Steve Jobs: Man in the Machine

Name: Steve Jobs: Man in the Machine
Genre: Documentary
Released: September 4, 2015
Duration: 128 min
Rating: 72

2015

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Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews

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Generally favorable reviews based on 30 Ratings

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Steve Jobs: The Man In The Machine

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Movie Details & Credits

Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: September 4, 2015 | Not Rated

Summary: In his signature black turtleneck and blue jeans, shrouded in shadows below a milky apple, Steve Jobs’ image was ubiquitous. But who was the man on the stage? What accounted for the grief of so many across the world when he died? Steve Jobs: The Man In The Machine is a critical examination of Jobs who was at once revered as an iconoclasticIn his signature black turtleneck and blue jeans, shrouded in shadows below a milky apple, Steve Jobs’ image was ubiquitous. But who was the man on the stage? What accounted for the grief of so many across the world when he died? Steve Jobs: The Man In The Machine is a critical examination of Jobs who was at once revered as an iconoclastic genius and a barbed-tongued tyrant. A candid look at Jobs' legacy featuring interviews with a handful of those close to him at different stages in his life, the film is evocative and nuanced in capturing the essence of the Apple legend and his values which shape the culture of Silicon Valley to this day. [Magnolia Pictures]… Expand

Director: Alex Gibney

Genre(s): Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 128 min

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Critic Reviews

Peter Rainer

Sep 4, 2015

The accounting of his life story, as it unfolds in the film, is grounded in the brutal realities of corporate skulduggery. I’m a big fan of Balzac’s maxim that “behind every great fortune is a great crime,” and if nothing in Jobs’s history qualifies as a great crime, there is certainly a long trail of extreme misdeeds. Read full review

Steven Rea

Sep 3, 2015

Brings home the complexities and contradictions of the man. Read full review

David Edelstein

Sep 7, 2015

Little here is new, but the archival footage is well chosen, the interviewees are illuminating, and Gibney, as usual, potently synthesizes what’s out there. Read full review

Michael O'Sullivan

Sep 3, 2015

The picture that emerges is fractured, making for a portrait that’s as fascinating as it is baffling. Read full review

Chris Nashawaty

Sep 3, 2015

What the movie actually could’ve used less of is Gibney, whose faux-pensive voice-overs are meant to push the story forward, but more often make your eyeballs roll backward. Read full review

John DeFore

Apr 14, 2015

Gibney is convincing on every front. And while Apple (big surprise) refused to cooperate — meaning that key players like Jony Ive and Tim Cook are all but invisible in this story — he gets enough of Jobs' collaborators on camera to lend emotional color to the portrait. Read full review

David Ehrlich

Sep 2, 2015

The film quickly abandons any sort of broader cultural interest in favor of a typical womb-to-tomb, warts-and-all examination of recent history’s most visionary CEO. Read full review

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User Reviews

misadventurer

Jan 1, 2016

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine reviewed

by jd ep Since the death of the Apple Co-Founder, no less than 4 films have been made about Steve Jobs, most attempt to canonize him as the Patron Saint of Personal Technology. The Man in the Machine asks the question of "Why did so manySteve Jobs: The Man in the Machine reviewed

by jd ep

Since the death of the Apple Co-Founder, no less than 4 films have been made about Steve Jobs, most attempt to canonize him as the Patron Saint of Personal Technology. The Man in the Machine asks the question of "Why did so many people weep for the passing of Steve Jobs?" In reality, Jobs was a bitter perfectionist, who sought inner peace, though never seemed to allow himself to sacrifice for the zen for which he desired. Documentarian Alex Gibney's Man in the Machine, dares to show Jobs for the man who he was, warts and all. Despite what the Cult of Apple would have you believe, Jobs was a harsh taskmaster, and not necessarily the sole architect of the success of Apple. Gibney, no shrinking violet when it comes to controversy, as the first result of a Google search for his name will show an ad decrying him for his Triple Emmy winning "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief," narrates and makes himself the cypher for the audience, we are seeing Alex's journey on piecing together who Steve Jobs really was. From Steve's birth as an unwanted orphan, to his early days as a Phone Phreak, to launching the first Apple, to Steve's attempt to deny his responsibility for his first daughter, Lisa by claiming he was infertile and therefore couldn't be the father. Gibney, over the course of 2 hours and 8 minutes, un-ashamedly presents the darker side of the Crown Prince of Cupertino. Steve's hypocrisy, believing he was above the law, dismantling philanthropic outreach from Apple. Gibney asks "What were his values as a citizen? Was he interested in power to change the world, or the right to have power without responsibility?"

