Land of the Giants: The Titans of Tech Review

Big on big names but small on substance

I had not seen any reviews for Land of the Giants: The Titans of Tech so I subscribed to CNN+ to see Scott Forstall talk about Apple. Let me save you 84 mins and $2.99. 

The film length tv episode is both too long and too short. The documentary tries to cover Job’s and Wozniak’s pre-Apple friendship to current day Apple but in exhausting tiny 5 second clips. The best parts of the 84-minute episode are the ex-Apple employees (Steve Wozniak, Scott Forstall, Tony Fadell, Phillip Shoemaker) and tech journalists (Walt Mossberg, John Gruber, Mark Gurman, Emily Chan, Joanna Stern, Kara Swisher) sprinkled throughout the film. It would have been a much better show if the director just let them talk about Apple for more than 5 seconds at a time. 

If you came for new tales about Apple’s mythology you will leave disappointed. I did not recall one new fact to add to Apple Canon. You will also be disappointed if you expected a show about a tech company to talk about tech for more than 5 minutes. The show, about a tech company, is broken into two parts: Steve Jobs’ relationship with Apple and Apple’s post-Jobs external company politics. Sure, it shows Apple’s greatest hit products, but they are only mile markers on the director’s journey about Jobs and politics. 

Your mother may like it if she does not read tech business headlines about Apple.