Pirates of Silicon ValleyFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pirates of Silicon Valley is a 1999 original TNT film directed by Martyn Burke . It stars Noah Wyle as Steve

Jobs and Anthony Michael Hall asBill Gates. Spanning the years 1971-1997, the film is based on Paul

Freiberger and Michael Swaine's book Fire in the Valley: The Making of The Personal Computer. It explores

the impact of the rivalry between Jobs (Apple Computer) and Gates (Microsoft) on the development of

thepersonal computer.

The film opens with the creation of the 1984 commercial for Apple Computer, which introduced the first

Macintosh. Steve Jobs (Noah Wyle) is speaking with director Ridley Scott (J. G. Hertzler), trying to convey his

idea that "We're creating a completely new consciousness." Scott, however, is more concerned at the moment

with the technical aspects of the commercial.

The film then flashes forward to 1997 as Jobs, who has returned to Apple, is announcing a new deal with

Microsoft at the 1997 Macworld Expo. His partner, Steve Wozniak (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 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. Jobs and 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 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' (Gailard Sartain ) 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, eventually leading to the development of the Apple I in 1976 with the help of angel

investor Mike Markkula (Jeffrey Nordling). The story follows the protagonists as they develop their technology

and their businesses. At a San Francisco computer fair where the Apple II computer is introduced, Gates (the

then-unknown Microsoft CEO), attempts to introduce himself to Jobs, who snubs him. This is followed by the

development of the IBM-PC with the help of Gates and Microsoft in 1981.

It also follows Jobs' relationship with his high school girlfriend (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 birthday toast in 1985

to Steve Jobs shortly before he was fired by CEO John Sculley (Allan Royal) from Apple Computer.

It also includes a brief epilogue, noting what happened afterward in the lives of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

The film ends in 1997 with Steve Jobs returning to Apple after its acquisition of NeXT Computer, and Bill Gates

appearing live via satellite at a MacWorld Expo in 1997, during Jobs' first Stevenote keynote address, to

announce an alliance between Apple and Microsoft.

Casting[edit]

Anthony Michael Hall as Bill Gates andNoah Wyle as Steve Jobs

Noah Wyle originally turned down the offer to play the part of Steve Jobs. He changed his mind after

watching the 1996 documentary, Triumph of the Nerds.[5] 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."[6] In fact, Triumph

of the Nerds led Wyle 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."[5]

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." Hall said, "It was a thrill and a

daunting challenge to play someone of his stature and brilliance."[7]

Reception[edit]

Critical response[edit]

Pirates of Silicon Valley received an 89% rating from Rotten Tomatoes (8 fresh and 1 rotten reviews).[8] 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." [2] John Leonard of New York Magazine, refers to Pirates of

Silicon Valley as "a hoot."[9] Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazetteargues 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."[10] Brian J. Dillard of AllRovi 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."[11] 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."[12]

Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, and Steve Jobs also responded to the film. Gates stated that his "portrayal

was reasonably accurate."[13] Steve Wozniak noted that "when the movie opened with [a scene of] tear

gas and riots [...] I thought, 'My God! That's just how it was.' "[14] He also dedicated part of his personal

website to fanmail with questions concerning the film:

“ The personalities and incidents are accurate in the sense that they all occurred but they are

often with the wrong parties (Bill Fernandez, Apple employee #4, was with me and the

computer that burned up in 1970) and at the wrong dates (when John Sculleyjoined, he had

to redirect attention from the Apple III, not the Mac, to the Apple II) and places (Homebrew

Computer Club was atStanford Linear Accelerator Center) ... the personalities were very

accurately portrayed.[15] ”Steve Jobs' only public response occurred at the 1999 Macworld Expo. After Pirates of Silicon Valley had

aired, Jobs contacted Noah Wyle by phone. He told Wyle that while he "hated the movie" and "hated the

script," he thought that "you were good" and that "you do look like me." [5] Jobs then told Wyle: "Listen, we

do this thing every year called the Macworld convention. It's in New York, at the Javits Center. There will

be about 10,000 people there. And I think it would be hilarious if you came out on stage dressed as me

and did the first five minutes of my keynote address. Are you interested?"[5] Wyle agreed and later

recalled that:

“ [Jobs] had been shopping that day and bought me a matching pair of blue jeans and a black

turtleneck sweater and matching round eyeglasses. He'd written a sketch for us to perform

the next day at Macworld. I'd put my hands together in a kind of Jobs-like silent-prayer pose

and then launch into his keynote. And then a few minutes into the address he'd come

storming onto the stage and say, "Wyle, you don't have me at all! What the hell are you

doing? First I pick up my slide-clicker and then I put my hands together." He'd say, "Ladies

and gentlemen, Noah Wyle!" And then he'd kick me off the stage and take over, introducing

the latest piece of Apple technology. And that's exactly how we did it. The first few rows, I

think, could obviously tell it wasn't him, but most others didn't know at all. And there was this

growing ripple of laughter throughout the auditorium when people got what was happening.[5] ”In an interview with Slashdot, Daniel Kottke states that Pirates of Silicon Valley 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."[16]

