ironhorse_iv Review of Triumph of the Nerds

Triumph of the Nerds (1996)

It's time to peek through the Windows and eat the Apple. Indeed, this movie is full of knowledge worth checking out.

[8/10 · 26 June 2014]

Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires is an interesting documentary. The title, Triumph of the Nerds, is a play on the 1984 comedy, Revenge of the Nerds. While this three part documentary is a great insight look at the history of computers, from its rise in the 1970s to the beginning of the Dot-com boom of the late 1990s. This documentary movie is so dated. 3com? Compaq? Locus? Wow, there are a lot of now defunct companies being feature in this movie. It's also weird to see how Apple company, in such decline when this movie was filmed. It's weird, seeing Steve Jobs introduce as the CEO of NeXT and Pixar than Apple. It's also weird to think that the Oracle-company were once thought as a threat to Microsoft! It's also weird to see that the Internet business is just about to start. So, no Googles, Facebook or other internet companies mention here. This three-part film first premiered on PBS in June 1996 and continue in three, 3 hour narrative miniseries episodes included: Impressing their Friends, Riding the Bear, and Great Artists Steal. All narrating by self-professed gossip columnist, Robert X. Cringely AKA Mark Stephens who wrote the novel, 'The Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires' in which the film is based on. Robert Cringely is alright host, but indeed very offended in his terms of words to describe this industry. I know that Robert Cringely is indeed a pen name pseudonym character that Mark Stephen create for his computer "gossip" column, but did this movie really need an over the top narrator. It's like having a fictional character like Toby Radloff from 2003's American Splendor do a serious real life comic book documentary. It doesn't match up. I know, the character morph from a private eye type to a slick, womanizing tech insider, but gees… it's not that popular. He sounds like he's a bitter old man, most of the time, than a real journalist. He wasn't even funny. There was a lot of not needed bitching in this movie from him. I just couldn't take the movie seriously when he complaining about his life, and how much, he's envy with some of these multi-billionaires with their outrageous lifestyles. While, yes, he sings about the successful tales of these businessmen, but he also degrade and beget them with negative stereotypes. How, he ever got interviews with Steve Jobs, Paul Allen, Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak and others is a big mystery with all his sexist and crude remarks, he commands. He remind me of a self-hating leach of the computer industry. He's attitude isn't bad. It's in beta. He's just not-user friendly. He loves using the whole 'nerd' to describe them. The whole cartoony stereotype of a nerd intro being play in each episode beginning was just not needed. After all, this so-called nerds are making billions of dollars, today. If anybody is a nerd, it's Mark Stephen for lying that he got a Ph.D. and making hoaxes about his life. He's just not the man for this documentary. Part One: 'impressing their friends' focus on mostly the rise of personal computers with details about Altair 8800, Apple II, and VisiCalc. Part Two: 'Riding the Bear', mostly focus on the rise of Microsoft and IBM partnership. Then there was the oddly place mention of Compaq's cheap scheme to steal IBMs thunder, by reverse engineering. In my opinion, it's piracy in any legal term. I also love the mention of the creators of the Spreadsheets who misapplications of patent rights cause them, millions of dollars. While, both Compaq and the Spreadsheets sequence were interesting. It didn't really match the feel of the rest of the episode. Part Three: Great Artists Steal feels like most of it, should had been mention on Part Two with the whole Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows introduction and Compaq & Spreadsheets sequence on part 2, should be mention on this episode. After all, this episode is call 'Great Artist Steal". All three parts had some great information that made the movie worthwhile. The movie had some odd generic music playing the background, that make some scenes sound like a porno or a heavy metal concert. While, others felt like it dealt into the Lifestyles of Rich and Famous way too much. The interviews were great. The original interview that Jobs gave to Cringely for Triumph of the Nerds lasted about 70 minutes. Of those 70 minutes, only about 10 were used in the film. When Steve Jobs died in 2011, Triumph of the Nerds director Paul Sen searched for and found in his garage a discarded VHS copy of the original raw and unedited interview. He release the other footage as an independent film in 2012. It's worth checking out. Sadly, for this movie, Triumph of the Nerds doesn't have that as an extra special feature, so you might have to shell more money to see that part. Since the series was released in VHS format soon after airing; it might be hard for certain people to see through 3 hours of footage. The documentary was easy to get through, even in one seating, for me, but I would watch it, in three parts. The 2002 DVD by Ambrose Video, cut a few segments from the original program to make it, easier to watch for the audience. So, if you find yourself, wanting to watch, and unedited version. You might be out of luck, as it's hard to find. Overall: It's worth the watch. I wouldn't say, it's the best computer documentary out there. There are better films out there that has information that more present day. But if you're looking for a movie that show the times, how life was before Apple INC big comeback, the dot-com bust, and Microsoft monopoly into other media industries. Then this is your movie.