Dr.

RAM MANOHAR LOHIA NATIONAL LAW

UNIVERSITY, LUCKNOW
(2021-2022)
ENGLISH-1st Semester

PROJECT
TOPIC: MOVIE REVIEW ON JOBS (2013)

Submitted to: Submitted by:

DR. (MRS.) ALKA SINGH SAURAV SINGH
Assistant Professor (English) Enrollment No .210101133

Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya B.A.L.L.B (Hons.)

st
National Law University, Lucknow 1 ,Semester (Section-B)

1|Page
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to convey my appreciation to everyone without whose cooperation and
unwavering support the project would not have progressed to this point. First and foremost, I
would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Alka Singh for her thoughtful assistance and for
answering my questions about many of the issues and complexities that I encountered while
working on this project. I'd want to take advantage of this occasion to express my gratitude to
the Hon'ble Vice Chancellor, Prof. Subir K Bhatnagar, and Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya
National University for allowing me to work and research on this issue. This project would
not have seen the light of the day without the constant direction and guidance of my parents
and guardians to whom I owe a lot. I would also like to use this opportunity to thank my
brother in helping me out with the nitty-gritty of formatting.

I'd want to express my gratitude to all of my friends and seniors who helped me along the
path. I must also express my thanks to the library and library staff for providing me with
study materials and good books to work with, as well as to the prominent writers, jurists, and
periodicals for making such vital knowledge available in the public domain.

DECLARATION
I hereby declare that this English Project On Movie Review on Jobs (2013) is written by me
and that it is an Original Movie Review that was completed between October and November
2021 under the supervision of Dr. (Mrs.) Alka Singh of the Faculty of English at Dr. Ram
Manohar Lohiya National Law University. In cases where references to other works are
noted, I have given appropriate recognition. This work has never been submitted for any
institutional prizes, degrees, or diplomas, nor has it been published in any form.

2|Page
 Table of Contents

• Introduction

• Detailed plot & Analysis

• Cast & Crew

• Review

• Public reception & Critical acclaim

• Conclusion

• Bibliography/ References

3|Page
 INTRODUCTION
About the movie

Jobs is a biographical film that came out in 2013. The movie is a tribute to the Silicon Valley
visionary, a person who revolutionized the tech world, Steven Paul Jobs commonly known
as Steve Jobs. The movie was released on 23 August, 2013. This biopic has been directed by
an American film director, Joshua Michael Stern starring Ashton Kutcher as Steve Jobs.
We are going to talk about the cast and crew later in the project in detail.

The movie narrates the story of Steve Jobs’ rise from a college dropout into
becoming one of the most well renowned entrepreneurs of the 20th century. It deals with the
every up and down that Steve Jobs faced in the journey of becoming a tech revolutionary.
From inventing apple 1 in 1976 with his friend, Steve Wozniak in a small garage of his
parents to his eventual ouster from his own company, this film shows us the struggling and
inspirational life of the greatest business magnate, Steve Jobs. The person who laid the
foundation of the digital revolution then in 70s.

4|Page
 DETAILED PLOT & ANALYSIS

• Opening
The movie opens at an Apple town hall where Steve Jobs is introducing Apple’s
latest product, iPod to the world. He introduces it by saying that this is going to
revolutionize the music industry because now you have a thousand songs in your
pocket which was a very unique and huge thing at that time. The device was
known as the iPod.

• Plot

After the opening, the film flashes back to the Reed college in 1974 where Jobs
has dropped out from college because apparently he thinks that a degree is a
waste of both money and time. On the side, we are shown the personal side of
Jobs in his life where he has a girlfriend and is doing drugs with his friends. In
spite of being a dropout, he still decides to attend calligraphy and designing
classes while also attending sessions of a monk who visited his college at that
time. After listening to the monk, he visited India in search of mental salvation
and direction in his life. The beautiful part is all this has been shown quickly in a
glimpse when Jobs is high on drugs dancing in the field, portraying that the way
drugs give dopamine rush to a person. Similarly, the visit to India and doing
things which he actually love is giving him joy similar to drugs.

