'Jobs' Movie Is Missing the Magic of His Story

One early scene in Jobs has Steve Jobs sitting miserably at the side of a stage, looking on as partner Steve Wozniak fumbles through their first presentation at the Homebrew Computer Club in a Stanford University classroom. Nerdy Woz is all technical details -- no magic.

That scene loomed large as I thought about the film and how disappointing it was.

Show, don’t tell is one of the tenets of storytelling, and its close cousin, presenting, is an art which Jobs perfected. And that's what is wrong with the Jobs biopic. It's all about telling, rather than showing. According to Carmine Gallo, writing on Forbes.com, the film is filled with actual quotes from the real-life Jobs, like this one:

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"The greatest artists like Dylan, Picasso and Newton risked failure. And if we want to be great, we’ve got to risk it, too."

Nothing wrong with that quote. It's downright inspiring. The problem is that much of the movie is speechifying, not about the soul of the story. That's not to say Jobs has no sizzle. Ashton Kutcher offers plenty, thanks to his recreation of the entrepreneur with his magnetism, explosive outbursts and characteristic stooped and halting gait. Also thanks to Kutcher, the movie offers viewers a chance to reflect on Jobs's mastery of the art of corporate presentations. 

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FOR SUBSCRIBERSAmerican passenger drafted goodbye texts to her family as Flydubai plane plummeted

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FOR SUBSCRIBERSKratom-like substances are popping up in a typically benign supplement

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FOR SUBSCRIBERSFrom clean energy warrior to ‘wall of shame,’ James Talarico reverses on a fossil fuel money pledge

FOR SUBSCRIBERSCongressional staff planned official trip with luxury stops in Italy and France weeks before election

FOR SUBSCRIBERSA harrowing ordeal aboard an Israel-bound plane

FOR SUBSCRIBERSOpenAI CEO Sam Altman to skip congressional hearing on rogue AI agents

FOR SUBSCRIBERSKey DOJ lawyers departed Trump ‘grand conspiracy’ probe amid pressure to produce, source says

FOR SUBSCRIBERSTrump’s new AI chatbot often links to a site launched under Clinton 26 years ago

FOR SUBSCRIBERSAt MAHA summit, industry CEOs the movement once vilified take the stage

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Related: 5 Tips on How to Present Like Steve Jobs

His presentations inspired and entertained, connecting people with their dreams and touching their emotions.

OK, a biopic needs its share of exposition, so wordiness can be a built-in problem for the genre. But other filmmakers pull it off. Alan Sorkin is one example, telling the story of another high-tech entrepreneur in The Social Network. If anything, Jobs may make moviegoers hunger for Sorkin's own take on Jobs. He's reportedly writing a screenplay based on Walter Isaacson's biography Steve Jobs.

Here's to hoping that film captures the magic of the man.