Texan Mosaic

by:  CHESANIE BRANTLEY/Editor-in-Chief

There is a whole other world behind the scenes that outsiders seldom have the opportunity to see.

The movie “Steve Jobs” gives the audience the chance to see the other side of the three major launches during the career of Jobs’ who was played by Michael Fassbender. Steve Wozniak, the engineer behind Apple, had a large role in the production of this movie.

The beginning of the movie is set in the early 1980’s behind the scenes of the launch for the Macintosh computer. A young Jobs is shown yelling at one of the engineers because the demo is not working properly. He wants it to say “Hello” to the world during the launch. There is no way that it will not say hello, and there is no way they will begin late.

Jobs continues to run around demanding nearly impossible things out of people, when Crisann Brennan, played by Katherine Waterston, and Lisa Brennan, played at different ages by Perla Haney-Jardin, Ripley Sobo and Mackenzie Moss, are in his dressing room. Crisann is Jobs’ ex-girlfriend, and Lisa is his daughter. They needed money, and Jobs gave it to her after he saw what Lisa had drawn using MacPaint.

Wozniak (Woz), played by Seth Rogen, was the engineer with Jobs from the beginning of Apple, when they were still working in a garage. He also visits Jobs before the launch. He wants Jobs to recognize the Apple II team, since it was the first big success for Apple, and Jobs refuses.

Finally, John Sculley, played by Jeff Daniels, CEO of Apple, visits him minutes before he goes on stage to offer some “fatherly” advice and a drink.

Jobs then steps out on stage and launches the Macintosh. He is on time, and it says “Hello.”

The fact that Jobs does not recognize the Apple II team would soon lead to disapproval from the other board members, who eventually vote to fire him.

Next was the beginning of another launch for Jobs’ new item geared toward education, the NeXTcube.

Except this time Jobs still holds some grudges after being fired from Apple. Jobs tells a reporter that the NeXTcube was missing the operating system, or the O.S. as Jobs called it. He was just waiting for Apple to show their cards.

They do, right before the launch. The engineer, Andy Hurtzfeld, played by Michael Stuhlberg, who Jobs was screaming at during the Macintosh launch, brings him the information he needs. Apple wanted the NeXTcube’s operating system.

It seemed like behind-the-scenes events of the launches were all in a pattern. First, Crissan and Lisa would visit, then Woz would visit, then Sculley would be last.

Throughout the movie, we also see the relationship between Jobs and Lisa grow. Jobs had people watching her to make sure Crissan was not mistreating her, and eventually Lisa asks to move in with him when she is a small child.

After the emotional scene with Lisa, the audience is fast forwarded to the launch of the iMac in 1998. Jobs looks much older, yet happy. He is back at Apple, after the company nearly went under, and believes he has come up with another breakthrough.

The pattern continued, except this time he wanted to see Lisa, who was now 19 and attending Harvard University, but she did not want to see him. They had a falling out after Crissan sold the house Jobs had bought her for a fraction of what it was worth, and he would not pay Lisa’s tuition. But Jobs’ assistant and close friend, Joanna Hoffman, played by Kate Winslet, expresses her feelings on the situation. She tells Jobs that after all the years she had been with him, she would quit if he did not fix things with Lisa.

Hoffman also tells Jobs Hertzfeld paid for Lisa’s first semester at Harvard, which enraged Jobs. Hoffman was the first to see him before this launch, and he paid him back the money.

When he speaks with Woz, it was much more public, and more of a fight than two friends talking. Woz wanted Jobs to recognize the Apple II team, and once again Jobs refused.

“Steve Jobs” took the audience on an emotional rollercoaster. At the beginning, Jobs was portrayed as hard, cruel and impossible to deal with. As the movie went on, though, you discover there is another side of him. He does care about people, but he cares more about product.

It also did not help that all of these problems arose five minutes before every launch. Of course, he cares a little more about the product than how everyone feels about him in that moment.

Personally, the behind-the-launch idea seemed cool in theory, but I do not think it really told the story of Jobs like the previous “Jobs” movie did.

“Steve Jobs” kind of jumped around from problem to problem, and did not spend enough time inside the head of Jobs like I hoped it would. It focused on how much everyone around him was upset with him all the time, and he was portrayed as an egotistical jerk.

I give “Steve ” 3 out of 5 stars.