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If a few months ago we recommended a dozen books that everyone interested in innovation should read, today we are taking advantage of everyone's interest in the Oscar awards and focussing our attention on the seventh art with the 6 best films about innovation and entrepreneurship.
These are 6 films, released over the last three decades and whose leading roles involve characters (most inspired by real people) who decided to leave the established path to create new paths. Characters that inspire us and provide essential lessons for anyone interested in innovation or entrepreneurship.
As, from now on, the article contains spoilers of the films here is a list, just in case:
- Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988)
- Jerry Maguire (1996)
- Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999)
- October Sky (1999)
- The Pursuit of Happiness (2006)
- The Social Network (2010)
Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988)
This film about innovation, based on a true story, was directed by the famous film-maker Francis Ford Coppola and stars the Oscar-winning actor Jeff Bridges. It recounts part of the life of the American engineer Preston Tucker, entrepreneur and automobile designer. It focusses specifically on the beginning of his career, when Tucker decided to build the car of the future: A fast, powerful, low cost vehicle which aimed to revolutionise the market.
But like many other innovators, Tucker ran into serious problems when it came to producing his prototype. The worst thing was the power of the great car manufacturers of the time, who joined forces to put an end to his dream. However, Tucker managed to manufacture up to 51 models of his Tucker Torpedo (a Sedan model known today as Tucker 48, after the year of its production).
Jerry Maguire (1996)
Directed by Cameron Crowe (winner of an Oscar for the screenplay of Almost Famous) and with Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise playing the leading role, this film tells the story of Jerry Maguire, a promoter of sportspeople who works for one of the best companies in his sector, with a very high salary, renown and great contacts. However, after becoming fully aware that money is now the true engine behind his profession, much more than the people involved, he decides to make a radical change in his life.
After losing everything as a result of his decision, Maguire embarks on a new adventure, with a single client (a small-time football player) and only helped by a secretary. Maguire soon becomes known as an innovator within his line of work by conducting his business based on principles far removed from the conventional.
Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999)
This film could well be just another documentary about an entrepreneur. It was written and directed by Martyn Burke, and based on the book Fire in the Valley: The Making of a Personal Computer. It recounts the historical rivalry between two great innovators, Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft (played by Anthony Michael Hall), along with the story of innovation of Steve Jobs, creator of Apple (played by Noah Wyle).
However, the interest of the film lies not so much in the struggle between Gates and Jobs, but in being able to contemplate a time (the seventies) when Silicon Valley, one of the most important areas in the world with regard to the creation of start-ups, witnessed probably the greatest concentration of talent in its history. That of two geniuses who completely revolutionised the world of computing as a result of their innovations.
October Sky (1999)
This film is again based on real events and is one of the 6 best films about innovation and entrepreneurship. It is based on the life of Homer Hickam, a dreamer who revolutionised his humble hometown, Coalwood, in West Virginia (USA ). A town where the mine provided the livelihood for the vast majority of its inhabitants. One of them was Homer's father, who wanted his children to become miners just like him. However, everything changed on the night of 4 October 1957, when the Soviet satellite Sputnik was launched into space.
Homer was fascinated by what he saw: A vehicle flying through the stars. So he decided to build his own rockets, to the astonishment of his relatives and neighbours. To do this he teamed up with three school friends, and with a teacher who saw that the boys had a lot of potential (and whose help was essential for the development of his entrepreneurial adventure, which developed to become a key factor in the commitment to co-working). Homer's passion and ability to overcome obstacles were such that he managed to make one of his dreams come true: to leave Coalwood and go to work at NASA, the most important space agency in the world, with which he remained involved all his life until his retirement.
The Pursuit of Happiness (2006)
Here again we have the story of a real winner in this film about innovation and entrepreneurship, Chris Gardner, played masterfully by Will Smith in the film (for which he received his first Oscar nomination), and directed by Italian film-maker Gabriele Muccino, and in which Will shared some scenes with his own son: Jaden Smith.
Gardner, like many other entrepreneurs, decided to invest all his efforts and money in a project. In this case, the sale of portable bone density scanners. However, the business failed and Gardner went bankrupt overnight. After his wife left him, he had to take care of his young son, so he decided to find a job. Thanks to his tenacity, his hard work and also to a large extent, his intelligence, Gardner got a job in a company, even though it was only temporary. But as a result of his innovations in the company's telephone sales system, Gardner was given a permanent position after a trial period. This would only be the first step in the meteoric rise of this entrepreneur who later created his own start-up, as a result of which he ended up becoming a multimillionaire.
The Social Network (2010)
This is the last of the 6 best films about innovation and entrepreneurship. We really could not leave out the film that tells the story of the birth of Facebook, the most important social network in history. The film was directed by David Fincher and written by one of the best screenwriters in Hollywood, Aaron Sorkin, with Jesse Eisenberg playing the role of the innovation according to Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, and one of the most influential people in the world.
Much has already been written about the life of this innovator, but undoubtedly this film is essential for those looking to find out more about how Zuckerberg became the personality he is today. The film not only tells in great detail the process that led him to develop Facebook (and the controversy that surrounded it), but also provides very interesting aspects about the private life and personality of this programmer from New York, who will go down in the history books as a result of an application that already has 1,650 million users around the world.