Pirates of Silicon Valley: Difference between revisions

| first_aired = {{FilmStart date|TV=y|1999|606|20}}

[[Steve Jobs]] is speaking with director [[Ridley Scott]] about the creation of the [[1984 (advertisement)|1984 advertisement]] for [[Apple Computer#MacintoshInc.|Apple Computer]], which introduced the [[Macintosh 128K|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 advertisement.

Next in 1997 with Jobs, [[History of Apple#Return of Steve Jobs|returning to Apple]], and announcing [[History of Apple#Microsoft deal|a new deal with Microsoft]] at the [[Macworld Expo#1997|1997 Macworld Expo]]. His partner, [[Steve Wozniak|Steve "Woz" Wozniak]], is introduced as one of the two central narrators of the story. Wozniak notes to the audience the resemblance between [[Big Brother (1984Nineteen Eighty-Four)|Big Brother]] and the image of [[Bill Gates]] 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 [[University of California, Berkeley|U.C. Berkeley]] campus during the period of the [[Opposition to theUnited U.S.States involvement in the Vietnam War|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 [[Think different|things differently]]. Even when I was in Berkeley, I would see something and just see [[kilobytes]] or [[printed circuit board|circuit boards]] while he'd see [[karma]] or the [[Meaning of life|meaning of the universe]]."

Using a similar structure, the film next turns to a young Bill Gates at [[Harvard University]], in the early 1970s, with classmate [[Steve Ballmer]], and Gates's high school friend [[Paul Allen]]. As with Wozniak in the earlier segment, Ballmer narrates Gates's story, particularly the moment when Gates discovers the existence of [[Ed Roberts (computer engineer)|Ed Roberts]]'s [[Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems|MITS]] [[Altair 8800|Altair]] causing him to drop out of Harvard. Gates's 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 Inc.|Apple Computer]] in the garage of Jobs's family home, with the help of [[Daniel Kottke|Daniel]] and Elizabeth. Eventually, [[Mike Markkula]] 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 [[Influence of the IBM-PC on the PC market|IBM-PC]] with the help of Gates and [[Microsoft]] in 1981.

The film follows Jobs's relationship with his high school girlfriend and early Apple employee, Arlene (a pseudonym for [[Chrisann Brennan]]), and the difficulties he had with acknowledging his parental legitimacy of their daughter, [[Lisa Brennan-Jobs|Lisa]]. Around the time she was born, Jobs unveiled his next computer, which he named [[Apple Lisa|Lisa]]. The Lisa was followed in 1984 by the Macintosh, both having been 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 [[History of Apple#1985: Jobs leaves Apple|he was forced out]] of Apple by CEO [[John Sculley]].

}}</ref> 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.'"<ref name=com/> Burke was thus hired as director of the project and rewrote the screenplay.<ref name=com/> In developing the characters themselves, Burke also stated that he chose not to speak with any of the central figures portrayed in the film:

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]]''.<ref name=bi2015/> 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."<ref name=wyleofficial>{{cite web|url=http://alt.tnt.tv/movies/tntoriginals/pirates/html/steve.html |title=Noah Wyle as Steve Jobs |access-date=2015-12-13 |date=1999 |publisher=Official website |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011214000510/http://alt.tnt.tv/movies/tntoriginals/pirates/html/steve.html |archive-date=December 14, 2001 }}</ref> He also noted that ''[[Triumph of the Nerds]]'' led him to be "taken by [Jobs's] 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."<ref name=bi2015/> Burke later credited Wyle for the success of the film stating that, "whatever was in the air, [Wyle] just absorbed it ... 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."<ref name=com/> Burke also credits Joey Slotnick's interpretation of Steve Wozniak with Wozniak's enthusiasm for the film; Wozniak was so impressed that he flew to Los Angeles to have lunch with Slotnick. Burke notes that, "Steve Wozniak made several speeches in which he said that the film accurately portrays how things actually happened ... To me that was better than any awards or nominations the film could get."<ref name=com/>

The piano song that is playing in the scene when Steve Jobs accuses Bill Gates of stealing Apple's ideas is not on the soundtrack. That omission sparked a search that lasted a few years<ref>{{cite webcn| urldate=https://www.quora.com/Pirates-of-Silicon-Valley-soundtrack-Does-anyone-know-the-name-of-this-music|website=Quora|title=Does anyone know the name of thisApril music?2024}}</ref> until it was eventually found to be "Soliloquy"<ref>{{cite web| url=https://open.spotify.com/track/1tj1D3p58OPSAZ7QwGWfmQ?si=3a0b32ad61fb41b2|website=Spotify|title=Soliloquy}}</ref> by English composer [[Tony Hymas]]. The song was originally published in the 1980 collection "The Piano Album",<ref>{{cite web| url= https://www.discogs.com/Tony-Hymas-John-Arkell-The-Piano-Album/release/1505945|website=Discogs |title=Piano Album}}</ref> correctly fitting the movie events timeline.

| title5 = [[In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (song)|In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida]] (1968)

}}</ref> He also responded to a fan email, that some of his portrayal was inaccurate: "I never quit Apple. That suggestion was based on an incorrect ''Wall Street Journal'' [article] 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."<ref name="wozorglet1" /> 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{{verify spelling|date=September 2022|reason=''incidence'' is normally used only in the singular form, perhaps ''incidence'', ''incidents'', or ''instances'' was intended}} occurred and it occurred with the meaning that was shown" in the film.<ref name="best">{{cite web

Two individuals have responded to the film's interpretation of the 1979 visit of Jobs and his team to the [[PARC (company)|Xerox PARC]] research center, which influenced the development of both the [[Apple Lisa|Lisa]] and [[Macintosh 128k|Macintosh]] computers. 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.<ref name=jsb>{{cite web

* [[List of artistic depictions of Steve Jobs]]

[[Category:TNT Network(American TV network) original films]]