By Graham
Winfrey Graham Winfrey is a staff writer for Inc.com. He previously
covered alternative investments at Private Equity International
magazine, prior to which he worked at Business Insider and MSNBC.com. He
lives in Brooklyn, New York. @ GrahamWinfrey Staff writer, Inc. @
GrahamWinfrey
Why did so many people around the world who never met Steve Jobs weep upon hearing the news of his death?
That is the question posed by Academy Award-nominated director Alex Gibney in the new documentary Steve Jobs: Man in the Machine,
which opens Friday. One of the film's first sequences features a number
of heartfelt testimonials from Apple fans who took to YouTube to
express their grief after Jobs's death, tagging their videos with
hashtags like #ThankYouSteve and #iSad.
But this is no fawning tribute to the Apple co-founder.
Instead of focusing on Jobs's role as an innovator and marketing genius,
Gibney examines Jobs's personal
value system, and how it affected his relationship with colleagues,
family, and friends. Though Jobs presented himself as an anti-corporate
free spirit who loved Bob Dylan songs and once tried to be a monk,
behind the scenes, Gibney argues, he was a tyrannical boss capable of
extreme cruelty. The result is a decidedly unflattering portrayal of
Jobs that at times comes across as an indictment.
So what did Jobs do while he was alive to attract such a critical look at his life?
One of the recurring themes in the film is Jobs's
complicated relationship with his daughter, Lisa Brennan-Jobs. Though
Jobs's former girlfriend Chrisann Brennan describes him as a romantic
during the early days of their relationship, she also recounts how he
tried to deny being the father of their daughter, a conflict resolved
only after a paternity test forced Jobs to pay child support. Later,
when Apple's IPO brought Jobs's net worth to $200 million, he continued
to pay only the legally required $500 in monthly child support.
In some ways, Jobs comes across as having been more
committed to Apple's employees than his own flesh and blood. When
companies like Google were luring Apple executives away, Jobs allegedly
told his competitors that he viewed his colleagues as family, and that
he would "take you down if you try to take one of my family."
Jobs so feared other companies poaching Apple's workers that
he eventually convinced Google, Intel, and Adobe to agree not to hire
each other's workers. The secret "no-poaching" pact eventually led to
a U.S. Department of Justice investigation and a $415 million settlement
for the four companies.
At the same time, Jobs could also attract criticism for
turning his back on employees who played a large role in Apple's
success. In 2010, for example, 18 workers at a factory in China that
made iPhones and iPads attempted suicide, a result chalked up
to military-style working conditions resembling a sweatshop. Though Jobs
called the string of suicide attempts "troubling," he attributed them
to the personal situations of the individuals and made no effort to
improve conditions at the factory.
"If Jobs had really thought differently," Gibney says in the
film, referencing Apple's "Think different," advertising
campaign, "shouldn't he have cared more about the people who touched the
iPhone before his customers?"
As further evidence of Jobs's conflicting values, the film
also highlights his decision after returning to Apple in 1997 to
eliminate its philanthropic efforts. This decision, Gibney argues,
stands in direct opposition to the anti-corporate image of Jobs, who as a
young entrepreneur once had his photo taken giving the middle finger to
the IBM building.
"When Apple became Goliath, who was he giving the middle finger to?" Gibney says.
Despite Gibney's unflattering portrayal of Jobs, the director said in a previous interview with Inc. that he didn't make the film to expose Jobs, about whom he knew relatively little before starting the project.
"I was just interested in this idea of why so many people
all over the world wept when he died," he said. "He's become so
beatified in so many circles that it's worth taking another look."
While Man in the Machine doesn't unearth any new revelations about Jobs, anyone interested in the darker side of a brilliant entrepreneur should see it.
Photographer Doug Menuez learned a lot about projecting confidence from his time working with strong-willed genius Steve Jobs.
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