Steve Jobs, the biopic based on Walter Isaacson's bestselling biography, debuted this weekend as a massive success. The movie offers an interesting glimpse of Steve Jobs (or, at least, director Danny Boyle and writer Aaron Sorkin's take on the tech icon). But we wish we could have learned more from the film.
Rather than taking a broad view of Jobs' life or accomplishments, the movie centers around three iconic product launches and the events that "transpired" backstage beforehand. This means the scope of the movie is fairly limited. And, as this is a Hollywood portrayal, much of what is included takes ample creative license. With both of those facts in mind, we still wish that Steve Jobs would have taught us a bit more about the Apple founder's life.
Here are five things we would have liked to see in the film.
Steve Jobs' Marriage & Family
The movie Steve Jobs focuses only on the titular character's relationship with Chrisann Brennan, the mother of his first child, Lisa. It's no secret that Jobs denied he was Lisa's father for years, despite a paternity test affirming that he was. But the movie entirely failed to mention that Jobs married Laurene Powell in the early '90s, had three children with her, and that Lisa eventually moved in with the Jobs clan before heading to college. More Flashbacks To Product Development
While the movie takes place only at three product launches (in 1984, 1988, and 1998), it does offer some extra background through a couple of flashbacks. We wish there would have been a few more — how did the candy-colored iMac of 1998 come to be? At the launch of the Mac in 1984, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs argue about the contributions of the Apple II team; what role did the Apple II and the Lisa play in the development of the Mac? If you've read Walter Isaacson's biography, you know the answers, but if you haven't, there are definitely sections of the movie that could be confusing or boring. More People
We get that it was a creative decision to keep the cast super-minimal, but really, are we supposed to believe that only five people played major roles in the lead-up to each of these product announcements? It would have been amazing to see a cameo of a young Jony Ive (who has directed Apple's design team since 1996) chatting with Jobs in the last scene, for example. Speaking Of More People, How About Some Non-White People?
Were there any characters in the movie who weren't white? (Unfortunately, this point does appear to be historically accurate.) Steve Jobs' Involvement With Pixar
Steve Jobs bought what would become Pixar from Lucasfilm in 1986, and he was heavily involved with the computer animation studio. In the final scene, Jobs wasn't actually a billionaire yet — that wouldn't happen until Disney bought Pixar in 2006. Although the movie focused on the Apple side of things, Pixar could have been mentioned at least once.
The movie Steve Jobs focuses only on the titular character's relationship with Chrisann Brennan, the mother of his first child, Lisa. It's no secret that Jobs denied he was Lisa's father for years, despite a paternity test affirming that he was. But the movie entirely failed to mention that Jobs married Laurene Powell in the early '90s, had three children with her, and that Lisa eventually moved in with the Jobs clan before heading to college. More Flashbacks To Product Development
While the movie takes place only at three product launches (in 1984, 1988, and 1998), it does offer some extra background through a couple of flashbacks. We wish there would have been a few more — how did the candy-colored iMac of 1998 come to be? At the launch of the Mac in 1984, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs argue about the contributions of the Apple II team; what role did the Apple II and the Lisa play in the development of the Mac? If you've read Walter Isaacson's biography, you know the answers, but if you haven't, there are definitely sections of the movie that could be confusing or boring. More People
We get that it was a creative decision to keep the cast super-minimal, but really, are we supposed to believe that only five people played major roles in the lead-up to each of these product announcements? It would have been amazing to see a cameo of a young Jony Ive (who has directed Apple's design team since 1996) chatting with Jobs in the last scene, for example. Speaking Of More People, How About Some Non-White People?
Were there any characters in the movie who weren't white? (Unfortunately, this point does appear to be historically accurate.) Steve Jobs' Involvement With Pixar
Steve Jobs bought what would become Pixar from Lucasfilm in 1986, and he was heavily involved with the computer animation studio. In the final scene, Jobs wasn't actually a billionaire yet — that wouldn't happen until Disney bought Pixar in 2006. Although the movie focused on the Apple side of things, Pixar could have been mentioned at least once.
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