Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999)

A different way of telling a story

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

"Pirates of Silicon Valley" is a TV movie about the history of computers from the 1970's to the 1990's entitled "Pirates of Silicon Valley". The main characters are the late Steve Jobs,played excellently an actor known from "E.R" Noah Wyle, and Bill Gates,played wonderfully by an actor known for his nerd roles during the Brat Pack days,Anthony Michael Hall.It was an adaptation of the book,Fire In The Valley.The story centers on this life with Jobs starting the company Apple Computers and Gates starting the software company Microsoft. It presents their struggles during their company's early days and the actions that they have done to start the computer industry which undoubtedly have changed the way people lived with the advent of personal computers.This TV movie would provide the viewer a better understanding on the computer industry and how it came to be at present.Although I must admit that it needs a sequel considering that the computer industry have undergone more changes after it was released in 1999.But despite of the fact that the story is considered "lacking" at this point, a viewer would still enjoy it today especially to appreciate on how the personal computer and the industry came to be and how Microsoft dominated the software industry today.And most of all,one would surely have a better appreciation of computers today.

steve jobs versus bill gates , absolute the movie didn't show the whole story behind them but over all it was fascinating and interesting . I feel like this is a war. that thing between companies I never knew it before but for now i realized it fully after thatthe best quote from this movie , good artists copy art , great artists steal it . from Picasso .what else I learned from steve jobs how he influence their employees and make them work harder and harder bill gates was like that baby that didn't know any thing but in the mean time he do the right thing and be as bad as bill gatesafter all i don't know how could steve jobs reach that amazing with his way of dealing with his employees s s s s

Steve Jobs was a college radical, and Bill Gates was a Harvard bum who missed class to play poker. But each had certain friends. Jobs had Steve Wozniack, essentially a techie tinkerer who could invent small gizmos which could defraud the phone company. Gates had Paul Allen who knew something about computers. The Pirates of Silicon Valley chronicles the escapades and misadventures of the young upstarts who created the industry that the old guard couldn't really see yet alone understand. An industry which now permeates all aspects of modern life.These crazy young inexperienced radicals who began their careers in garages and motels would mold what would become the entire PC market. Jobs and Woz founded Apple and created the first personal computer, the Apple I and Apple II. Gates created Microsoft and licensed an operating for IBM which would become MS-DOS, bought from a small fledging software company in Seattle for $50,000, although Wikipedia's article on the subject states it was $75,000.Then Jobs and his colleagues are brought to the Xerox development center where technicians were creating a computer with graphical interface. The Xerox executives had been given a demonstration of their new technology, but the old-school executives couldn't understand its potential as benefiting their company. Ultimately, they reject the new innovations. Jobs is given full demonstrations of the computers and understands the potential behind the new technology. He then begins the creation of the Macintosh (MAC). Eventually, a rift occurs within Apple between those who worked on Apple II and those working on the MAC. At the same time, Bill Gates creates Windows to utilize the graphical interface being used by Jobs which was originally invented by Xerox technicians. Which then incites the war between Apple and Microsoft.An excellent portrayal of the strange and often unbelievable circumstances surrounding the creation and eventual marketing of personal computers. Anthony Michael Hall is perfectly cast as Bill Gates, and Joey Slotnick does well as Steve Wozniack. However, Noah Wyle steals the show as Steve Jobs. Wyle captures the subtlety of Jobs as the driven genius whose faith in his own vision often eclipses common sense in terms of personal relationships. Jobs was no question one of the great visionaries of the 20th century, but he did not understand how to motivate and empower those around him. In the end, he becomes a tragic figure when he is ousted from Apple by the Board of Directors.

Pirates Of Silicon Valley is a great TV movie about the computer age and its two visionaries namely: the late Steve Jobs and Bill Gates,two men who 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 their global corporate empires.The film also shows how computers came about,its history and development.Aside from that,it tells the history of Apple Computer Corporation and Microsoft.Pirates was an adaptation of the book,Fire In The Valley.The story opens with the creation of the 1984 commercial for Apple Computer, which introduced the first Macintosh.Steve Jobs is speaking with director Ridley Scott, trying to convey his idea that "We're creating a completely new consciousness." Scott, however, is more concerned at the moment with the technical aspects of the commercial.Then,it flashes forward to 1997 as Jobs, who has returned to Apple, is announcing a new deal with Microsoft at the 1997 Macworld Expo. His partner, Steve Wozniak, is introduced as one of the two central narrators of the story. Wozniak notes to the audience the resemblance between "Big Brother" and the image of Bill Gates on the screen behind Jobs during this announcement. Asking how they "got from there to here," the film turns to flashbacks of his youth with Jobs, prior to the forming of Apple.The first flashback of the film takes place on the U.C. Berkeley campus during the period of the early seventies student movements. Jobs and Wozniak are shown caught on the campus during a riot between students and police. They flee and after finding safety, Jobs states to Wozniak, "Those guys think they're revolutionaries. They're not revolutionaries, we are." Wozniak then comments that "Steve was never like you or me. He always saw things differently. Even when I was in Berkeley, I would see something and just see kilobytes or circuit boards while he'd see karma or the meaning of the universe."Using a similar structure, the film next turns to a young Bill Gates at Harvard University, in the early 1970s, with classmate Steve Ballmer and Gates' high school friend Paul Allen. As with Wozniak in the earlier segment, Ballmer narrates Gates' story, particularly the moment when Gates discovers the existence of the MITS Altair (causing him to drop out of Harvard).Gates' and Allen's early work with MITS is juxtaposed against the involvement of Jobs and Wozniak with the Homebrew Computer Club,eventually leading to the development of the Apple I in 1976 with the help of angel investor Mike Markkula. The story follows the protagonists as they develop their technology and their businesses. At a San Francisco computer fair where the Apple II computer is introduced, Gates,attempts to introduce himself to Jobs, who snubs him.Then follows the consequent development of the IBM-PC with the help of Gates and Microsoft in 1981. Meanwhile, Apple has developed The Lisa and later, the Macintosh, computers which were inspired by the Xerox Alto. The main body of the film finally concludes with a birthday toast in 1985 to Steve Jobs shortly before he was fired by CEO John Sculley from Apple Computer.It also includes a brief epilogue, noting what happened afterward in the lives of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. The movie ends with Steve Jobs returning to Apple after its acquisition of NeXT Computer, and Bill Gates appearing live via satellite at a MacWorld Expo in 1997, during Jobs' first Stevenote keynote address, to announce an alliance between Apple and Microsoft.The movie has great acting especially by Noah Wyle who played the late Steve Jobs convincingly.The story was well written and the direction was not boring that you could watch it over and over again.I own the new DVD release version.I consider it one of my favorite movies considering I am Engineer in the computer industry.This is TV movie is not only for engineers and computer enthusiasts but people who want to know more about Gates and the late Steve Jobs.