Steve Jobs Informative Speech

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Steve Jobs' death in October 2011 provoked a remarkable outpouring of grief, prompting documentarian Alex Gibney to examine this "global wake." In the process, Gibney also questions our personal connection to the Apple founder, and to technology in general. Most of the material here has been covered already in the media, notably Walter Isaacson's best-selling biography. What's distinctive about Gibney's take is its overwhelmingly critical tone.

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine finds Gibney employing the same strategies he used in exposés like Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief and Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God. Voice-mails, depositions, private videos and surprise witnesses all help provide new insights into …show more content…

Behind-the-scenes clips show Sir Ridley Scott directing the groundbreaking Apple commercial broadcast during the 1984 Super Bowl. Cellphone footage shows how Jobs managed to drive without license plates.

On the other hand, a software engineer cries while recalling the stressful working environment at Apple. A Gizmodo reporter tells how he was threatened for writing about an iPhone prototype. Jobs' daughter Lisa gives a heartbreaking account of a business trip to Japan with her father.

The documentary touches upon Jobs' interest in Buddhism, and also his decision to avoid cancer treatments. Even these are seen as faults, not characteristics. Gibney feels that Jobs had the focus of a monk, "but none of the empathy." Since his cancer may have been treatable, Jobs let down both Apple and the people who depended on him.

In the documentary Gibney freely admits that he uses an iPhone. And in interviews he has been more conciliatory about Jobs, calling him "self-regarding but not self-reflective." Skewed as it is, Steve Jobs contains a lot of valuable information about its subject, all of it presented in a precise and focused

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