from there to here," the film turns to flashbacks of his youth with Jobs, prior to the forming of Apple.

The earliest flashback is in 1971 and takes place on the U.C. Berkeley campus during the period of the student anti-war movements. Teenagers Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak are shown caught on the campus during a riot between students and police. They flee and after finding safety, Jobs states to Wozniak, "Those guys think they're revolutionaries. They're not revolutionaries, we are." Wozniak then comments that "Steve was never like you or me. He always saw things differently. Even when I was in Berkeley, I would see something and just see kilobytes or circuit boards while he'd see karma or the meaning of the universe."

Using a similar structure, the film next turns to a young Bill Gates (Anthony Michael Hall) at Harvard University, in the early 1970s, with classmate Steve Ballmer (John DiMaggio), and Gates’ high school friend Paul Allen (Josh Hopkins). As with Wozniak in the earlier segment, Ballmer narrates Gates' story, particularly the moment when Gates discovers the existence of Ed Roberts's MITS Altair causing him to drop out of Harvard. Gates' and Allen's early work with MITS is juxtaposed against the involvement of Jobs and Wozniak with the "Homebrew Computer Club". Jobs and Woz develop Apple Computer in the garage of Jobs' family home, with the help of Daniel (Marcus Giamatti) and Elizabeth (Melissa McBride). Eventually Mike Markkula (Jeffrey Nordling) invests in the company which allows it to expand and move forward. In 1977, Jobs, Woz, and Markkula demo the Apple II at the West Coast Computer Faire. This event is followed by the development of the IBM-PC with the help of Gates and Microsoft in 1981.

The film also follows Jobs' relationship with his high school girlfriend and early Apple employee, Arlene (a pseudonym for Chrisann Brennan, portrayed by Gema Zamprogna), and the difficulties he had acknowledging the birth and existence of their daughter, Lisa. Around the time his daughter was born, Jobs unveiled his next computer, which he named, The Lisa. The Lisa was then followed in 1984 by the (Macintosh), a computer inspired by the Xerox Alto. The main body of the film finally concludes with a 30th birthday toast in 1985 to Steve Jobs shortly before he was fired by CEO John Sculley (Allan Royal), from Apple Inc.

The film ends in 1997, with 42 year old Jobs' return to Apple (after its acquisition of NeXT Computer) and with his announcement at the MacWorld Expo of an alliance between Apple and Microsoft. It also indicates that Jobs is now married, has children, and has reconciled with Lisa.

Cast

Development

Burke notes that when he was shown the first draft of the screenplay, which is based upon Freiberger and Swaine's Fire in the Valley, "It was all about how the ‘286 computer’ became the ‘386’ and so on ... I was bored by it." After the studio asked him for suggestions Burke states that "I’m a great believer in Shakespeare, and what we had was a modern equivalent of Hamlet, featuring two young princes, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs ... the more I read about Steve in particular, the more I saw him in those Shakespearean terms. He was brilliant, volcanic, obsessive, suspicious, even vicious in a business sense. He was about conquest, always conquest. I said, ‘That’s the sort of movie I want to make." Burke was thus hired as director of the project and rewrote the screenplay. In developing the characters themselves, Burke also stated that he chose not to speak with any of the central figures portrayed in the film:

I did not want to do an "authorized biography" on either Microsoft or Apple, so we made the decision going in that we would not talk or meet with them. With a team of Harvard researchers, I embarked on a seven-month research project that encompassed virtually everything we could find on the history of both companies, including old technical magazines from the '70s. I intended every scene to be based on actual events, including such seemingly fantastic moments as Bill Gates' bulldozer races in the middle of the night and Steve Jobs' bare feet going up on the board room table during an applicant's job interview. I have two or more sources that verify each scene.

Casting

Burke sought Noah Wyle for the part of Jobs. Wyle originally turned down the role, but changed his mind after Burke had him watch the 1996 documentary, Triumph of the Nerds. Wyle states that he watched the documentary "for ten seconds and knew I'd kick myself for the rest of my life if I didn't play this part." He also noted that Triumph of the Nerds led him to be "taken by [Jobs'] presence, his confidence, smugness, smartness, ego, and his story's trajectory. He seemed to be the most Shakespearean figure in American culture in the last 50 years I could think of – the rise of, the fall of, and the return of. The truest definition of a tragic hero—but you get the 'bonus round' that F. Scott Fitzgerald said didn't exist. Jobs has had one hell of a second act." Burke later credited Wyle for the success of the film stating that, "whatever was in the air, [Wyle] just absorbed i ... he became Jobs. It was a remarkable transformation. We had a photo of Steve Jobs at about 28 years old, from the cover of Fortune magazine. We did a mockup with Noah and it was almost impossible to tell them apart." Burke also credits Joey Slotnick's interpretation of Steve Wozniak (who was so impressed that he flew to Los Angeles to have lunch with Slotnick) with Wozniak's enthusiasm for the film. He notes that, "Steve Wozniak made several speeches in which he said that the film accurately portrays how things actually happened," Burke says. "To me that was better than any awards or nominations the film could get."

Anthony Michael Hall, who was cast as Bill Gates, commented on his interest in the role, stating that he, "really fought for this part because I knew it would be the role of a lifetime ... it was a thrill and a daunting challenge to play someone of his stature and brilliance."