Additional responses[edit]

The director of the Xerox PARC research center, John Seely Brown, after seeing a clip of the scene in

which Gates and Jobs argue, stated in an interview that it was not entirely accurate. Steve Jobs was

invited by PARC to view their technology in exchange for the ability to buy pre-IPO Apple stock.[17][18]

Accolades[edit]

Winner:

2000: American Cinema Editors, USA, Eddie for Best Edited Motion Picture Movie for Commercial

Television (Richard Halsey)

51st Primetime Emmy Awards Nominations

Outstanding Made for Television Movie (Nick Lombardo; Steven Haft; Leanne Moore)

Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries or a Made for Television Movie (Lisa Freiberger)

Outstanding Single Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries or a Movie (Richard Halsey)

Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Miniseries (Stephen Halbert; Phillip Seretti)

Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries or a Movie (Martyn Burke)

Whys is the movie's title "Pirates of Silicon Valley"?

Actually they weren't the first, there were a whole lot of "garage" companies, some of which lasted for years, but the two platforms that survived were Mac and Win. 

"Pirates" because Jobs stole the GUI (Graphical User-Interface) from Xerox, and then Gates stole the idea from Mac. 

There's a scene with the two of them where Jobs says, "But mine is better." and Gates replies "It doesn't matter."

I was screaming -- they were both right. Mac was by far better, but, as happens so often in capitalistic systems, the bad drove out the good. 

Doesn't matter that Win is complete sh*t; it took over anyway. 

[sob, sniff]

Word, imperfect: Increased competition between Microsoft, Apple, and Google could be good for writers

BY NATHANIEL MOTT ON OCTOBER 25, 2013

It ain’t easy being king.

Microsoft has been the undisputed ruler of productivity software for decades. Its products have become synonymous with many basic computing tasks; using something besides Word, Excel, or PowerPoint is the exception rather than the rule. The products have helped millions of people create a document, spreadsheet, or presentation across a technological menagerie of operating systems and devices.

Now it seems that both Apple and Google are trying to defenestrate Microsoft and popularize their own productivity software. Apple has updated its iWork software suite with a new interface and a tight integration with iCloud, making it available across a variety of devices — including, for the first time, Windows computers. Google is constantly improving Google Drive, its own productivity suite turned cloud platform, to continue the fight it started with Google Docs in 2007. Gauntlet, thrown.

This battle has implications for each of them. Office is a cornerstone of Microsoft’s business, second in importance only to Windows itself; Google Drive is yet another service that makes it harder and harder to resist Google’s never-ending attempt to rule the Web; and offering free, compelling serviceslike iWork helps Apple convince consumers that its hardware products are worth their higher price. But as interesting as a direct conflict between three of the consumer technology industry’s leading companies can be, the real question is how any of this will benefit the people who use this software every day.

Each of these products offers something that the others don’t. Office has the benefit of being the industry standard, requiring its competitors to support the file types it popularized in some way. iWork lends itself to creative work that focuses on design more than it focuses on features that most people will never use. Google Drive allows for collaborative editing that makes it easier to work with others. Microsoft, Apple, and Google have each brought their own expertise to this fight.

Besides those slight differences, though, these products are similar. They perform the same functions in roughly the same way that they performed years ago. Spreadsheets work the same. Presentations are just a series of slides with ho-hum graphics and some text. Documents are long columns of text that, for some unknown reason, are still divided into physical pages.

That last point is ridiculous. The way we create and consume information has changed dramatically since the first time Microsoft demonstrated Office’s capabilities so many years ago. Forcing page breaks into tools meant to help people write essays or letters or blog posts that will never be printed onto a physical page is anachronistic at best. It would be nice for one of these tools to worry less about doing everything Word did in ’95 and more about embracing the way we write in 2013.

Maybe one of ‘em could produce standard HTML that doesn’t make text look like it was written by an alien species when it’s brought over to the Web. Or maybe it could tie directly into the many tools we use to publish to the Web, removing the need to copy and paste text between different apps. Maybe, instead of insisting that everything written on a computer is meant to be printed,

one of these technological titans could realize that people are writing for the Web more than ever before and develop software specifically for that purpose.

Plenty of smaller companies are trying to change the way we write for the Web. Editorially makes iteasy to collaborate with other people, view different versions of a document, and write with Markdown, a simple tool that makes preparing a document for the Web easy. Draft does something similar with a different interface. Fargo reduces everything from blog posts to grocery lists down to asimple, Web-based outlining tool. The list goes on.

Microsoft, Apple, and Google have demonstrated their ability to constantly tweak the same basic productivity tools they’ve been offering for years. Hopefully the increased competition between the three will encourage one to abandon these antiquated ideas about how things should be made and shared — or at least get rid of those goddamn page breaks.

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Nathaniel Mott

Nathaniel Mott is a staff writer for PandoDaily, covering startups and technology from New York.

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