Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine is the definitive, must see movie about Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine is a documentary by Alex Gibney, who makes engrossing, entertaining and intelligent documentaries such as Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, Casino Jack and the United States of Money, and Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer.
Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine compares and contrasts the image versus the reality of Steve Jobs, the co-founder and former CEO of Apple. Steve Jobs appeared to be a benevolent technological revolutionary who strived to make the world a better place, but he was also a controlling, ruthless, magnificent bastard to family, friends and employees, and he didn’t actually believe in philanthropy. Gibney highlights the idea that Jobs achieved enlightenment, but was still too attached to his ego so he did not evolve, but was tethered to this world and trapped into an unfulfilling cycle of striving for further achievement by the golden chain. (Apologies if I butchered this description. I know nothing about Zen Buddhism and am open to correction from others with more expertise.)
If I was forced to criticize Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine, I would say that I think it is a mistake to look at Steve Jobs as a white man like John Lennon trying to achieve enlightenment by putting on different Asian cultures and abandoning his Western roots. Steve Jobs is similar to Superman-he seems like he is just from European descent and an average Californian teen who happens to be gifted, but he knew that he was adopted at an early age. His biological father was Syrian Muslim and his biological mother was a Catholic. His adopted mother was the daughter of Armenian immigrants, possibly forced to leave their home and affected by genocide. None of these cultural and religious identities were part of mainstream America at the time. How did these facets of his origin story affect him? Or did he try to not let them affect him?
Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine brilliantly uses archival footage of Jobs throughout his life. Even though the Jobs family did not authorize Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine, it feels as if Jobs participated in it willingly. It is not just a documentary about him as seen by other people, but it feels like he collaborated and condoned the entire enterprise.
Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine is not only the best movie about Steve Jobs, but it is worth setting aside extra time to watch the special features on the DVD. If his first daughter writes a memoir, I’m there.