Trailer debuts for Steve Jobs documentary derided by Apple exec as 'mean-spirited'

The trailer for "Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine," a highly criticized documentary from Oscar winner Alex Gibney, premiered on Friday, giving the general public their first glimpse at the controversial film.

Theh upcoming documentary from Magnolia Pictures and CNN Films was shared with Mashable. Gibney won an Academy Award for his 2007 film "Taxi to the Dark Side," and recently earned acclaim for the HBO documentary "Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief."

The film opens in select theaters on Sept. 4, but it debuted at the South by Southwest film festival earlier this year. It was there that Apple executive Eddy Cue saw the documentary, leading him to slam the film on Twitter.

"An inaccurate and mean-spirited view of my friend," Cue wrote back in March. "It's not a reflection of the Steve I knew."

Other Apple employees who saw the film during its screening in Texas reportedly walked out before it finished airing.

A poster for the film has also been released by Magnolia pictures, as seen below.

The 120-minute documentary has been promoted as a "provocative and sometimes startling re-evaluation of the legacy of an icon." Other critically acclaimed films from Gibney include "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," and "Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God."

Earlier this month, the full trailer for Oscar winner Aaron Sorkin's film "Steve Jobs" premiered. That dramatic retelling of the life of Jobs, as played by actor Michael Fassbender, will hit theaters on Oct. 9.

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98 Comments

am8449

said about 8 years ago

Looks interesting. Maybe a little sensationalistic from the looks of the trailer. But interesting nonetheless.

suddenly newton

said about 8 years ago

I've seen this movie, and it's absolutely negative. It's polemic. Gibney thinks he's uncovered a new scandalous exposé on our adored icon, and that's how Magnolia is marketing the movie, but if you watch it, they [B]only[/B] interview critics of Steve, and go over what a colossal jerk he was to everyone, 20 years ago, because that's about as recent as the personal character testimony is in the movie. Then they go over and dredge up every scandal associated with Apple and slam Apple for murdering Chinese factory workers and beating up that blogger who was trying to traffic a stolen iPhone 4 prototype, bad Apple! [I]You're evil, and I'm gonna getcha in my documentary. Yeah, I gotcha good.[/I] My description is probably making the Apple haters salivate, LOL. Enjoy your bias confirmation, boys. You know who you are.

techlover

said about 8 years ago

I've enjoyed Gibney's other stuff. Looking forward to watching this as well.

inkling

said about 8 years ago

Jobs "brutal" behavior is well-documented. It's easy to suspect that the fond memories these Apple executives have for him now flow in part from the fact that he made them stupendously rich and that he's now dead, unable to trouble them any more. It's also probably true that Apple's upper ranks were a self-selecting group of those who could handle his abusive speech. Less thick-skinned but perhaps more talented people left. It's also true that the angry young man of the earlier years did seem to mature and soften under the influence of his wife and particularly as he faced sickness and death. Unfortunately, those changes didn't come soon enough to end his crazy ideas about fruit cures (versus surgery) that played a role in his death. The truth is enough. Steve Jobs accomplishments are more than enough to negate any need to whitewash away his faults.