[.ca] Pirates of Silicon Valley

From Amazon.com:
This dramatization of the tangled history of Apple Computer and Microsoft, based on a book by Paul Frieberger, hits enough of the right notes to make its failures all the more frustrating. The script follows the entwined paths of Apple's Steve Jobs and Microsoft's Bill Gates with a pointed sense of the cultural divide between the hip, self-absorbed Apple cofounder and the brilliant alpha geek behind Microsoft's eventual software empire, contrasting the Mac's countercultural underpinnings with the PC's more strait-laced origins. But Pirates of Silicon Valley seemingly can't decide whether it wants to be a serious-minded history of these key figures in the personal computer revolution or a trashy wallow in the more ignoble foibles of its principals. As a result, it falls short of exacting history while never achieving the guilty pleasure it might have. 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

not completely accurate, but still informative/entertaining:
If you're looking for a documentary that accurately explains the beginnings of the personal computer industry, then "The Pirates of Silicon Valley" is not it. You'd be better served watching the excellent 1995 PBS documentary "Triumph of the Nerds" instead. If however, you're looking for an entertaining movie that gets most of the major details right, then you're in luck. The script is pretty bad (it's obvious that this was a TNT-original, made-for-TV movie), but Noah Wyle and Anthony Michael Hall do such a superb job, each *nailing* their roles of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, respectively, that it's worth watching. This movie is based on the excellent book "Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer". However, that book was published in 1984, and this movie covers events slightly farther in the future. Many of the details are combined, left out, or sometimes fabricated (a.k.a. "creative license"), and I'm told that some of the additional information not in the book came from the director Martyn Burke himself watching "Triumph of the Nerds" (and having his actors watch it, too, to help them get in character). Still, I'm a high school computer science teacher, and I have my students watch this every year to give them the big picture before following it up with "Triumph of the Nerds" to accurately place the details. Overall, this is a decent movie, and the whole cast does a laudable job portraying their characters. The story is an interesting one, and despite the generally poor script and often seemingly needless inaccuracies, "The Pirates of Silicon Valley" is a glimpse behind the scenes at the events and personalities that built the computer industry as we know it today.

