Silicon Cowboys

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Silicon Cowboys
Three men are standing silhouetted against a green computer screen displaying the words Silicon Cowboys
Directed byJason Cohen
Written byJason Cohen, Steven Leckart
Based onOpen: How Compaq Ended IBM's PC Domination and Helped Invent Modern Computing by Rod Canion[1]
Produced byRoss M. Dinerstein, Glen Zipper
CinematographySvetlana Cvetko
Edited byJake Pushinsky
Music byIan Hultquist
Distributed byFilmRise
Release date
  • September 16, 2016 (2016-09-16) (US)[2]
Running time
77 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Silicon Cowboys is a 2016 American documentary film that follows the meteoric rise of Compaq, a personal computer company founded by three Texans in 1982 in the Greater Houston area. The three founders are featured—Rod Canion, Jim Harris and Bill Murto—along with the New York venture capitalist Benjamin M. Rosen who served as chairman. Archival footage and recent interviews combine to tell the story of how Compaq started producing the first portable ("luggable") IBM-compatible computer. The narrative shows how the company faced challenges in the marketplace, growing quickly, and eventually beating industry giant IBM in the PC category: a David-and-Goliath story.[1][3]

The filmmakers include snippets of the two contemporary TV series—Silicon Valley by HBO and Halt and Catch Fire by AMC—about the PC revolution in California's Silicon Valley and its counterpart technology center in Houston, Texas. Halt and Catch Fire creator Christopher Cantwell gives his impression of Compaq's role, and how the Texans were viewed in California.[4]

Archival footage includes 1980s Compaq television advertisements featuring British comedian John Cleese as well as competing advertisements from IBM with several cast members of M*A*S*H buying PCs in a modern corporate office. Scenes from Compaq's in-house industrial musical stage shows include the Pointer Sisters and Irene Cara performing songs for the employees at various times in the 1980s, and magician David Copperfield appears on stage to promote Compaq products. The documentary describes Microsoft executives Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer as helping Compaq break the stranglehold that IBM had on PC architecture, especially with the threat posed by the IBM PS/2 in 1987, with its proprietary Micro Channel architecture. Compaq is shown joining together with eight other PC manufacturers, known as the Gang of Nine, to establish the Extended Industry Standard Architecture as an alternative to IBM; a strategy that paid off.[5][6][7] The film includes archival video of employees talking about the company, and it shows parts of an in-house rap video made by Compaq vice presidents in 1990 to celebrate reaching $1 billion in sales. Director Jason Cohen said that one of the "biggest hurdles" to making the film was finding a working Betamax videotape player for digitizing the industrial video tapes from the 1980s.[8]

The film premiered at SXSW on March 11, 2016.[8][4][9] Distributor FilmRise released it on September 16, 2016.[10] Reviews were generally favorable; Metacritic lists a score of 75 out of 100 based on five reviews written in September 2016.[11]

References

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  1. ^ a b Jaworowski, Ken (September 15, 2016). "Review: 'Silicon Cowboys' Tracks the Rise of Compaq Computer". The New York Times. Retrieved August 26, 2025.
  2. ^ Boole, Kathryn Whitney (September 24, 2016). "Film Review: Silicon Cowboys". Santa Monica Daily Press. Retrieved August 26, 2025.
  3. ^ Rechtshaffen, Michael (September 16, 2016). "Review: Fast-paced tech doc 'Silicon Cowboys' tracks '80s rise of Compaq Computers". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on September 16, 2016. Retrieved August 26, 2025.
  4. ^ a b Hlavaty, Craig (March 15, 2016). "New documentary on the early days of Compaq Computer Corp. debuts at SXSW". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved August 26, 2025.
  5. ^ Hertz, Leba (September 15, 2016). "'Silicon Cowboys': The disrupter at Compaq who bested IBM". SFGate. Retrieved August 26, 2025.
  6. ^ Long, Christian (September 16, 2016). "'Silicon Cowboys' Sheds Light On The Cultural Origins Of Silicon Valley". Glide Magazine. Retrieved August 26, 2025.
  7. ^ Trenholm, Richard (October 1, 2016). "'Silicon Cowboys': How Compaq cowpokes brought down IBM". CNET. Retrieved August 26, 2025.
  8. ^ a b Ankrum, Nora (March 11, 2016). "Forward Compatible: Silicon Cowboys details how Compaq took down IBM". Austin Chronicle. Retrieved August 26, 2025.
  9. ^ Leydon, Joe (March 16, 2016). "Film Review: 'Silicon Cowboys'". Variety. Retrieved August 26, 2025.
  10. ^ Kim, Leena (September 15, 2016). "What to Watch: Silicon Cowboys". Town & Country. Retrieved August 26, 2025.
  11. ^ "Silicon Cowboys". Metacritic. Retrieved August 26, 2025.
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