Jobs, the revolutionary

As with films like Diana, Jobs is not a docu-drama, but an insightful and exceptionally well-made film from director Joshua Michael Stern and first-time screenwriter Matt Whiteley. Chronicling the period of 1971 to 1991, it stars Ashton Kutcher as Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in the epic story of the brilliant and passionate entrepreneur whose singular vision launched a digital revolution that changed the way we live forever.

Changing your life, and those who enter the world you live in, is sometimes a profound understatement as Jobs clearly depicts. In telling a story we think we know, Stern and Whiteley fervently celebrate Jobs' legacy with sincere honesty.

Faultless casting

As with all films telling a real-life story, all fails if the plausibility is insincere or incorrect, and with its faultless casting the comparison between the real people and the reel people hit you like a ton of bricks when the end credits roll.

Ashton Kutcher delivers an awesome and inspiring performance as a man imprisoned by his genius and fuelled by his prophetic vision and insight. Kutcher thoroughly embodies Jobs physically and emotionally; his incarnation of Jobs is sometimes frighteningly real as Kutcher becomes the man and never tries to impersonate him in any way. Crawling under the skin of Jobs and capturing his soulful, but tortured and tormented journey, with vigour and a sensitive life force, Kutcher is a revelation and proves that he is indeed one of the finest actors of his generation. With his reserved performance and emotional restraint, there is a real connection between us and his portrayal of Jobs. When Kutcher cries, the tears of this solitary genius are real. Jobs paints a heartbreaking picture of a lonely and solitary figure; a man who was the beginning and end of his "small, sad and lonely world".

One of the most impactful and poignant scenes in the film is where Jobs is pacing up and down in his massive villa, all alone, desperately trying to find someone on the phone who is willing to talk to him and be his friend, with a photograph of Einstein on his mantelpiece looming in the background leering down at him. This moment perfectly captures Jobs becoming his "own worst enemy".

The film states that "risk disguises promise" and that the future lies in the combination of the power and beauty of the most advanced technology. If there's one aspect that we can definitely take home after watching Jobs, is that "No" always means "Yes" and that you "have to risk failure" and "gamble on your vision".

The film also shows that what made Jobs unique was his natural ability and charm to make small things unforgettable. "It's not my job to be nice to people," he says when confronted with his unsociability. "It's to be real."

Never to stop innovating

For him it was vital never to turn something into a measure of revenge, never to stop innovating, and never to look at competition to something better, but "different". To sell what's never been sold and to make a great product that people can believe in, to have "belief in the limitless and impossible", "to create something useful that you care about". Another question that Jobs poses, is asking why Jobs endured all the hardship if it was so easy for a man with 1.5 million shares in a company like Apple to bail out. For him it was simply a matter of firmly believing in what you stand for and believe in. For him, the computer was not just a machine, electronics and circuit boards, but "a natural extension of the human being, and extension to the heart".

And although he was to many of his adversaries a time bomb that "needs to be diffused", Jobs makes it clear that "shareholders don't see past their own shadows", and how important it is to share your enthusiasm and vision with your company and colleagues.
If you are looking for a film that is profound in its meaning and intent, and equally delivers an ordinary story of a man who has to balance passion and love, Jobs provides five-star escapism.

Yes, Jobs was, as the film states, "not great", but "insanely great!" Jobs will not only trigger your imagination, but allow you to take stock of your own life. He was one of "the crazy one, the misfits" who saw things differently. Someone no one could ignore and made it his mission to "push the human race forward". I agree with Jobs that it is indeed those who are crazy enough to change the world that indeed do. We need more films like Jobs to take a closer look at who we really are and what we are truly capable of.

Behind the scenes

Armed with this meticulous research and a dedicated team of researchers to comb through mountains of public records, interviews and articles, first-time screenwriter Matt Whiteley personally interviews numerous people who worked at Apple or with Jobs at other companies. Whiteley began work on bringing this uniquely American success story to life. He was well into the process in October 2011, when the world was saddened by the news of Jobs' death. By the end of the year, Whiteley's expansive, sweeping story of Jobs exceeded 250 pages-about twice the length of a standard feature film script.

Whiteley spent the next months honing the story into a roughly two-hour film, focusing on the defining moments of Jobs' career and the people and events that helped him become one of the most influential entrepreneurs in US history. "Steve Jobs had this incredible understanding of the larger picture that most of us lack," said Whiteley. "While most of us see and think of the here and now, Jobs had a perspective on how it all connects 10, 15 years down the road. How he managed to live and work in the future is beyond me, but it's certainly one of the great roots of his genius."

To director Joshua Michael Stern, the screenplay had an almost Shakespearean quality, chronicling as it did this ambitious leader's early successes, his fall and subsequent wandering in the proverbial wilderness, and finally his redemption.

Read more at www.writingstudio.co.za/page1037.html