Apple Cores. Revolving Doors. Silicon Sails The High Seas. Gates & Trees & Fences Free.:
Several aspects catapulted me into this movie with a mesmerizing intensity which caused me to watch it several times, and to know I'll continue to do so periodically. The strongest draw to this work of art for me was to the performance of the actor (Anthony Michael Hall) playing Bill Gates, which he did with such exquisite skill that he made me feel he had captured the essence, the quiet radiance, the charisma, maybe even the core, of that larger-than-human persona, more brilliantly than I've seen done for any other characterization of a "real-life-person" on film. In fact, each of the key actors in this film went beyond the level of outstanding, in seeming to capture his/her character in a primal essence. The voices and mannerisms of Gates, Jobs, and Wozniac, have stayed with me with such a synaptive strength that I can hear and see them any time my thoughts go there. The actors didn't stand alone, however. They were supported with awesome perfection by the book's balanced storyline, and the art and technique of the film-making, which was executed so naturally as to be baseline effective without the viewer noticing the designs and efforts toward effect. There was no overwhelm of design; only the feel of it. There was the being one with the language of film, which overtook whatever reality had been playing prior to the first millisecond of the movie's motion. (For a bare bones of additional detail about film-making technique, feel free to see my review of the DVD of the movie, Suspect Zero.) Each time I re-view my copy of PIRATES OF SILICON VALLEY, I'm left with an intense curiosity about how true to reality it seemed, and about Gates, Jobs, Wozniac, and the other characters "takes" of this rendition of who they were and what they did. A few reviews have helpfully mentioned visiting Wozniac or Gates web sites, and noted that the movie was described as being generally accurate. If anyone has any added information on Gates or Jobs specific comments on this movie, please consider beginning a Forum in the Customer Discussion section on this page? To be fair, maybe I should offer a few backup details for my over-the-top praise above. Here's what I see so clearly, even now, in Bill Gates as shown in PIRATES: I see him regularly pushing the bridge of his glasses up to a clearer viewing angle; I see the direct, open-eyed gaze of this ancient, wise soul working within a child's free-flowing, anticipatory mind. I see his continual eagle-eyed expression, his intense curiosity and constant calculation. It appeared to me that, for Gates, as portrayed by the actor in this film, computers are not machines; they're kindred spirits. And I don't mean that as an insult. Steve Jobs was also shown in his unique ways of gazing, studying whatever was in his presence; his ways of speaking, and of flickering continually from a sun-splitting smile to a deadly scowl. Moods. He was a full course STUDY in them, at least as dramatized by the actor who portrayed him. Then, of course, there was the most obvious of the many film techniques used so beautifully, that of posing the head and shoulders of Bill Gates on a large movie screen in the background, with Steve Jobs standing in a full-body pose, live, behind a podium, below the huge, two-dimensional, yet ominous presentation on the screen. Yeah, Big Brother was alive and well, ever ready, ever in the background of Jobs' motions, with no loss of strength or imposition. And yet ... And yet ... Bill Gates came across as a hero, to me, along with everyone involved in this landmark expression of part of the evolution of human brain cell enhancement. The way these two cultural giants were played against each other, in storyline and through the art of film, was an accomplishment of the type of simple genius which, in some ways, goes beyond even the great gifts of the Einstein's among us. There is so MUCH art, angst, and significance in this film, I doubt its makers have seen every angle and facet of it. This is something. This is something. I don't know, exactly, if the film intended it, but each time I come away from this movie, I see all the people in it as nothing less than heroic. Yet, the movie clearly brought out actions and behaviors which I could not condone in any other context, in fact, which I might condemn. However, I rarely mark something with a negative triple six; as soon as I think about picking up a single stone, the smudges on my vest begin growing. Very purposely, that chagrin situation was exposed here. This movie captures and holds not only high entertainment with heavy drama and deep comedy; it also expresses: Irony, Anomaly, Paradox, Dichotomy, Dilemma, and more. I seek words which mean: "The containment of opposites within a single framework, containment of a long enough duration for the duality to do the Hegel-ian thing, the ultimate growth sequence of Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis." Yet, these two opposing elements will not synthesize, except separately, so the Thesis, Antithesis, Thesis, Antithesis seems to be in an eternal loop, which somehow enhances life and growth rather than diminishing or draining it. If I attempt to analyze this movie much further my eyes will cross and my brain will ... will what? It won't melt down ... it won't shut off with "does not compute." What it will do is slip irrevocably into a Gordian Knot at the base of a Universal Labyrinth. Bye, bye. Don't go there. I have more work to do. Thank you Bill, Steve, the makers of THE PIRATES OF SILICONE VALLEY (see the credits on this page), and the authors (Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine) of the novel, FIRE IN THE VALLEY, upon which this movie (made for cable, TNT, in 1999) was based. I could almost say the film went as far as Gates and Jobs (and their associates, friends, and families) took us, as a race, as a species, as an intriguing culture in a sentient Universe. Maybe it's not achieving warp drive capacity which first brings a species to the attention of aliens at higher levels of consciousness and accomplishment (as Star Trek has so lusciously dramatized). Maybe it's achieving what all the above, and the ripples from them have done. I can't understand why the debut of this movie didn't bring on First Contact. Or, has it? Where are the X-Files? Are they SLEEPING?? Chust Kidding! What would you expect from an author of a sci fi and a paranormal mystery series who periodically reviews Amish mysteries? I, myself, am an Anomaly, a Dichotomy, ... and some (though not a "sum") of all of the above. Linda Shelnutt

Well acted popular history:
Just as with the urban legend there are legends as how Microsoft and Apple came to being. This story based on a book by Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine, is about the story of two parallel personalities; one wants to make a dent I the universe, the other wants to keep his enemies close. Many realities and key players were glossed over not to mention the CPM operating system. However if we delve into two may diverse parts of this story we would loose our focus and cohesion. It is fun to watch the parallel growth of Apple's Steve Jobs (Noah Wyle) and Microsoft's Bill Gates (Anthony Michael Hall). Especially the ability to get into their heads and the many exacerbations or the other guy. As a previous owner of an Altair, Commodore, TRS-80, and Apple among others this movie had a special interest for me.

Movie version of Robert Cringely's "Triumph of the Nerds":
Very entertaining movie for people who are interested in how PC revolution begins. Showing the big pirates like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs how to build their empires by stealing other's ideas, like the "Mouse" which in fact played a critical factor in this PC revolution. The plot is very similar to the classic well-known Cringely's Triumph of the Nerds. Yet, it adds a alot of movie elements to make it quite interesting and fun to watch, especially the character of cool 'Steve Jobs'. It's a good video for personal collection if you want to enjoy the PC revolution era.

Interesting Story:
But....you know what...Both Gates and Jobs are thieves..Infact who isn't in this day and age. Look at what happened at ERON....A-DUH ..Typical Corporate America.