Steve Jobs is an enigma. A man with a vision for technology that was as much a work of art as it was functional, he buffeted the system and became one of the leaders of the personal computing age. In the new film Steve Jobs, Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin tell his story, framed by his biggest product launches, the Macintosh, NEXT and the iMac. Before each launch everything that can go wrong does as technical issues, unexpected people and bitter arguments threaten to destroy what Jobs is trying to build. It’s a fascinating look at a man who has shaped the look and feel of the future.
Searching for Control
Jobs is a man who is driven, beyond anything else, for control. Growing up knowing that he’d been intended for a family that decided against adopting him profoundly impacted Steve. His desire for controlling everything in his life, including his creations, was forged in the fire of feeling unloveable and unwanted. He takes his quest for control a step further than most people as he lives most of his life within what became known as the “Steve Jobs distortion field”. If Steve thought something was a certain way, that was the way it was.
The film’s version of Jobs offers a clear example of the way we as humans deal with the world around us. We work so hard to control everything. We do this because, like Jobs, we don’t want to be hurt or disappointed. If we can control things, we can find some kind of comfort in knowing and preparing for what will happen to us. If we can keep people at a distance by manipulating or dominating our relationships, we can reduce the likelihood of being wounded or emotionally shattered. Jobs spends most of his life doing his best to make it look as if he cares nothing for what people think of him, when the reality is, that like the rest of us, it means more than it should. It is evident in every conversation that Jobs has with people that he’s working so hard to be above others, to be untouchable. Before the launch of the NEXT, he and Woz have an argument in the orchestra pit, and Jobs tells Woz that what he does is play the orchestra, as a conductor. The metaphor could not be any clearer. Jobs has tried to place himself out of reach emotionally from anyone by creating the world as he wants to see it, the same way the conductor creates the sound of the symphony.
The compulsion for control is something that has been ingrained in humanity since our first act of defiance in wrestling it from someone else. A fruit was taken and eaten to give us that which we were not meant to have, and the control we were promised has never materialized. It is why Jesus implores us with these words,
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” (Matthew 16:24-28 ESV).
It is when we realize that it is not we who are in control that we are then finally free to be who we were meant to be. Sadly it’s a peace Jobs would never find in this life.
Conclusion
This is a thought provoking and moving film. The acting is superb as Michael Fassbender dominates the screen from scene one. Kate Winslet is a force to be reckoned with as Joanna Hoffman, one of the few people able to stand up to Jobs in his life. This movie is worth seeing, and more than once, to take in its themes and the shear magnitude of who Jobs was and what he was able to accomplish in spite of his failings as a person. It’s rated 4 and a half iMacs out of 5.
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