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A Masterpiece!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Non-existent. Microsoft didn't just bumble and cheat themselves to contracts, Apple didn't steal from Xerox PARC (they paid Xerox, Microsoft was there as well, btw), Mike Markkula didn't just drive past a garage and offered 250k, both Apple and Microsoft worked together from very early on (Apple licensed Microsoft Basic and sold it as Applesoft Basic, MS was early involved in the Mac to write applications), the reaction in 1997 was not nearly as hostile as depicted, the speech was different as well (you can see it on youtube...) etc. pp.As a movie it's far from great either, the script itself is lacking in finesse, the characters are caricatures.

An immensely captivating docu-drama that covers the rise of PC industry by focusing on the events that eventually led to the intense rivalry between Apple Inc. & Microsoft Corp.; the two companies that single-handedly spawned a revolution that went on to change the whole world, Pirates of Silicon Valley offers an insight into the lives of the genius founders of these two revolutionary firms and the differences in their operational methods.Spanning from 1971-1997 and narrated in non-chonological order, Pirates of Silicon Valley is a semi-biographical account of the very people who made the world of technology what it is today, starting with Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak who co-founded Apple Computers in a garage before it became a billion-dollar firm, then moves to show the birth of Microsoft and the rivalry between these two future empires that only helped the computer industry boom.Written & directed by Martyn Burke, Pirates of Silicon Valley begins with the production of the famous 1984 TV commercial, a watershed event in itself, and culminates with the 1997 Macworld Expo where Jobs, after having made his return to the company he co-founded, announces Apple's new alliance with Microsoft. Interspersed within this story are segments covering the life of Bill Gates, how Microsoft came into existence and its deal with IBM that began its lifelong feud with Apple.The production design team deserves kudos for the set pieces are so wonderfully detailed & refined that they almost qualify as exact replica for the most part, whether its Jobs' home or the garage in which Apple Computers was born or other stuff. A few depicted events are inaccurate with shifted timelines or details but they are mostly done to enhance the drama, which is nicely captured by its camera, while its non-linear narration keeps its 95 minutes of story interesting for the most part.Coming to the performances, it's the very reason why Pirates of Silicon Valley works so well for the contribution by its cast is immensely convincing and all of them are highly believable in their given roles. Absolutely nailing the personalities & looks of the characters they play, both Noah Wyle & Anthony Michael Hall leave a lasting impression in their respective roles of Steve Jobs & Bill Gates, while the supporting actors who play the characters of Steve Wozniak, Paul Allen, Steve Ballmer & others are no slouch either.But there is... One more thing! Pirates of Silicon Valley mostly focuses on Steve Jobs' life, his modus operandi & his relationships and is quite hard on him. I wish there was more of Bill Gates than what made it into the final print because his character arc has an interesting dimension as well, if not equally appealing. The only side of Bill Gates that we get to see is his ruthless business practice. And in all honesty, the film isn't kind to either of them and places more emphasis on their negative qualities than the talent & vision they possessed.On an overall scale, despite a few artistic license taken to make the drama more immersive, Pirates of Silicon Valley is an enjoyable, entertaining & enlightening TV feature film that tries to bring on screen the history of two companies which forever changed the way we used to think, work & communicate. After all, the very device you're reading this from either belongs to one of these two tech giants or is heavily influenced by their products. Having worked on Windows PC for the major part of my life before switching to Mac some 5 years ago (one of the best decisions I ever made), I'd been wanting to watch this film for a long time and now that I've seen it, the nerd in me is highly satisfied! Delightfully recommended.

it's a good effort. Even Steve Jobs himself gave nods at the movie. But if you're looking for accuracy, look elsewhere. in the early days of personal computers, nothing was black or white, and this movie dabs itself in simplicity, while history was anything but.why does this movie feel as though there was a deliberate hand keeping the tone, acting and storyline to a goofy/low budget level? this is a great story, not to mention an important story too, with almost universal appeal. Did the producers think this could only appeal to geeks/nerds?is it worth watching? absolutely. but you can't but wish they had been a little more serious doing this film.

This film was one of those ones, that tries to remain unbiased, but you can clearly see it is, in a small way.First of all, this film often depicts Microsoft as some kind of ruthless company, that didn't have any ethics or morals, despite them even paying the creator of QDOS a large sum of cash, without even knowing if the general public would be interested. While both companies took that risk, Apple simply took apart an old computer, inserted a MOS 6502 chip, and called their own. Not to mention, they originally ran on Microsoft's software, in which they were literally begging Microsoft not to cut their support after they refused to pay the licensing fee.Also, Microsoft never stole anything from Apple. In the movie, Jobs get's angry with Gates, claiming they took their software, changed a few things, and called it their own. But yet currently, their OS is built on FreeBSD, something they didn't even make. The fact is the idea for a GUI (Graphical User Interface for those non-tech savvy people) had been floating around for ages, Apple made it first, but Gates was working on something similar at the same time. You can't copyright ideas, if so, Apple wouldn't be able to use it either.Also comes the fact that Xerox never showed particular interest in either company, they simply wanted the best.This movie is fun to watch, 10/10 for that, but if I was to get real critical, the biased ways of this film are a bit in favor of Apple.