Film
Silicon Cowboys
Silicon Cowboys tells the scrappy, improbable story of Compaq Computer, three Houstonians who took on IBM's monopoly in 1982 and won—then lost it all. It's a sharply paced business documentary that balances technical innovation with personal ambition, corporate warfare, and the particular madness of the early PC boom. For anyone curious about how the tech world actually works.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you enjoy business history told through the scrappy, stubborn people who built things, the kind of documentary where a garage-era gamble feels as tense as a thriller.
Skip it if you want a sweeping, polished production or a fast cut-to-cut pace; this is a modest, talk-driven documentary built on interviews and archival material.
What it asks of you: It runs about seventy-seven minutes and sits with its interviewees for long stretches, so it rewards patience more than quick attention.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Halt and Catch Fire2014
Four seasons of fictional characters living the exact same era Compaq inhabited, with genuine technical detail and the same mix of vision, ego, and cutthroat competition. It captures the fever dream of building something that matters.
But It's a prestige drama, not a documentary—slower, moodier, and more interested in personal wreckage than triumph. Some threads feel deliberately unresolved.
The Social Network2010
Same DNA: the origin story of titans built by obsessive founders, the legal battles, the sense that you're watching history happen in real time. Fincher's direction makes corporate warfare feel genuinely thrilling.
But Heavily fictionalized and shaped by Sorkin's cynicism. By design, it's less interested in what they actually built than in who stabbed whom.
Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine2015
Another portrait of a tech visionary, but this one probes the gap between the mythology and the person. Thoughtful, visually inventive documentary-making that respects the audience's intelligence.
But It's meditative rather than propulsive. Long stretches are more about Jobs' psychology than the products or the industry wars.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Silicon Cowboys
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
My Best Friend's Wedding1997
Both are about teams of friends held together by loyalty and invention, improvising their way through impossible odds with the same mix of humor and desperation.
Completely unexpected tonal match: a romantic comedy with the same scrappy energy and the same three-against-the-world vibe. It's about underdogs improvising, sweating, believing they can pull off the impossible.
But It's Julia Roberts, it's 1997, it has absolutely nothing to do with business or tech. The connection is pure emotional DNA, not subject matter.
More like this (7)
The Dropout2022
Recent, gripping miniseries about another tech founder convinced they could remake an industry. Similar hubris, similar rise and fall, but with the added weight of real-world consequences and fraud charges.
But It's deliberately unflattering to Elizabeth Holmes. If you're hoping for a more balanced portrait of a complex figure, this leans hard into scandal.
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room2005
Another corporate documentary about visionaries who believed their own mythology. Tighter filmmaking than Silicon Cowboys, genuinely furious moral clarity. Same era of unchecked ambition.
But Much darker—it's about fraud and collapse with real victims. Not remotely as fun, even though both stories end badly.
Pirates of Silicon Valley1999
A dramatized account of Apple versus Microsoft that's gonzo and loving about the era. It gets the texture of 1980s tech culture right, and it's plainly having a blast.
But It's 1999 TV movie production values and it knows. Some of it hasn't aged well, and it takes liberties Sorkin would envy.
Code: Debugging the Gender Gap2016
Documentary that reframes tech history by asking who was left out of the room. Smart, urgent, and it puts Compaq's era in a larger context about power and exclusion.
But It's more polemical than Silicon Cowboys. Some viewers might feel lectured rather than invited to think.
Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things2015
Same year as Silicon Cowboys, completely different register. About the things we chase and what we lose in the chasing. Quietly devastating about ambition.
But Slow, introspective, almost aggressively peaceful. If you want momentum and business drama, this will feel like watching paint dry.
AlphaGo2017
Another David-and-Goliath tech story, but about artificial intelligence instead of hardware. Beautifully shot, surprisingly tense. A different kind of innovation war.
But It's more niche—if you don't care about Go or AI, the stakes might feel abstract. Shorter runtime but less narrative drive.
Shōgun2024
Both are about ambitious men trying to build empires in hostile territory by understanding systems others ignore, and both end with the original vision compromised by the very power they won.
A limited series about outsiders entering a closed system and trying to survive, powered by technical mastery and ruthless adaptation. The political warfare is as intricate as any boardroom in 1980s Houston.
But It's a historical drama in Japan, not a business documentary. You're watching visceral human drama and art direction, not facts and interviews. Entirely different register.
People
Cast
Rod CanionSelf
Bill MurtoSelf- Jim HarrisSelf
- Bill FargoSelf
- Hugh BarnesSelf
- Gary StimacSelf
- Steve FlanniganSelf
- Mike SwavelySelf
- Karen WalkerSelf
- Ben RosenSelf
- Ross CooleySelf
- Steve UllrichSelf
Directing
- Jason CohenDirector
Writing
- Rod CanionBook
- Jason CohenWriter
- Steven LeckartWriter