Filming

Pirates of Silicon Valley was originally scheduled to be shot in Toronto, Ontario in Canada, with over $1 million in sets. However, when Wyle was not able to receive a long enough release from ER (TV series) to shoot in Canada, the film temporarily shut down. Filming began again later in Los Angeles. During the filming, the cast broke down into PC and Mac factions, arguing over the merits of each platform. Burke states that he began the film as a PC user and ended a Mac user.

Themes

One of the central thematic aspects of the screenplay is the representation of a young Steve Jobs, who while participating in aspects of the 1960s counterculture, interprets his role in it differently. Actor Noah Wyle, who portrays Jobs, stated in an interview with CNN, "These kids grew up 30 miles south of the (University of California) Berkeley campus, which was ripe with revolution [...] and they couldn't have cared less about the politics going on. They were in the garage tinkering with their electronics and starting a revolution that was a thousand times greater than anything that was going on the college campuses, politically." Director Martyn Burke also noted in an interview that, "Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are the true revolutionaries of our time. Not the students who occupied the dean’s office in the late ’60s. Not the anti-war marchers who were determined to overthrow the establishment. Jobs and Gates are the ones who changed the way the world thinks, acts and communicates."

Music

The soundtrack is made up of classic rock, disco and new wave from the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s.

Critical response

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 90% based on 10 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. Ray Richmond of Variety states that it is "a brilliant piece of filmmaking" and "a wildly entertaining geek tragedy with the stylistic feel of true art." John Leonard of New York Magazine, refers to Pirates of Silicon Valley as "a hoot." Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette argues that the film is "a fascinating drama filled with Shakespearean twists and betrayals as viewers come to know the geniuses who transformed not only the way we communicate, but the way we live." Brian J. Dillard of AllMovie argues that "thanks to inspired casting and strong writing, this well-oiled TV biopic managed to transform the unglamorous genesis of the personal-computer industry into solid entertainment precisely at the moment when dot-com mania was sweeping the nation." Mike Lipton of People, found the film to be "engagingly irreverent" and "a real-life Revenge of the Nerds [that] stands cheekily on its own."

Historical accuracy

Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Steve Wozniak, all responded to the film. Jobs' only public response occurred at the 1999 Macworld Expo. After Pirates of Silicon Valley had aired, Jobs contacted Noah Wyle and told him that while he "hated" both the film and the screenplay, he liked Wyle's performance, noting "you do look like me." Jobs then invited Wyle to the 1999 Macworld convention to play a prank on the audience. Wyle agreed and initially appeared as Jobs, until Jobs walked onto the stage and let the audience in on the joke. In contrast, Jobs avoided meeting the director Martyn Burke, who later said that "Steve wanted nothing to do with me."

In a 2013 Ask Me Anything session with Reddit, Gates responded to a question about his portrayal in the film by stating that it was "reasonably accurate."

Wozniak had a positive response to the film and discussed it in detail with fans on his official website, woz.org. Wozniak felt that many aspects of the film were accurate, stating in an interview that "when the movie opened with [a scene of] tear gas and riots [...] I thought, 'My God! That's just how it was.' Silicon Valley Education News Producer, Edward Tico found that that this production "showed the flavor of the times, not an exact representation." He also responded to a fan email, that part of his portrayal was inaccurate: "I never quit Apple. That suggestion was based on an incorrect Wall Street Journal that said I was leaving Apple because I didn't like things there. Actually, I had told the Wall Street Journal writer that I wasn't leaving Apple because of things that I didn't like and that I wasn't even leaving, keeping my small salary forever as a loyal employee. I just wanted a small startup experience and a chance to design a smaller product again, a universal remote control." In May 2015, Wozniak once again commented on the film, stating that Pirates of Silicon Valley is an example of a good Hollywood dramatization of himself, Steve Jobs, and the story of Apple Inc. He described Pirates of Silicon Valley as "intriguing, interesting. I loved watching it [...] every one of those incidences occurred and it occurred with the meaning that was shown" in the film.

Jobs' college friend and early Apple employee Daniel Kottke also liked the film. He noted in an interview that it was "a great movie. Noah Wyle was just uncannily close to Jobs. Just unbelievable. I found myself thinking it was actually Steve on the screen." He also states that in the film there were "all these scenes of the garage where it’s like half a dozen people working, busily carrying things back and forth, and oscilloscopes" when he [Kottke] "was really the only person who worked in the garage. Woz would show up once a week with his latest to test it out, and Steve Jobs was on the phone a lot in the kitchen."

Two individuals have responded to the film's interpretation of Jobs' 1979 visit to the Xerox PARC research center (which influenced the development of both The Lisa and The Mac). PARC's director, John Seely Brown stated in a 2006 interview that the scene in which Gates and Jobs argue about the role of Xerox is not entirely accurate. He said that Jobs was invited by PARC to view their technology in exchange for the ability to buy pre-IPO Apple stock. Wozniak also said (in response to a question about that scene from a fan (via email) that, "Apple worked with Xerox openly to bring their developments to a mass audience. That's what Steve portrayed Apple as being good at. Xerox got a lot of Apple stock for it too, it was an agreement. Microsoft just took it from Xerox or Apple or whomever. It took them a long time to get it halfway right."