Pirates of Silicon Valley

release year: 1999
genre: drama
viewing setting: home DVD, 7/20/10 and 8/23/06

synopsis: This is a humorous, semi-narrative telling of the rise of Microsoft and Apple, and the men behind each, and how they stole from other companies and each other to build their empires.

impressions: Very watchable. It was accurate, humorous, and flowed well. I had no idea what a jerk Steve jobs could be, nor was I fully aware of how these guys took other peoples' ideas and turned them into a product before anyone else could. It's really amazing when you think about it.

something this movie has that no other movie has: A bluff that ended up enabling a trillion-dollar software product to be born.

acting: Anthony-Michael Hall is Bill Gates, which is fitting given his roles in movies in the 1980s. Noah Wyle is Steve Jobs, whose negative traits are unflatteringly shown here. Joey Slotnick is Steve Wozniak, who I hope is a millionaire somewhere right now since he seems to have done most of the work. John DiMaggio is good as Steve Ballmer, who brought some marketing experience to Microsoft.

final word: Worth seeing for details on the rise of personal computers and their software.

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