Despite criticisms from Tim Cook, Steve Jobs movie director Danny Boyle says it’s important that artists and writers are not scared of being called “opportunistic” by daring to critique companies like Apple with “terrifying” amounts of power.
Speaking out about the new movie, which opens this Friday, Boyle said that companies such as Apple and Facebook have replaced “petrochemical companies [and] pharmaceutical companies” as the big power brokers of the world.
“It’s important that we put [people like Steve Jobs] in the spotlight for the reasons of their own business reasons or visionary reasons, and we need to keep an eye on them,” he noted.
Interestingly, Boyle revealed that it was his reading of Dave Eggers’ dystopian novel The Circle, which inspired him to make Steve Jobs. In the novel, a Google-like tech giant controls all digital communication. “[The Circle] was terrifying,” Boyle said. “It was one of the factors I had in doing this. I thought, this is so f****ng incredible, because it’s so benign. What are the drawbacks? But if you understand history, you know there will be drawbacks.”
With Sorkin having recently suggested that Apple should give the Steve Jobs movie a chance, comments like Boyle’s are unlikely to undo the damage for those expecting this to be a hit-piece.
For the record, I think any company or person with massive amounts of power should have to repeatedly justify it. With that said, by the standards of giant companies, Tim Cook’s vision for Apple as a “force for good” makes it pretty utopian compared to industry giants from previous decades (or even some of Apple’s rivals today.)
I’d take Apple over a petrochemical or pharmaceutical giant any day of the week. Twice on Sundays.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
