The Social Network
Director: David Fincher
****
After putting off watching
The Social Networkfor a few weeks, I finally got around to seeing David Fincher's newest "masterpiece". I thought it was interesting that I went to go see this movie with my mother who has no experience in "social networking" and really has no interest in networking on the www whatsoever, which I think is cool. I'm happy that neither my mother or father have ever "twittered" "myspaced" or "facebooked" they still send hand written cards to their friends/family during holidays, meet for coffee, and make phone calls to see how someone is doing. They do however "text" and "email" which is probably their furthest extent to "social networking".
My mother enjoyed the movie, she didn't love it and some scenes annoyed her; she did not enjoy the quick announciation of words, the dry wit and conversation nor did she enjoy the soundtrack, and she felt the pace of the film was too quick. Overall, she enjoyed the story...especially after knowing it was based on actual accounts. I asked if she followed all of the information, and she said that she followed most of it because she had heard about Facebook, but that some things she didn't quite get.
I on the other hand loved how fast everything went by especially in a film about the creation of a social networking site where as the main character was one of the most anti-social creatures within the film and its premise. Not so ironic, seeing as why, and how it came about to begin with.
Mark Zuckerman is a "bright" college student/hacker/computer genius who just got dumped by his girlfriend. In anger, Mark goes back to his dorm to vent on his blog and ultimately hacks into Harvard files to download photographs of females who attend Harvard University, only to create an online site "Face Smash" in which photos of girls attending the university are compared and then ranked. (the ultimate revenge). He emails the link to a couple of people and in less than 2 hours, reaches over 20,000 hits. Word gets around campus, and within 4 hours in the making of Face Smash, Mark gets caught, and receives acedemic probation for 6 months.
Enter the twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, 2 athletic social butterflys who are part of one of the coolest clubs on campus, the twins also happen to be Olympic trained rowers for Harvard University. After hearing about Face Smash, the twins reach out to Mark and offer him a deal to help create a social network strictly for Harvard students/alumni based on a pre-conceived idea between the twins. After Mark agrees to being part of the site's construction, his mind takes a leap of faith and begins the building of "The Facebook" later to be called "Facebook" through help of his best friend and investor, Billy in less than 6 weeks.
The twins and their partner find out about Mark's web creation days after it's launched and are fueled with anger, claiming that Mark stole their idea.
The film travels to and from the courtroom/Harvard highlighting moments of prevail, desperation, anguish, destruction and prosperity only to create an abomination of a networking revolution worth billions of dollars 500,000,000 friends later.
The film definately played out like a dark psychological thriller, I felt as if a murder occured during some point of the film, but in fact there were no killings. The film was so suspenseful, and had me at the edge of my seat. The film starts off with the main character sitting in a loud crowded bar having a conversation with his girlfriend that ends up a heated arguement and ultimately a break up. From the very beginning, the point of the film was established. This was very sad and disturbing to me. Mark could not shake the thought of letting his girlfriend go, but throughout the film he slowly looses everything that ever really meant something to him, including his best friend. His need to actually see something flourish from beginning to end through HIS control engulfed him so much that he lost sleep and the ability to socialize in common surroundings; he became facebook, a demise just as much as it was a dream, conqured.
