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Cringely's take on "Pirates of Silicon Valley"
whitefox writes "Robert X. Cringely gives his two cents on the TNT movie. He makes an interesting point against the sloppy screenwriting and how most people will accept the movie as the truth and never know the "real" history behind the biggest fortune in the world - not like that's ever happened before. "
This always happens when a community starts to embrace its own unique stories. I mean, do you *really* think that Odysseus was really out adventuring that whole decade? (I have it on good authority that he actually spent the better part of those ten years recovering from the party they had after sacking Troy, which rates as one of the top three parties of all time).
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Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
Triumph of the Nerds was a superior piece of documentary work.
Many people (including my mother) watched Pirates and were intrigued. I told them to watch Triumph to get the real (and whole) story, but a non-geek can not seem to commit to a loooonnnnngggg docu about computers. Sigh.
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Yes, Woz and steve were portrayed well. Most of us accept that, or acept Woz's statement of that 'cause we all think he's way cool and stuff.
But it was HISTORICALLY inaccurate. They changed a lot of things to make the story work. And Cringely is right to be concerned that people will start to take this version as fact.
While the Apple guys were portrayed accurately, the Microsoft side was both weak and inaccurate. I'm not saying that because I think Bill Gates should have been portrayed as a monster or something. Hell, I like the man -- as long as I don't have to use any of the software his company produces. I respect his business abilities, even though they don't mesh with my personal philosophy on software. I would have like to see more about him and his personality.
Finally, what I felt to be the big moment of the whole thing -- when Bill tells jobs that he too is a thief, is completely baseless since Apple licensed the GUI stuff from Xerox for cash and stock. I could just chalk that up to historical inaccuracy, but when the culminating point of the whole movie is based on something so false it raises concerns.
All in all I think Cringely makes very valid points. Comparing Pirates and Triumph is probably a mistake since they have different intents and different audiences, but it's important for people to understand that they completely warped history to get the ending they wanted. Sure the characters were presented accurately, but things just didn't happen that way.