After returning from India, he started making a game for five thousand
dollars. He specifically mentions, “I will make the best damn game that you have
ever seen”. He asks for this project to prove that his idea of innovation in the
games by adding colour to them is right. We also see a personality trait of Steve
Jobs in one scene that he doesn’t wear slippers and doesn’t bath leading to him
stinking, it’s a unhygienic thing but it portrays the absent mindedness and sheer
focus of him towards his work. While making the game he asks help of his friend,
Steve Wozniak. Steve Jobs wanted to work independently and not under someone
which leads him to start a kind of start up with his Wozniak when he founds that
he had made a device which people have never scene, a basic model of a

5|Page
computer. Just a board which can display things on a monitor as we type on it.
While travelling to Stanford University for keeping their idea forward to the
investors, Steve Jobs coined the name, Apple for their new company.

They started their little company named Apple Computers in the garage
of Jobs’ parents. The story moves forward with Jobs’ understanding that what
people really need is a computer in a box which can be used by a layman without
any prior knowledge of computer and engineering. He starts pitching his new idea
to investors on phone calls. After hundreds of rejected calls, finally a person
visits to their garage named, Mike Markkula. He mentions that he came to visit
after Jobs’ continuously calling him 150 times which portrays how much
determined Steve Jobs was in the early stage of Apple. On the side note, we are
shown that Steve Jobs’ girlfriend, Chris Ann Brennan is pregnant with Jobs child.
Here we see a cold side of Steve Jobs where he abandons his own child. Many
people have said in many interviews and podcasts that Steve Jobs had a cold side
in his early life, especially he avoided any personal distraction during the journey
of Apple including abandoning his own child and his pregnant girlfriend. The
movie moves to 1977 at an event where Jobs is introducing the world with their
new product, Apple 2 by saying “Meet the future of personal computing”. The
movie quickly moves to 1980 where Apple has his own building, an Apple
campus in San Francisco. Jobs is now working on ‘Lisa’, a new Apple product
where we see the aggressive side of him. He fires a guy which was chief
programmer in the company just because he doesn’t share the same enthusiasm
and vision with him which may show a visionary aspect of his life but also
portrays the cold and unemotional side of his personality. He is continuously
pressing on the importance of fonts. We see that he is facing a legal suit from his
Brennan for his paternity rights of his daughter Lisa whom he is still not
accepting as his own daughter. The movie beautifully portrays the negative and
cold side of him where he doesn’t care about the people he started working with
and is not giving them the shares of the company just because now they are of no
use of the company. We see a depiction of extreme emotionless of Steve Jobs as
Wozniak tries to tell him that he is wrong but he doesn’t listen to him.

6|Page
There’s a scene which portrays this extreme opposite mind set of Jobs and the
people he work with when Steve Wozniak tries to talk to him.

Wozniak: “Something’s happening to you Steve”

Jobs: “I am growing up woz”

Wozniak: “No, you are not…”

The movie moves forward with Apple launching it’s IPO. The
shareholders with majority ousted Jobs from his own project, Lisa and he has
been given a side project named, Macintosh. Yes, the same mac that people use
nowadays. The vision and enthusiasm of Steve Jobs has been depicted beautifully
where he is asked to stay out of the project, Macintosh by one of the senior
members by saying, “We are doing fine, you don’t need to get revenge of your
fall out of team Lisa using this project” and to which Steve replies,

“We don’t do fine and we do not stop innovating. Your machine lacks power and
your little interface needs working. I am not trying to take Macintosh away from
you, I am trying to help. I want you on the team so, either you can get on board or
get the f*ck out of here.”

This is scene is so beautifully acted upon by Ashton Kutcher. You could just feel
the power of words from the mouth of real Steve Jobs by seeing this scene.

After months of preparation and recruiting team members, Macintosh

finally becomes an insanely great project of Apple but the problem was how to
market the one thing that people have never used before. As board members
wanted to replace Jobs from the CEO position, he himself chose a replacement
for him who is also having marketing background. He chose John Sculley, the
then president of PepsiCo. He managed to convince him by saying a statement
which became very popular in near future. He asked him,

“Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life or come with me and
change the world?”

