This is a documentary focussing on the community of Macintosh computer users, and to a lesser extent on "the cult of Macintosh". Like most documentaries, this one is made up mostly of talking heads, but it is edited as a sequence of fast cuts, so each talking head gets only a sentence or two before another comes on, or we cut to a throng of Mac fans. These sound bites are very skillfully woven together to present a smooth narrative; in fact it is probably smoother than if we had stuck with each talking head for a longer period. A few of the interviewees get (and deserve) longer segments. Musician Galen Brandt is very articulate and charming. Internet broadcasting host Shawn King is very articulate and less charming, but has a very realistic (some might say cynical) view of the Macintosh community and its relationship to Apple the corporation. He sums it up as "Don't love Apple, love the community."

The narrative focuses on Macintosh consumers. The people who created the Macintosh and who develop hardware and software for the Macintosh are almost completely absent. The film says very little about the Macintosh itself, and if you didn't know what one was you would probably be baffled by this film. The only real Macintosh insiders who were interviewed for the film are Dan Kottke and Guy Kawasaki, and they talk mostly about perceptions of the Macintosh and not how it is built. The film takes a balanced view of the fans. For the most part it portrays them as ordinary people who have an extraordinary interest in Macintosh. There are also some farther-out items, such as the Church of Mac, sex columnist Violet Blue, and Daphne Kalfon's song "I Love My Mac".

There's a lot of discussion about whether the community will survive. It is largely ignored by Apple; Shawn King says "Apple is all about control now," and the fans cannot be controlled. There's some concern that the community is aging, with only the fans in their forties and fifties still participating in user groups while younger fans look up everything on the Internet and never get to know other fans. Andy Ihnatko points out that at user groups you are always hearing useful bits of information that you did not know existed and therefore could not have looked up on the Internet.

This DVD is manufactured-on-demand as a DVD-R. At 55 minutes it is short for a feature film. There are a few minutes of extras on the DVD, with some more archival footage and some outtakes and the trailers.

Another documentary released about the same time, Welcome To Macintosh, also looks at the Macintosh experience, but it is a very different film, and in my opinion much less successful. "MacHeads" is much more focused, while "Welcome to Macintosh" tries to cover everything about Apple, including a lot about the Apple I and II, and does it with much less continuity than "MacHeads" does.

Anyway, make up your own minds... MacHeads is currently available on iTunes movie rentals. And no, I don't get commission