The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley is a documentary film which premiered on US television (HBO) in 2019.
It is the amazing - almost incredible - story of Elizabeth Holmes and the medical company Theranos which she founded in 2003.
Here is some basic information about this film:
** Director: Alex Gibney
** Producers: Alex Gibney, Jessie Deeter, and Erin Edeiken
** Run time: 119 minutes
Several persons are interviewed in the film, including the following:
** Erika Cheung – worked at Theranos – she became a whistleblower
** Tyler Shultz – worked a Theranos – he became a whistsleblower
** Dan Ariely – professor of psychology
** Roger Parloff – writer and editor of Fortune magazine
** Ken Auletta – a reporter at The New Yorker – he wrote an article about Elizabeth Holmes which was published in 2014
** John Carreyrou – a reporter at the Wall Street Journal – he wrote a series of articles about Theranos which appeared in 2015
** Phyllis Gardner – professor of medicine at Stanford University
** Rochelle Gibbons – she is the widow of Ian Gibbons who worked as a chemist at Theranos – he committed suicide in 2013
This film covers the rise and fall of Theranos.
It was founded by Elizabeth Holmes and Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani in 2003. In 2015, it was facing serious trouble when the Wall Street Journal began to publish a series of articles which raised tough questions about what was really going on behind the polished façade of Theranos. In 2018, it collapsed like a house of cards.
A famous slogan in the world of inventions says:
Fake it until you can make it!
Elizabeth Holmes pretended to have a marvelous invention, even though it was not true.
She pretended that her company had built a small machine which could make a reliable blood test based on a single drop of blood. But it was not true.
She did have a machine, but it was not small, and it was not able to perform a reliable blood test based on a single drop of blood.
She was able to fake it for a long time. She probably kept hoping the machine of her dreams would be ready next week, next month or next year. But it never happened.
She never reached the moment when she could make it. She had to fake it all the way to the bitter end.
What do reviewers say about this film?
Here are some results:
66 percent = Meta
72 percent = IMDb
75 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)
79 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)
On Amazon there are at the moment more than 1,800 ratings of this product (more than 190 with reviews).
The average rating is 4.4 stars which corresponds to a rating of 88 percent.
As you can see, the ratings are quite good. I understand the positive reviews and I agree with most of them.
This film is good, but it is not great. One significant aspect of the story is missing: the voice of Elizabeth Holmes.
As a woman, Elizabeth Holmes has a high pitch. But it seems she was afraid that she would not be taken seriously if she spoke with a female voice.
She decided to change her voice when she was speaking at a public event and when she was interviewed for television. She spoke with a deep voice. She tried to sound like a man. But it was a fake voice. It was not her true voice.
When you listen to her fake voice, it is obvious that it is fake. It is odd that she did this, and it is even more odd that she was able to keep this up for several years.
After the collapse of Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes wanted to start a new life. She dropped her long-time partner Sunny Balwany as well as her fake voice.
She found herself a new boyfriend who was a member of a rich family. She became pregnant, not only once but twice. She is the mother of two children.
But the topic "the fake voice of Elizabeth Holmes" is not mentioned in this film. The topic is ignored. This is strange, because in this film, she is using the fake voice whenever a clip of an old interview is used.
I like this film and I want to give it a good rating, but as you can see, there is a flaw which cannot be ignored. I have to remove one star because of this flaw.
This is why I think this product deserves a rating of four stars (80 percent).
REFERENCES
# 1. Books and films
Bad Blood:
Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
By John Carreyrou
(2018)
Billion Dollar Façade:
The Rise and Fall of Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes
By Phil C. Senior
(2020)
The Dropout
A historical drama which premiered in 2022
A miniseries with eight episodes
# 2. Regarding the fake voice
Monica Hesse,
Elizabeth Holmes's weird, possibly fake baritone is actually her least baffling quality
Chicago Tribune
21 March 2019
John Johnson,
Yes, the Elizabeth Holmes voice was fake
Newser
7 May 2023
Matt Prigge,
Elizabeth Holmes finally admits deep voice was a fake
Uproxx
7 May 2023
Danielle Cohen,
Elizabeth Holmes has changed her voice again
The Cut
8 May 2023
*****
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