Steve Jobs the movie opens nationwide tomorrow, and emotions are running high.
On Wednesday, Walt Mossberg, Jobs’ old pal from the Wall Street Journal, spoke for friends and family with a critique in Re/Code that mixed outrage with self-promotion.
“Unlike [screenwriter Aaron] Sorkin, I did know the real Steve Jobs, for about 14 years—the most productive and successful 14 years of his career running Apple, Inc. I spent scores of hours in private conversations with him over those years, and interviewed himnumerous times onstage at a tech conference I co-produced. And the Steve Jobs portrayed in Sorkin’s film isn’t the man I knew.”
(“Thank you @waltmossberg for caring about the difference between fact and fiction,” tweeted Laurene Powell, Jobs’ widow.)
On Thursday, as if in response, Universal, the studio that produced the film, released a panel discussion on YouTube that mixed promotion with protestations of love and respect. It stars screenwriter Sorkin, director Danny Boyle, and all the principal actors: Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogan, Jeff Daniels.
I recommend that you read Mossberg before you watch the video. Or better still, go see the movie and form your own opinion.
Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter at @philiped. Read his Apple (AAPL) coverage at coins2day.com/ped or subscribe via his RSS feed.
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