Gameology 2.0

While films dealing with technology are rampant, there are very few films which focus on the history of technological advances themselves. One notable exception is the made for TV movie "The Pirates of Silicon Valley," which charts the early careers of Steve Jobs (played with some noted over-acting by E.R.'s Noah Wyle) and (played to perfection by 1980's John Hughes favorite, Anthony Michael Hall) Bill Gates. I rather enjoyed this movie when it came out on TV while I was in high school and couldn't resist purchasing a copy when it recently became available on DVD.

Starting with their college years and ending around the time Microsoft bought a large portion of stock from Apple, it covers a lot of ground while ending in an abrupt way. Just as the movie reaches the heat of the Microsoft Windows VS Mac OS conflict, it suddenly skips ahead to a conference where it becomes clear that Microsoft is the reigning champion. What about what happened in the meantime, from 1987-1996?

Still, I give points to director Martyn Burke for making a biopic that focuses mainly on business meetings an intriguing watch. A score with 70's and 80's pop music adds a sense of flavor to the piece and seeing the contrasting ways Jobs and Gates came to power is entertaining. Frankly, Gates comes off as the more righteous character, but both characters do a good job of capturing the hacker ethic.

The DVD is lacking in special features, but the one that is on the disc is worth watching-- a 5 minute interview with Noah Wyle. He reveals some information about the making of the film that is interesting and ends things on an interesting note-- mentioning that a sequel to this wouldn't be a bad idea. Does that mean an actual sequel is in the works?

This flick would be a fun one to show to an Introduction to Computer History class and would make a fine companion piece to Robert X. Cringely's documentary "Triumph of the Nerds," which covers much of the same subject matter.