Pirates of Silicon Valley is a 1999 American biographical drama television film directed by Martyn Burke and starring Noah Wyle as Steve Jobs and Anthony Michael Hall as Bill Gates.

[2] Steve Jobs is speaking with director Ridley Scott about the creation of the 1984 advertisement for Apple Computer, which introduced the first Macintosh.

Wozniak notes to the audience the resemblance between Big Brother and the image of Bill Gates on the screen behind Jobs during this announcement.

Gates's and Allen's early work with MITS is juxtaposed against the involvement of Jobs and Wozniak with the "Homebrew Computer Club".

The film follows Jobs's relationship with his high school girlfriend and early Apple employee, Arlene (a pseudonym for Chrisann Brennan), and the difficulties he had with acknowledging his parental legitimacy of their daughter, Lisa.

Gates responds by saying that Apple had done the same thing to Xerox, and rather that it was analogous to both of them stealing from a rich neighbor who left their door unlocked.

The main body of the film finally concludes with a 30th birthday toast in 1985 to Steve Jobs shortly before he was forced out of Apple by CEO John Sculley.

Burke notes that when he was shown the first draft of the screenplay, which is based upon Freiberger and Swaine's Fire in the Valley, "It was all about how the '286 computer' became the '386' and so on ...

[3] In developing the characters themselves, Burke also stated that he chose not to speak with any of the central figures portrayed in the film: I did not want to do an "authorized biography" on either Microsoft or Apple, so we made the decision going in that we would not talk or meet with them.

Wyle originally turned down the role, but changed his mind after Burke had him watch the 1996 documentary, Triumph of the Nerds.

[5] Wyle states that he watched the documentary "for ten seconds and knew I'd kick myself for the rest of my life if I didn't play this part.

"[6] He also noted that Triumph of the Nerds led him to be "taken by [Jobs's] presence, his confidence, smugness, smartness, ego, and his story's trajectory.

However, when Wyle was unable to receive a long enough release from ER to shoot in Canada, the film temporarily shut down.

Actor Noah Wyle, who portrays Jobs, stated in an interview with CNN, "These kids grew up 30 miles south of the [University of California] Berkeley campus, which was ripe with revolution ... and they couldn't have cared less about the politics going on.

"[8] Director Martyn Burke also noted in an interview that, "Steve Jobs and Bill Gates are the true revolutionaries of our time.

[9] The piano song that is playing in the scene when Steve Jobs accuses Bill Gates of stealing Apple's ideas is not on the soundtrack.

That omission sparked a search that lasted a few years[citation needed] until it was eventually found to be "Soliloquy"[10] by English composer Tony Hymas.

[13] Ray Richmond of Variety states that it is "a brilliant piece of filmmaking" and "a wildly entertaining geek tragedy with the stylistic feel of true art.

[14] Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette argues that the film is "a fascinating drama filled with Shakespearean twists and betrayals as viewers come to know the geniuses who transformed not only the way we communicate, but the way we live.

"[15] Brian J. Dillard of AllMovie argues that "thanks to inspired casting and strong writing, this well-oiled TV biopic managed to transform the unglamorous genesis of the personal-computer industry into solid entertainment precisely at the moment when dot-com mania was sweeping the nation.

"[16] Mike Lipton of People, found the film to be "engagingly irreverent" and "a real-life Revenge of the Nerds [that] stands cheekily on its own.

And there was this growing ripple of laughter throughout the auditorium when people got what was happening.I honestly had had no idea what to expect: I thought the whole thing might be an ambush—that he'd get me to his event and that what he said we were going to do in fact wasn't what we were going to do, and I would somehow be humiliated.

"[12] In May 2015, Wozniak once again commented on the film, stating that Pirates of Silicon Valley is an example of a good Hollywood dramatization of himself, Steve Jobs, and the story of Apple Inc.

"[22] Two individuals have responded to the film's interpretation of the 1979 visit of Jobs and his team to the Xerox PARC research center, which influenced the development of both the Lisa and Macintosh computers.

PARC's director, John Seely Brown stated in a 2006 interview that the scene in which Gates and Jobs argue about the role of Xerox is not entirely accurate.

He said that Jobs was invited by PARC to view their technology in exchange for the ability to buy pre-IPO Apple stock.