The film illuminates Steve's involvement on several damning events, from a Stock Backdating scandal which threw a few high level Apple Execs under the bus, the anti-trust class action lawsuit that affected 64,000 silicon valley programmers, to Apple's tax avoidance involving an Irish Shell Company. Gibney also talks about the iPhone 4 Leak that Gizmodo broke. It's a David Vs Goliath story that ends with David becoming a larger Goliath. As for the answer of "why did so many people weep for Steve Jobs," Gibney offers a Japanese term "Mono no aware" which translates to "an empathy toward things." Steve Jobs gave us all our own black mirrors. A thing that contains our entire lives, which in the end, are nothing but things. No doubt Steve Jobs was a difficult man, but as the documentary concludes he was, just a man. A man with vision, and hunger, and a master marketer, but as Gibney states late in the film, "[Jobs] had the focus of a monk, but none of the Empathy."

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine is well worth the watch, whether you're an Apple Fanboy/girl, an Android User or a troglodyte, Steve Jobs was a major architect of our modern world and we should know who the man was, rather than just idolize him through rose colored glasses.

Movie Grade: A+… Expand

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

psychomuse

Jan 6, 2018

A poignant remembrance of everything that was and is Steve Jobs. Indeed, as you stare into your smart device, this is the real Black Mirror.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

MisterUltimate

Sep 5, 2015

Jobs has been and always will be my role model. Not matter who many rehashes are many, everyone of them is going to be able to introduce something that you didn't know or couldn't see from a different perspective. This movie is intense, emotional, heart-breaking and inspiring at the sameJobs has been and always will be my role model. Not matter who many rehashes are many, everyone of them is going to be able to introduce something that you didn't know or couldn't see from a different perspective. This movie is intense, emotional, heart-breaking and inspiring at the same time. No matter how much you love or hate Apple and its products, you can unarguably agree to the fact the Jobs was one of the most inspirational and passionate man to ever work in the tech industry. No matter how belittling or berating he could be, he could always spark that fire you needed so desperately to make the unthinkable happen.

"Stay hungry, Stay Foolish"… Expand

2 of 4 users found this helpful22

Brent_Marchant

Sep 7, 2015

A damning indictment of a technological and marketing genius who created innovative products that changed lives (and not necessarily for the better). The film meanders a bit in the first 45 minutes, but, once it settles down, it presents a insightful look at the man, his products, what heA damning indictment of a technological and marketing genius who created innovative products that changed lives (and not necessarily for the better). The film meanders a bit in the first 45 minutes, but, once it settles down, it presents a insightful look at the man, his products, what he did to create them and the fallout that has come in their wake. Makes one think about where their loyalties are -- and whether they rightfully belong there.… Expand

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

Trailesque

Mar 1, 2017

It must be difficult to do a documentary about a man who was deliberately opaque, who wanted to be known only for his work, or as his work, and tried to reveal as little about himself as possible - even to the point of hiding his car's license plate! Some info about him does come thru hereIt must be difficult to do a documentary about a man who was deliberately opaque, who wanted to be known only for his work, or as his work, and tried to reveal as little about himself as possible - even to the point of hiding his car's license plate! Some info about him does come thru here - not surprisingly he was a perfectionist workaholic whose one real love in life was Apple Computer, a project that was very personal and emotional for him. He had a thing for Japanese culture and Zen Buddhism, and their aesthetics influenced his designs. We see him on stage performing at Apple events (something he did well), and it becomes clear that his genius was for marketing and design. It was his lesser known teammates that did the nitty gritty programming and financial work. It is safe to say he was a genius - but was he a good man? He could be dishonest, he could be mean, he could be selfish (as revealed in his treatment of his first partner and his first child), and philanthropy didn't interest him. When he died, his multi-billion dollar fortune went into several anonymous trusts. Ultimately I felt like the world did not really get to know Jobs - and I guess that is how he wanted it.

I am a HUGE Alex Gibney fan btw - keep them coming, Alex - you're the best!… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

EpicLadySponge

Mar 17, 2016

Another Steve Jobs movie that manages to beat the Jobs movie made in 2013. Way to go, Steve Jobs: Man in the Machine, you managed to survive being another poor Steve Jobs movie. That's very great work.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

cmku

Apr 8, 2018

I find it quite ironic that a documentary about Steve Jobs is so supremely superficial, misguided and misleading, as these were the very things he spent his life fighting against. I guess I shouldn’t have expected any less coming from a mainstream media produced piece.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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