STEVE JOBS: THE LOST INTERVIEW
US, 2012, 70 Minutes, Colour.
Steve Jobs, Robert X. Cringley.
Directed by Paul Sen.
Steve Jobs died in 2011 at the age of 56. He is considered one of the leading minds and influences of the 20th century.
Have been many documentaries about him, his background, a precocious young man, his friendship with Steve was now ski, their working in a garage, interest in computers, leading to all kinds of inventiveness, the Apple Company, the Macintosh computer…
And there have been several feature film interpretations of Jobs in his life, portrayed by Ashton future as well as Benedict Cumberbatch.
The 70 minute documentary is a one-on-one interview between Steve Jobs and Robert X.Cringely, directed by Paul Sen. It was filmed in 1995, the year that Jobs turned 40. It offered him an opportunity to look back on his own life, the influences, friendships, his business knowledge and effectiveness, the experience with John Scully whom he brought in from PepsiCo, Jobs being ousted from Apple and his managing the company, NeXT (which was bought by Apple just after this interview).
While it is simply the camera photographing jobs with questions from Cringely, it is well worth seeing, Jobs having quite a pleasant manner of being photographed, not rushing in was prepared answers, taking time to consider and answer, acknowledging some limitations, but also self-confident. He had an extraordinarily shrewd business sense which, after this film, served him in very good stead. He had demands on people, saying that the work was what was most important, and that if the work is not up to standard, he should be critical and make demands.
For audiences interested in the development of computers, leading to the PCs and laptops and the latter part of the 20th century, there is a whole lot of detail here which can be listened to in the light of the extraordinary developments since the interview.
The interview was done to have sections for a documentary series on Nerds! But, it seems that the interview was lost. Over 15 years later, after Jobs death, a VHS copy was found in the garage and this interview released for television in 2012. Which enables it to have a small postscript indicating the achievements of Steve Jobs in the last 15 years of his life.
Many audiences, looking out and listening to Steve Jobs, unvarnished, may well have a more sympathetic response to him than they might have had previously.
