Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999) (TV)

Director:

Martyn Burke

Writers (WGA):

Paul Freiberger (book) and
Michael Swaine (book) ...

Release Date:

20 June 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Tagline:

Good artists create... Great artists steal.

Plot:

History of Apple and Microsoft.

Plot Keywords:

Apple | Apple Computer | College | Bill Gates | Computer

Awards:

Nominated for 5 Primetime Emmys. Another 1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

Noah Wyle	...	Steve Jobs
Joey Slotnick	...	Steve Wozniak
J.G. Hertzler	...	Ridley Scott
Anthony Michael Hall	...	Bill Gates
Wayne Pére	...	Captain Crunch
Sheila Shaw	...	Mrs. Wozniak
Gema Zamprogna	...	Arlene
John Di Maggio	...	Steve Ballmer (as John DiMaggio)
Josh Hopkins	...	Paul Allen
Gailard Sartain	...	Ed Roberts
Allan Kolman	...	Therapist
Richard Waltzer	...	Homebrew Tech
Harris Mann	...	Longhair #1
Clay Wilcox	...	Longhair #2
Marcus Giamatti	...	Dan Kottke

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Iceland:L | Singapore:NC-16 | Germany:6 | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Royce Hall - 340 Royce Drive, UCLA, Westwood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Haft Entertainment

Trivia:

At the 1999 Macworld conference, shortly after the premiere of this TV movie, the audience was stunned to learn that the introductory comments were made not by Steve Jobs, but by Noah Wyle, reprising his role in this movie. The real Jobs emerged and traded jokes with Wyle.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Japan did not manufacture or use Microsoft-run computers when Windows was introduced, China manufactured the computers. Jobs states that his people came back from Japan with computers with the first copies of Windows.

Quotes:

Mike Markkula: Steve Wozniak's employee number one, you're number two.
Steve Jobs: Wait a minute. I'm employee number one. Woz?
Steve Wozniak: Doesn't matter to me.
Steve Jobs: I'm employee number one around here.
Mike Markkula: I'm not saying anything. I wasn't implying anything.
Steve Jobs: All right, then I'll be zero. Woz, you can be number one. I'll be zero. Okay?

Movie Connections:

References The Godfather (1972)

Soundtrack:

I Put A Spell On You

Enjoyable, easy to swallow TV movie

Unlike most documentaries/dramatizations, which are usually nothing more than a filmed history lesson, 'Pirates of Silicon Valley' achieves something more: you want to keep watching past the first scene.

Both Anthony Michael Hall and Noah Wyle put forth good performances and the plot is intriguing, as if it weren't for these two (not so much Gates, as all he did was steal Jobs' idea, who stole it from Xerox), you wouldn't be reading this online review.

The movie feels much longer than it is (in this case that's a good thing), and by the time it's near the end, I didn't want it to finish, I didn't even expect it to finish, as it skipped out on most of the 90's.

'Pirates of Silicon Valley' easily could have been, and should've been, an NBC like mini-series, as this is one area of history that isn't shown in movies enough (in other words: cut the Shakespeare c**p and make movies about computers)