While out in Silicon Valley the past week for a job interview, I took advantage of the unlimited mileage on my rental car to drive around. Although one purpose of my driving was to get a feel for the area, in case I got the job, I also had another, more geeky reason. Some people like to search for haunted places, or purchase sketchy maps to find the homes of celebrities. Me, I spent my time driving around looking for the campuses and office buildings of the big Silicon Valley companies. I went by several brick and mortar buildings of companies that to most of us exist only in the ether of the internet: Oracle, Facebook, HP, VM Ware, and the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Most of these were either on my way to and from the airport and interview, or were close to my hotel. A couple I found by accident while looking for a book store. But only one did I make a specific trip out of my way to drive by: the Apple campus bounded by Infinite Loop in Cupertino.
Apple, along with Microsoft, are at the center of Pirates of Silicon Valley, a 1999 made for TV film from TNT. Well, more accurately the center of the film is the story of Steve Jobs (Noah Wyle) and Bill Gates (Anthony Michael Hall), and how their companies fueled the big PC revolution of the 1980s. The bulk of the film takes place in the late 70s and early 80s, and details the formation of both companies, the development of such early PC mainstays as the Macintosh and DOS, and Microsoft's cribbing of the Macintosh to build their first version of Windows, and culminates in Jobs being fired from the company he founded, primarily for being an unhinged asshole. Wrapped around the story is a presentation by Jobs after his return to Apple in 1997, a particularly contentious one where he announced Microsoft buying a stake in Apple. The movie ends with a giant image of Gates on the big presentation screen, much like the giant head from the famous "1984" Apple commercial.
A big part of why I like the film is because of where it ends. Pretty much nobody could have guessed in 1999 that Apple was about to have an even bigger second act. Although Jobs had brought the company out of its dreadful low point in the mid 90s, pretty much everybody thought it was still Microsoft's world to lose. I wouldn't mind seeing a sequel detailing the last decade and a half, with John DiMaggio's Steve Ballmer playing a much larger role, of course. It's a case where being dated (like Back to the Future) helps, rather than hurts, the film.
Beyond that, though, it's a really well done movie, considering it was a made for basic cable movie. This isn't as surprising at it may seem today, as most cable channels have moved to focusing on creating new shows instead of movies. Back in the late 90s, TNT made several competently made movies, the best of which (in my opinion) is Pirates of Silicon Valley. It has some neat tricks, such as Steve Wozniak (Joey Slotnick) explaining how much of a BFD the Graphical User Interface was, or Steve Ballmer stepping out of the scene to highlight the significance of Microsoft selling DOS to IBM. Also, for a film based on true events, it is fairly accurate, which isn't always the case for even the best of these films*.
The best part of the film are the performances. Noah Wyle does an excellent job of not only looking like Jobs, but acting like Jobs. He nails the precarious balance of charismatic brilliance and passionate fury that pretty much made up Jobs. Anthony Michael Hall also does a great job with Bill Gates. The supporting cast does a mostly enjoyable job as well, particularly Joey Slotnick as the cheerful computer wizard Steve Wozniak and John DiMaggio as Gates' eventual successor Steve Ballmer**. What other movie can you see the voice of Bender Bending Rodriguez, Charlie's Mom from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and General Martok from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine? None other that I am aware, that's what.
When I need something to put on while I am working, this is one of my go-to movies. For some reason it allows me to focus on what I'm doing, and motivates me to get it finished. I remember watching it multiple times whenever it showed up on TNT, and I may have even recorded it on VHS at one time, watching it any time I wished as long as I was near a VCR. Eventually I bought it on DVD, and have watched it many times since. Several projects I've worked on have gotten finished in part because I was watching this. While not a requirement for every one of my favorite movies, it plays a big part in why Pirates of Silicon Valley is on that list.
*See The Social Network
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