Saturday, November 19, 2011

Steve Jobs: One Last Thing

Steve Jobs was a business man and a technological innovator whose resume seems beyond comprehension: co-creator of the personal computer. Co-founder of Apple. Co-founder of Pixar. iPod and iPad developer. When Jobs died early last month, PBS rushed to compile this documentary, and the hasty effort shows. With interviews from collaborator Steve Wozniak and inventor Ross Perot, among others, we are cursorily taken through Jobs life in a presentation that looks like it was put together by a high school student on one of his Apple products. The other curious notion is how, in spite of his unprecedented achievements, how bland and lacking in interest Steve Jobs life was. Confirmed by multiple associates, Jobs appeared to be a self-interested, backstabber and judging from the stock footage shown in this documentary, he didn't seem to be a very likable person. His deification that has gone on in the weeks since his death remains a mystery to me, and this documentary does not provide any indication why he should be held in such high regard.