Friday, June 16, 2006

The Cars Movie and Steve Jobs

I haven't been to the movies since I went to see Narnia, and that was some time ago. I saw a trailer and made a snappy little comment, throwaway to me, that Andrew's front teeth were featured in a starring role. The little pick up!

The movie received great reviews on the radio. No TV coverage in this house anymore. Radio is a wonderfully socialising and engaging medium. I feel I have an intelligent companion concealed in a snazzy little Sony box (NPR). I was made aware of the release date and excitedly hopped in the car and took the boys out for a movie night.

They wanted to see "Over the Hedge". I thought of dropping them off and going to see "The Da Vinci Code". Needless to say, we all saw the movie "Cars" together.

What a joyous movie. The personification of the characters was so well crafted. You were engaged and made to think about the price of progress, the cost to people and to relationships. It was emotional. I looked across at Christopher during the movie and he said "fluff from the ceiling got in my eye"

The cute little blue metallic car, a lawyer from LA hiding out, was the weak link in the whole thing. Oh my, the patronising privilege of wealth. It almost got away with hawking the idea that it is OK not to "play the game" in this so"driven" economy and workplace.


The message was so Steve Jobs' message to his employees. I can't remember verbatim what Kevin's 5 year Achievement Award signed by Steve himself, said exactly, but it was something along the lines of "Working at Apple is about the journey...... thanks for being on board" 3 months later is was "Overboard" for Kevin and not the movie with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell for me! For me it was "Up Shit Creek without a Paddle" That is one movie I wouldn't recommend!

I really think this is the message that he brainwashes all the Apple faithful with. That works to his obvious advantage. Spell bind the suckers with charisma.... The shares go up and the party faithful are happy. I think Apple could have gone either way business wise... the ipod was the Second Coming for the company. Anyway, that's just an aside really.

The "Journey" for Jobs is about winning and always has been....

This little movie is a sentimental story of getting lost and finding yourself on the road to self discovery. And not least, it is about figuring out who the important people are in your life.

Steve Jobs has managed to weave his entire fantasy into this movie and it is there for posterity. The problem I have is that he really doesn't like to lose and he pretends winning doesn't matter.

Andrew reminded me of the off the cuff comment about his teeth. He grinned broadly at me. The grin then broke into a fabulous smile. There were no tire tracks... only wire tracks! They are coming off soon. I recommend Phelps and Cohen in Santa Clara.