喬布斯紀錄片將令粉絲不滿 Steve Jobs film will upset fans but misreads underdog mindset
Film-maker Alex Gibney knows how to pick a controversial subject for his documentaries.
電影製片人亞歷克斯·吉布尼(Alex Gibney)知道怎樣爲自己的紀錄片挑選一個有爭議的主題。
His examination of Apple’s co-founder arrives at a time of renewed debate about Steve Jobs’ life. In March, Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli argued in their book, Becoming Steve Jobs , that their subject was too harshly portrayed by his many previous biographers.
他所拍攝的關於史蒂夫吠布斯(Steve Jobs)的紀錄片《史蒂夫吠布斯：機器人生》(Steve Jobs: Man in the Machine)上映時，圍繞這位蘋果(Apple)聯合創始人生平的辯論再度展開。今年3月，布倫特施倫德(Brent Schlender)和裏克礠噲利(Rick Tetzeli)在《成爲史蒂夫吠布斯》(Becoming Steve Jobs)一書中表示，以往的許多傳記作者對喬布斯過於苛刻。
Later this year, Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin’s drama starring Michael Fassbender as the iPhone impresario will go backstage at key product launches.
由丹尼娠伊爾(Danny Boyle)導演，阿倫∠爾金(Aaron Sorkin)編劇，邁克爾法斯本德(Michael Fassbender)主演的《喬布斯傳》(Steve Jobs)將登上大屏幕，展現蘋果關鍵產品發佈的幕後故事。
Gibney’s addition to the canon points out, like so many others before him, that Jobs was a man of contradictions: the renegade who wanted to be legit, the humanist who denied paternity of his first daughter, the Wall Street idol embroiled in stock options and recruiting scandals. “He had the focus of a monk,” Gibney says as narrator, his camera lingering over Japanese zen gardens, “but none of the empathy.”
如之前其他許多作品一樣，吉布尼的作品也指出喬布斯是個矛盾的人，他是個叛逆者，卻想得到承認；他是個人道主義者，卻拒認自己的大女兒；他是華爾街的偶像，卻身陷股票期權和招聘醜聞。吉布尼在旁白中說道：“他有着僧侶一樣的專注。”鏡頭掃過日式禪宗花園，“卻沒有同理心。”
The familiar stories told in this documentary are brought to life with extensive interviews with former Apple employees and Jobs’ associates, as well as archive footage that includes his first screen test.
這部紀錄片講述的故事並不新鮮，但片中大量的前蘋果員工和喬布斯同事的訪談，以及包括喬布斯首次試鏡等影像資料，給這些故事注入了生命力。
Just as compelling are clips from the March 2008 video deposition, where Jobs squirms constantly in his seat as he is quizzed over allegations of backdated stock options.
其中有個片段頗爲引人入勝，這是2008年3月拍攝的一段視屏證詞。當時喬布斯因回溯股票期權的指控接受問詢，畫面中他在座位上一直坐立難安。
Absent from the screen, however, are any current Apple employees. Several members of Apple’s current management team blessed Becoming Steve Jobs as their preferred account of their former chief. Eddy Cue, who heads Apple’s services business, was rather less enthusiastic about Man in the Machine, calling it “an inaccurate and mean-spirited view of my friend”.
但是這部紀錄片裏沒有一個蘋果在職員工。蘋果目前管理團隊中的幾名成員更青睞《成爲史蒂夫吠布斯》作爲前掌門人的傳記。蘋果服務部門主管艾迪錠伊(Eddy Cue)對《史蒂夫吠布斯：機器人生》態度冷淡，稱這部片子“對我的朋友抱有一種不準確且刻薄的觀點。”
It is not hard to see where Apple loyalists would object.
不難看出蘋果擁躉們會反對這部紀錄片的地方。
Early on, the film-maker professes his love for his iPhone and Pixar movie Wall-E, but says he struggled to understand the global outpouring of grief in 2011 at the death of a man he calls “ruthless, deceitful and cruel”. He supports this argument by recalling suicides at Apple’s suppliers in China, investigations of its overseas profits and ripped-off colleagues such as Steve Wozniak and Daniel Kottke.
該片開頭，阿里克斯吉布尼表達了自己對iPhone、皮克斯(Pixar)電影《機器人瓦力》(Wall-E)的喜愛，但表示難以理解2011年當喬布斯——一個被他稱之“無情、虛僞、嚴酷”的男人——去世時，全球各界表達的悲痛之情。爲了支持自己的觀點，吉布尼提到了蘋果在華供應商員工自殺事件，蘋果海外利潤受到調查，以及喬布斯昔日同事史蒂夫茠祬尼亞克(Steve Wozniak)和丹尼爾科特克(Daniel Kottke)的吃虧上當。
Yet by failing to include Jobs’ heirs and bring the story up to date, Gibney misses an opportunity to examine the company that survives him — at a crucial moment for the iPhone maker’s leadership.
然而由於未能採訪到喬布斯的繼任者以補充整個故事的最新情節，吉布尼錯失了考查這家公司在喬布斯過世後的情況的機會，而當前對於蘋果的領導層是一個關鍵時刻。
“Jobs’ genius was how he sold the iPod. It wasn’t a machine for you, it was you,” Gibney says. As Apple pushes beyond phones into watches, televisions, even cars, it is still figuring out how to sell these new categories without its master marketer.
吉布尼說：“喬布斯的天才之處在於他銷售iPod的手段。它不是你的一件設備，它就是你。”除手機以外，蘋果現在又推出了手表、電視機，甚至汽車，沒有了喬布斯這位營銷大師，蘋果仍在摸索如何銷售這些新品類的產品。
Gibney criticises Jobs for “behaving as though Apple was a start-up”, despite it becoming one of the world’s most valuable companies, yet the film-maker underestimates the energising force of playing the underdog.
吉布尼批評喬布斯“表現得就像蘋果還是一家初創公司”，儘管它已經成爲全球市值最高的公司之一，但這位電影製片人低估了扮演弱者的勵志效果。
“This is a field in which one does one’s work and, in 10 years, it’s obsolete,” a young, bearded Jobs tells us towards the end of the film.
影片結尾時，蓄着鬍子的青年喬布斯說道：“在這個領域，人們所做的事10年後就過時了。”
Apple is about to enter its fifth year without its co-founder. All these controversies about Jobs’ life may soon give way to renewed debate about the future of the company he left behind.
蘋果即將進入離開喬布斯的第五個年頭，關於這位聯合創始人一生的所有爭議，可能很快就讓位於圍繞他留下的這家公司的未來發展的辯論。
Steve Jobs: The man in the machine, directed by Alex Gibney, released by Magnolia Pictures, now in selected cinemas, on iTunes and on demand
《史蒂夫吠布斯：機器人生》，阿里克斯吉布尼執導，木蘭影業(Magnolia Pictures)發行，可在部分影院、iTunes以及點播電視上觀看