The movie move forward showing the conflict between Jobs and
Sculley. He was not doing the thing that Jobs wanted which unlikely or likely led
to the loss in Macintosh. We are also shown the rivalry between Steve Jobs and

7|Page
 Bill Gates when Microsoft copied Apple. All this lead to a loss of the company.
All this leads to ousting of Jobs from his own company. During the vote, all the
board members except Steve Jobs himself voted for John Sculley including Mike
Markkula. At the same time, Steve Wozniak also left Apple. Jobs was left alone.
This was a heavy down in the life of Steve Jobs which led him to visit the place,
the garage where it all started. He was devastated because Apple was not a
company but a child for him. Even Mike said before ousting of him that,

“You are your own worst enemy, Steve”

Cut to 1993, John Sculley has been ousted from the company due to
the eroded market value of Apple. Meanwhile, Jobs have launched his new
company, Next. Again cut to 1996, Jobs has finally accepted his daughter, Lisa
and now he has a son named, Reed and her wife. Basically, he has a family
finally. He is shown us doing farming at his house. All this portrays that his
ousting from Apple led him to the realization of importance of relationships and
family in his life. He has now become more of a family guy exactly opposite of
what he was in his earlier days. After the rock bottom hit of Apple, Steve Jobs is
welcomed back on Apple as CEO. The love for Steve Jobs in the heart of people
who worked at Apple is seen in the scene where Jobs after returning to the
building asks one of the designer, “Why are you still here?” and he replies,

“I think there are still those who believe of what Apple stood for, you stood for.
You believed that the computer should be a natural extension of an individual and
it’s that mission, that devotion to the quality and ideals and heart. That’s what
keeps us here that we might do it once more.”

• Closing
The movie ends with Steve Jobs becoming the CEO once again and reorganising
the board member which includes resigning of Mike Markkula. He then steps
forward to make Apple cool once again. The movie ends with Steve Jobs quoting
his famous inspiring lines remembering the very days when he started Apple,
remembering people who stood beside him in that garage, remembering the
people he lost in this journey. He quotes,

8|Page
“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs
in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them,
glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they
change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as
the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they
can change the world, are the ones who do.”

9|Page
 CAST & CREW

• Cast
Steve Jobs - Ashton Kutcher
Steve Wozniak - Josh Gad
Daniel Kottk - Lukas Haas
John Sculley - Matthew Modine
Mike Markkula - Dermot Mulroney
Jack Dudman - James Woods
Arthur Rock - J K Simmons
Chris Ann Brennan - Ahna O’Reilly
Giles Matthey - John Ive
Gil Amelio – Kevin Dunn

• Crew
Director - Joshua Michael Stern
Writer - Matt Whiteley
Music - John Debney
Producer - Mark Hulme
Editor - Robert Komatsu

10 | P a g e
 REVIEW

The movie based on the true life events of Steve Jobs turns out to be a pretty good film
which becomes eye catching since the very first scene. The movie beautifully depicts the life
journey of Steve Jobs and Apple from the beginning to the end, both at personal as well as
professional level.

• Short and Crisp

The movie skims through the life story of Jobs in a very crisp and swift manner
showing us the only important parts of his life which can be a critic but at the same
time, capturing 50 years of life in 2 hours it was a good job and appreciable. The
problem was that many aspect of Job’s life was quickly shown in a glimpse which
would have been better if they were in detail like, the visit to India, Steve getting
back with his family, Making of Next and many more. But it’s understandable due to
the time constraint.

• Music
The music of the movie plays a very important part in the enhancing the scenes.
Whether it’s an inspiring scene or emotional, Music plays the key role. The movie
doesn’t have any song in it but the background music totally fits every scene.

• Acting
Every actor in the movie have done a perfect job. The best part was from Steve Jobs
to Steve Wozniak, every actor was actually looking like the real life figure especially,
Ashton Kutcher has done an amazing work in the movie while expressing a character
like Steve Jobs.

• Cold side of Steve Jobs

During the whole movie, we are shown the cold and unemotional side of Jobs. The
scene where Jobs abandons his pregnant girlfriend or where he fires someone due to
his lack of vision, all of this shows that the dedication towards his work made him a
cod hearted person who doesn’t care about his relationships.

