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.