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The Silicon Valley myth with a life of its own
In "Pirates," HP, Xerox and other big companies play the fools of the PC revolution, and only the lone visionary "gets it."
By Michael Mattis
[06/17/99]

Linux and Microsoft -- together at last
A new round of benchmark tests pits free-software hackers against the gang from Redmond in a race for operating-system supremacy.
By Andrew Leonard
[06/16/99]

Silicon Follies
Silicon Follies
Chapter 27: Afterglow of the robotic inferno
By Thomas Scoville
[06/16/99]

Three lives in Everquest
When a game is this beautiful and complex, who cares about a few deaths along the way?
By Janelle Brown
[06/15/99]

The Web's plagiarism police
An online service claims it can identify purloined papers. So why'd it nail my thesis?
By Andy Dehnart
[06/14/99]

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If you love to loathe Steve Jobs or Bill Gates -- and who doesn't? -- then "Pirates of Silicon Valley" is the movie for you. The much-trumpeted, fictionalized account of the rise (and fall, and rise again) of Microsoft and Apple Computer, airing Sunday on TNT, presents both the turtlenecked CEO and Mr. Bill as thieves and jerks with few redeeming features, so if by chance you're a devoted fan of either one, be prepared. Still -- though this flick won't win any Emmys -- if you're looking for an amusing, Hollywood-filtered dramatization of the rise of the geek industry, there are worse ways to spend your Sunday evening.

"Pirates of Silicon Valley" starts off in the late 1960s, when Gates, played by Anthony Michael Hall (a veteran nerd actor and an inspired casting choice), and Jobs, played by "ER" veteran Noah Wyle (who bears a striking resemblance to Jobs), are toiling away at their respective colleges. The movie tracks their parallel growth and growing enmity -- from garage to glass-covered campus, in the case of Apple, and from a grungy hotel room to immense wealth, in the case of Microsoft -- as Jobs builds his revolutionary empire and Gates, in turn, pilfers his genius.

Also Today The Silicon Valley myth with a life of its own In "Pirates," HP, Xerox and other big companies play the fools of the PC revolution, and only the lone visionary "gets it."

Jobs is presented as the Ruthless Idealist, an ex-hippie who happily drops acid, visits ashrams, dances with Hare Krishnas and visualizes his computer as a way to take down The Man (read: IBM). His Fatal Flaw is a blinkered obsession with his "revolution" and a lack of interest in the lives of those who buy into (and are destroyed) by his vision -- not to mention a blindness to the evil incarnate in Microsoft. Wyle aptly captures Jobs' mannerisms -- the "elbows on podium, palms upturned" and "palms pressed together and pointed at audience" gestures familiar to journalists and Macworld attendees, and that much-reported tendency toward unfettered tantrums in the workplace.

Gates comes off even worse: He is the Maniacal Misfit. This is revealed through numerous scenes in which he sits hunched over a computer, with glowing code reflecting in his lenses and his eyes burning bloodshot and frenzied behind those hideous frames. (His pupils are so tiny that he appears to be on amphetamines for most of the movie.) But Gates, we learn, is basically a mercenary who'd rather make his fortune by plundering other people's programming genius (such as his purchase of DOS for $50,000 from an unsuspecting programmer) and selling it with a little smoke and mirrors to the highest bidder. He has no interest in women whatsoever (as the Steve Ballmer character tells him, "You're the only guy I know who pays strippers to put their clothes on"), and women have no interest in him -- not particularly surprising, considering Hall's (spot-on) squeaky voice and overly geekish behavior.

Next page | Jobs creates a "dent in the universe"; IBM execs sing