The Steve Jobs movie - which had a limited release on October 9, with a full release due on Friday - has been getting a lot of attention for its portrayal of the iconic Apple founder. The latest person to speak about the film is journalist Walt Mossberg, who was a columnist for the Wall Street Journal for many years, and later started a new technology website called Re/code. Mossberg was one of the journalists who helped chronicle Apple's resurgence, and frequently met Jobs; so it's no surprise that he has his own perspective on the man, that he wrote about in 2011, when Jobs died.
In an article published on Wednesday, Mossberg writes about the upcoming movie, which was penned by Social Network writer Aaron Sorkin, and filmed by Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle, based on the biography written by Walter Isaacson, and starring Michael Fassbender as Jobs. Mossberg is deeply critical of the Steve Jobs biopic, and writes, "The Steve Jobs I knew isn't in this movie."
"Sorkin chose to cherry-pick and exaggerate some of the worst aspects of Jobs's character, and to focus on a period of his career when he was young and immature," writes Mossberg. "It would be as if you made a movie called 'JFK' almost entirely focused on Kennedy's womanising and political rivalries, and said nothing about civil rights and the Cuban Missile Crisis."
"Jobs's refined taste and dedication to high quality are treated in the movie purely as arrogance," Mossberg adds. "Yet, ironically, I am told by two people who knew him well that his sense of taste made him a huge fan of Sorkin's 'West Wing.'"
It's worth pointing out though, that while Mossberg knew Jobs for about 14 years - a fact that he spends an entire paragraph on, to drive home the point - he also admits that he didn't know Jobs during the early part of his career, and knew very little about Jobs' relationship with his daughter Lisa; which take up most of the movie.
On the other hand, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who did know Jobs - extremely well, particularly during that phase of his life - told Deadline Hollywood, "I feel like I was actually watching him."
Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue spoke out against the film, calling it "an inaccurate and mean spirited view of my friend," and adding, "not a reflection of the Steve I knew." Wozniak is one of the few people who knew Jobs well who seems to be willing to praise the film, and added that while the accuracy of some of the story is debatable, it does a fantastic job of bringing Jobs' personality to the screen. "The Jobs in the movie seems like the real Jobs in many ways."
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