Pirates of Silicon Valley
1999 Directed by Martyn Burke
Synopsis
The true story of how Bill Gates and Steve Jobs changed the world.
This film is the semi-humorous documentary about the men who made the world of technology what it is today, their struggles during college, the founding of their companies, and the ingenious actions they took to build up the global corporate empires of Apple Computer Inc. and Microsoft Corporation.
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Someone warned me that in watching this film you need to think of it as a 'made-for-TV' movie, that it would help with the digestion.
I don't know if it was made for TV, but it certainly had that feeling to it. The characters were heavily caricatured, pushing the stereotypes of each to the point of humour (particularly Ballmer and Gates), and while I did learn a lot about the history of each company — whether factual or not — I can't say that it's something that would warrant a repeat watch.
Best enjoyed with a group of friends that are familiar with the industry and characters involved.
And beer.
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To mark the passing of Steve Jobs a group of 9 of us sat down to watch (or rewatch) Pirates of Silicon Valley. It's an enjoyable but not particularly skilfully delivered.
The film sets out to show how Apple went from the highs of ’84 to the lows of the ’90s, but it is primarily the story of the birth of Apple and the film is wrapped up by ’85.
After watching a film based on a true story I am consistently left disturbed by a feeling that my grip on reality has been damaged. On the reality of the story, that is. Pirates is caricatures of a number of important people, and it's broken to understand their history on…
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Despite the detractors of the made-for-tv qualities, the filmmakers went through great lengths to accurately portray the personal computer revolution and its jargon. The result is one of the best high-tech films ever produced.
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Made-for-TV quality, but fascinating for any computer fan. Noah Wyle as Steve Jobs is a brilliant casting move.
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It just finishes. I wish it kept on going. Balmer is so good in this film.
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There's so much not to like about this movie (the acting just to name one thing), but it's also a great view on one of the most exciting evolutions of the last 30 years, with an accurate background view of the facts between Apple and Microsoft (and IBM and Xerox).
This is the history of personal computing, and even my girlfriend got interested by the story...
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Highly interesting to see the back story of such huge organisations. It's just a shame the format hasn't been re-done to fit in the highly eventual past decade.
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Dead on, and fun
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Low production value aside, this movie is flawlessly executed, and Noah Wyle is a perfect Steve Jobs.
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I didn't know what to expect. This did not feel like a TV movie. It felt like a very well done biopic that didn't want to say everything incase it wasn't right. It had the too many fade to blacks that you get from films from TV but it was movie style. Im interested in the topic so seeing the information and the situations I know about being dramatised was a big selling points. Just the idea of too many sweeter vests talking about IBM being the bad guy seems amazing. A few things I found interesting, how it shows Microsoft - they are always casing. It might not be fair from my opinion as I now know the post…
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É um fime excelente, sem dúvidas. Baseado no livro " Fire in the Valley: The Making of The Personal Computer".
This a great movie, no doubt. Based on the book "Fire in the Valley: The Making of The Personal Computer".
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A must see if you want to know a little more about Apple's and Microsoft's history, but don't expect anything spectacular.
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Saw this when it originally aired on TV. Interesting story.
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This film shows the story of the young Steve Jobs during his early career with apple. Like all biopics it was pretty bias towards jobs but for some reason you seem to like him over the boring bill gates. It explains his relationship with gates very well and told me stuff I didn't know about the story.
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Its outdated, but liked