Amazingly, almost 30 years after it was made, a short film created by Apple as a spoof of its "1984" Super Bowl spot has finally surfaced. Called "1944," it's set during World War II and features Steve Jobs playing FDR. NetworkWorld's Paul McNamara has posted the entire short, and explains it this way:
     "Entitled '1944,' the almost nine-minute full version was Apple's in-house takeoff on '1984,' the iconic first Macintosh TV ad that caused a sensation during that year's Super Bowl. Set as a World War II tale of good vs. IBM, it is a broadcast-quality production (said to have cost $50,000) that was designed to fire up Apple's international sales force at a 1984 meeting in Hawaii."
     It's wonderfully cheesy—from the war-map graphics to the general's exhortation to his troops to "smash the big blue monoblob"—and a perfectly self-deprecating answer to those who felt "1984" was ponderous, self-important and pretentious. The liberating of the dead-eyed P.O.W.s at the end—with the Siri-sounding voice of the Macintosh waking them from their catatonic states—is particularly great.
     "Remember, the enemy is big, but we are smart. They are the elephant. We are the mouse," says the general. This is no longer true, of course, but it was that thinking that led Apple from a beachhead to world domination.