The Social Network

The Social Network seems to have caused something of a stir in the digital world – particularly amongst those who are more digital envangelists.
They’ve seized on the fact that writer Aaron Sorkin (who’s script is based on Ben Mezrich’s The Accidental Billionaires) is someone who doesn’t use social media like Facebook or Twitter, and that superficially, the film suggests that Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook to get back at an ex-girlfriend.
But I think that is to miss the point of this excellent film. Is it a completely accurate representation of Facebook’s foundation? Of course not. Have characters been contracted or eliminated? Certainly – it’s a dramatisation. Are there many women in it? No. Not because it’s misogynist, but because there aren’t a great deal of women amongst the main players of the story.
It’s a drama and a well-told drama. While the film is not especially kind to just about any of the key protagonists, that’s an almost unavoidable situation. I’m guessing that Sorkin worked from lots records from legal hearings, if only to avoid the production being bogged down in a legal minefield itself, it seems the fair thing to do. Facebook became the subject of two separate major legal situations (and undoubtedly many smaller ones), with in many cases the settlement being confidential.
I must admit that going into the film, I wasn’t sure how compelling I’d find it all – Harvard kids becoming insanely wealthy – but in fact you get swept along with the drama. While there are some familiar tropes such as scene in which a student asks Zuckerberg if a girl is single or not, and he liteally races off to incorporate this feature into Facebook, essentially coding is dull. David Fincher keeps it lively, although as ever in films, it’s all about the tap-tap-tap of the keyboard, and very rarely the altogether quieter click…..click of the mouse (actually the sound of even demon-coders).
The performances are uniformly excellent with Jesse Eisenberg playing the geeky Zuckerberg, while Andrew Garfield, last seen by me in the Red Riding trilogy on C4, playing his sometime friend Eduardo Saverin. Justin Timberlake is great as the playboy Sean Parker (previously of Napster fame), and Armie Hammer plays both of the Winkelvoss twins – fact that I didn’t reallise until afterwards – I’ll be paying close attention to the US rowing teams in 2012.
Even the music from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is very good. All in all, well worth watching. There may be some flaws, but they really shouldn’t detract from a fine film, where all is not black and white.
It’s interesting at a time in the UK when there are serious discussions about the power Rupert Murdoch might wield, that this film does make you think a little more about the power that Facebook now has. I am uneasy with it, yet I’ve not deleted my Facebook account. I do try to pay close attention to the ever moving privacy settings. And if there was a flaw with this film, it might have been to address the privacy aspects of Zuckerbeg – or lack of his cares about them. The widely reported IM message sessions spring to mind.
But in the end, it’s well worth going to see, with the script alone making it worth a trip to the multiplex.


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2 responses to “The Social Network”

  1. Kevin Spencer avatar

    I’m really looking forward to going to see this movie. I’m also a huge NIN/Reznor fan so I’ll certainly be picking up the soundtrack as well.

  2. See Film Differently avatar

    Saw this film last night… it is a great script and think this could appeal to filmgoers who aren’t necessarily internet and social media savvy as it’s just a good story brilliantly told and acted 🙂