• The ignorance of friendships

11 | P a g e
 The movie portrays the side negative side of Steve Jobs where with time, he becomes
ignorant towards his friends. The same people who helped him making Apple big.
This is all shown in the scenes where Daniel tries to talk to Steve but he doesn’t have
time for him, where Steve Wozniak resigns from the company due to Jobs changed
and super self absorbed behaviour.

• Super self absorbed mind of Jobs

During the whole movie we have seen the visionary mind and sheer focus of Steve
Jobs but the same mind made him self absorbed which leads to the disaster of his
own life and relationships. As Mike said that Steve was his own worst enemy.

• An inspirational biographical film

The movie pays a homage to the great Steve Jobs and it has done it in a very amazing
way. After watching the film, you will actually feel a sense of motivation in your
nerves. The movie narrating the Life story of Steve Jobs is a good example of an
inspirational biographical film. Not great because it could have been more detailed
and more interesting.

12 | P a g e
 PUBLIC RECEPTION & CRITICAL ACCLAIM

IMDB rating: 6/10

Rotten tomatoes: 28%

Meta critic: 44%

Here are some of the public reviews:

1. “Steve Jobs (Ashton Kutcher) is shown starting from his college drop out years in
1974 to working at Atari in 1976. He joins up with Steve Wozniak (Josh Gad)
bringing Woz's computer to Homebrew. With Woz, they start Apple in his garage.
Former Intel guy Mike Markkula (Dermot Mulroney) becomes their investor.

I'm sure Steve Jobs fans have a thousand mistakes they like to point
out and a thousand more complaints about his douchie portrayal. I have a more
simpler complaint. This is no more than a simple made-for-TV movie. Ashton
Kutcher is doing more mimicry than actually taking on the persona. I actually put
most of this on the shoulders of director Joshua Michael Stern. There are too
many Jobs speeches and pontifications. It's an easy way to copy Steve. Maybe
it's too easy. It needs to go deeper.”

2. “The first time Ashton Kutcher appears (right at the beginning) you might be
excused, if you didn't know and from far away, for thinking this is the real Steve
Jobs. They could've put real footage of him in the beginning just to put you in the
mood. But what mood would that be? Because we get to see quite a few sides of
Mr. Jobs, not all of them are really likable.

But the movie is more than showing the true face of Steve Jobs. It's his way to
become the person he was and how Apple became what it is today. Like it or not,
it's an interesting tale, with some great performances and it seems to be truthful
in its approach. As good as it can, with surely some movie drama added, but
probably not that much.”

3. Greetings again from the darkness. One of the key characteristics of Steve Jobs
was that he was constantly striving for perfection. Not just good. Not just
acceptable. He wanted the perfect product in the perfect package sold in the
perfect store. Whether or not you are a fan of Jobs and Apple, it's painful to
watch a middling movie about the man and the company that seems to strive for
very little ... and certainly not perfection.

13 | P a g e
4. I've seen this film and the one starring Michael Fassbender, "Steve Jobs". The
difference between the two is this - This film shows a great deal of Steve's' life,
with a real accent on the mid to late 70s as Apple was being created. The
Fassbender film only shows three specific scenes in Steve's life, but by the time
the film is through, even though Fassbender does not even resemble Steve Jobs,
you feel like you are looking right at him because of Fassbender's electrifying
performance. In "Jobs" Kutcher may be made up to look and walk like Jobs, but I
never feel like I am getting into the head of Steve Jobs.

14 | P a g e
 Conclusion

The movie all over was pretty good. It’s a good watch but not a great one. It feels motivating
to see films like these who tell us a real life story of legends in a dramatic way. I conclude
this project by recommending everyone to watch this movie if you want to know about the
life of the great digital revolutionary, Steve Jobs in a quick, crisp and entertaining manner.

I conclude by mentioning one of my Steve Jobs’ fav quote from his Stanford
commencement speech,

“Stay hungry. Stay foolish”

15 | P a g e
 BIBLIOGRAPHY/ REFERENCES

• https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2357129/reviews
• https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/jobs-2013

16 | P a g e