Steve Jobs was a business and technological luminary who affected the way we buy music, how we listen to it, the quality of animation we expect in our films, how we interact with computers, and much more. His track record speaks to those things, and so there’s really no denying his business savvy (at least later on). However, that doesn’t mean his influence on the world around him was entirely positive, and it certainly doesn’t mean the man was without flaws. Unfortunately, Steve Jobs: One Last Thing doesn’t look too deep beneath the surface of the man who has long since become something of a mythic being to his acolytes, and instead it satisfies itself for very tepid interviews with some of the people who knew him best. We can all appreciate a documentary that doesn’t want to speak ill of the dead, especially someone with such a vocal and passionate fan base, but good documentarians don’t worry about hurting people’s feelings, and it’s that very concern that held One Last Thing back from being more than just a flattering retelling of Steve Jobs’s life.
This isn’t to say that it’s about time someone did an effective smear campaign of Steve Jobs, because for that you need look no further than flamers posting in the comment section of every article about Mac technology ever. The best way to account for Steve Jobs’s impact on the world is not a documentary about Steve Jobs features a sycophant like will.i.am, who seems desperate to be culturally influential since his spotlight has started to dim, or which occasionally talks Jobs up with hyperbolic statements; the best way to serve his memory is to approach his legacy in a way attuned to the modesty he showed in his later years. Yes, the man was a legend, and yes for a bit he let that get to his head, but the majority of his career was spent focused on innovation and the reimagination of cultural trends. Highlighting that fact doesn’t necessitate that we treat the man like a modern deity or make overreaching claims about his future influence; it just requires us to look at his record, good and bad, because really, that’s enough.
DVD Bonus Features
None.
"Steve Jobs: One Last Thing" is on sale December 13, 2011 and is not rated. Documentary. Directed by Mimi Oconnor.
