I revisited this film again last night.
Each time I watch this film there’s something different I see, and this time around there’s something new I noticed that may have to do with where my mind and life happen to be now.
For a man known to create the “bicycles of our mind”, a man who seems to have an innate understanding of human nature and how humans think, Steve’s relationships with the people in his life seem to almost point to the exact opposite. Maybe his own ambitions and what he wanted to do blinded him in the first two acts from what was happening to his relationships, but he also seems like he was oblivious to what was being shown in his face, and his own responses seem to suggest a lack of empathy or even a lack of understanding, or not enough attention. The ending isn’t meant to absolve him of his misgivings, and regret is shown in a powerful and relatable way in the middle of the third act. But, becoming aware of his shortcomings at the end and beginning to walk down that better path was something I appreciated to see as the end to this film. There’s a relevance here in that this is attributable to people around us, you and me, and not just to people like Steve Jobs.
It goes almost without saying how good the script is from Aaron Sorkin and how melodic and rhythmic the performances were from this cast. I can watch these scenes over and over again.
There is though something alluring about Steve’s innate genius. Though if he had more empathy would Apple be what it is today? It’s a hard question to ponder - do you sometimes need to take the hard path to achieve what you really want?
