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
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
12 responses to “Steve Jobs director says Apple has ‘terrifying’ amount of power”
Any minute of any hour!
Wait a minute. Danny Boyle watches a movie about a nefarious Google-like all-encompassing tech giant then decides to warn us about Apple (which will never be all-encompassing because it targets only one end of the market) and not Google?
Excellent point!
I look at his comments and wonder what they have to do with the movie (albeit, not enough to actually go and see the movie). If he’s so concerned about stuff like that, Steve Jobs probably was not the best target.
It’s a novel, but pretty much.
Well, to be fair, it is the author of this article, not Danny Boyle, that equated the book’s company with Google.
That’s true, but the company depicted in The Circle is pretty obviously a stand-in for Google. I’m definitely not the only person to make this suggestion.
I don’t know what I find more troubling, this absurd film campaign strategy by the Steve Jobs camp or the fact they actually believe what comes from their mouths. They are upset because the current Apple CEO commented on artistic direction depicting someone he knew personally. I can’t imagine any family member or close friend, no matter if the person were a public or private figure, would like to see someone they cherish so dearly being written off in a screenplay or film script that has a loaded agenda–all films have an agenda.
And to boot, it’s written by a screenplay savant, who has lost his own moral credibility by harvesting a film screenplay (masquerading the film as real when it’s a complete fiction) about another tech CEO (Mark Zuckerberg) who at the time was still in his 20s. Is anyone safe to grow and mature before pen touches paper to consign them to the dustbin of entertainment history? What does that say about them? What does that say about society that we accept anything that Hollywood (or the art house intelligentsia, for that matter) throws against the wall? I find this latest campaign disgusting and their diatribes, for the film’s camp own good, needs to end.
But that same Apple CEO also admitted that he had not seen the film he was criticizing.
Yeah… That’s the point. Why should he? Why should he not be able to comment about something he hasn’t seen? It’s a perfectly human response to criticize something whether being exposed to it or not. Sure we can bemoan not judging a book by its cover, but we all do it. It’s human. We don’t have to like his gut response, but that’s life.
What I pointed out in my earlier comment still applies. People are not likely to be open to alternative interpretations to the very people they knew personally, whether from hearsay or film or literature. If someone crafted a film (or wrote a book) about my mother–hell it could be my best friend–I could give a rat’s ass what their interpretation portends: I don’t have to like it or want to like it.
For Cook, this could be a cathartic way to let the media know that I am in no way interested in knowing what some film production studio thinks of a man he knew so closely and so well. And given all the media and hubbub since Jobs’ death, I can understand why Cook is uncomfortable and responded the way he did.
I’m not saying Cook has to watch he film, But his criticism has no merit if he hasn’t seen the film he’s criticizing.
the movie release does help explain cook’s puff piece re steve jobs on the anniversary of his death – jobs was a tyrant and did not even acknowlege his own daughter – jobs LIED to wozniak about how much they were paid for their 1st pro gig – and woz was supposedly jobs’ best friend !! yes, jobs did change the world, but he was not a nice man – by the way i am a apple certified technical coordinator and working with apple products since 1984, no typo there
The movie industry has too much power. They need to be regulated.