The Social Network
| Rating: | ★★★★★ |
| Category: | Movies |
| Genre: | Drama |
Writers: Aaron Sorkin (screenplay), Ben Mezrich (book)
Stars: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake
Release Date: 27 October 2010 (Philippines)
Summary: It is a story about the founders of the social-networking website, Facebook - how it all began, the main players, what they as individuals and their relationships went through in what is now a global phenomenon.
My Take:
The first ten minutes of the movie gives me the impression that Mark Zuckerberg, the "founder" of Facebook, is an asshole. Well, it turns out that that impression is not far from reality (in the movie, at least). Ummm...I take that back. He's just a jerk. A plain insensitive jerk. No wonder the real-life Mark Zuckerberg hated the movie itself. Why not? More than a story of ambition, success, intrigue, deception and betrayal, it is a hate movie as well. It has "I hate Mark" written all over it. It is based on a book entitled, "Accidental Billionaires," which according to some accounts, is a revenge book made to damage the innocent "young-geek-who-made-it-big" image that Zuckerberg initially had. The revenge allegedly comes from a former Harvard room mate, friend, and Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin. You have to be a little bit familiar with the background stories of the characters in the story to fully appreciate what's really going on. The writers, of course, say that this is fiction. But people who follow the somewhat meteoric rise of Facebook's popularity, as well as the daily stock market, say that this is more an accurate, if arguable, biopic of the Zuckerberg himself. For the record though, no one from Facebook (company), including Zuckerberg were involved in the movie.
Of course, it is also the story of how Facebook became the Facebook that we are all familiar with right now, already. But beyond the story, it is also a compelling re-telling of the classic case of how the simple and pure youthful idealism and enthusiasm, is corrupted or made complicated by such adult values as ambition, financial success, and the inevitable cycle of greed and power. But even beyond the story of ambition and greed, and how friends can turn to bitter enemies in the race or search for fame and wealth, the book as well as the film, underscores the fact that humans, no matter how they prefer to just mind their own business, inevitably need and deliberately seek company, even in the virtual isolation of their computers via a cyber society which Zuckerberg's Facebook represents.
As a cinematographic work, I think Director David Fincher and screenplay writer Aaron Sorkin successfully created and presented to the moviegoers the kind of drama that truly captures the dilemma of the main characters. The dialogue is quick-paced (not boring), cleverly comedic at times (especially the one involving the chicken), and every scene is seen as a vital step building up towards the conclusion. One scene which resonates a lot with me is the disco scene where Mark and Sean Parker (founder of Napster) had what I thought was the most important important exchange of ideas, for not only did Mark learn a few tips on Sean and his exploits as Napster founder, but this is where I believe Mark started to truly believe in himself. I thought that in this scene, it revealed how deep Parker's influence on Mark really was.
The stories of Mark, his partner Eduardo, Parker and the Winklevoss (erstwhile partners of Mark earlier in the story) is enveloped somewhat inside an on-going legal meeting where the main characters, especially original partners of Facebook, Mark and Eduardo, along with the Winklevoss twins (brothers, Tyler and Cameron), face each other in a table each with their legal counsels trying to work-out how best to resolve each others claim on the now wildly successful website.
The end scene is really a very eloquent portrayal of what Mark truly is - not an asshole but one who just really wants to have FRIENDS.
TRIVIA:
- Tyler Winklevoss and his twin brother are both played by actor Armie Hammer. Actor Josh Pence was the body double for Tyler with Hammer's face just superimposed.
- The ending credit sound track is the Beatles' 'Baby You're a Rich Man."
- At the movie's end, they were celebrating Facebook's one-millionth subscriber. The postscript says that currently, Facebook has 500 million members, in 207 countries, and is currently valued at $25 Billion. And that Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in the world today!
this movie made me re-think about being in Facebook. hmmmm...
ReplyDeleteit was erical albright's fault, after all! hehe!
love the trivia, specially about the twins!
bravo on the review! i have the same take...a lonely geek.
ReplyDeleteA lonely mega-rich geek!
ReplyDeleteWhat started as a sophisticated collegiate prank is a now a worldwide phenomenon. What was initially funded by a thousand dollars from a school allowance is now a $25 billion business. It truly is an incredible story.
ReplyDeleteBut what I seem to miss is the popularity that the movie, I believe, should have. I cannot understand why with about 500 million subscribers/users, this movie about Facebook does not seem to be such a smash hit! In my neighborhood theater, they even had a two-night premiere (which I thought was really a marketing stunt meant to create interest and whet appetite for the movie). But it seems to have not generated the expected effect, i.e. when it opened a week after it premiered, it ran for only 7 days, then it was gone. It could only be because of one reason alone - low sales. Sa Tagalog, nilangaw!
Where are the millions of Facebook fans? Well, maybe they are all busy updating their respective status and postings on the Wall and playing the games, etc., to have any more time for a good movie...
Hindi ko yata napansin ang pelikulang ito.
ReplyDeleteHehehehe...yan ang gusto ko sayo Hugz. You're subtlety is genius, hahahaha....
ReplyDeleteBut levity aside, mukha talagang this movie either had a very poor promoter or may naka-sabay na matinding palabas (which I doubt).
Adult values. Said very well, Chito, of such twisted truth.
ReplyDeleteI still have yet to see the movie, I have a copy of it.
I used to read about the adventures of the college students who started it and watched them guest at Oprah three years ago. I was quite settled with Multiply, as you know, but coming back here all kids, my students most especially were there, plus classmates, long-lost friends. I hate the games and nonsense, juvenile applications, but loved the connection it allows me.
The movie kinda reminds me of another one, the sage between Steve Jobs and Bil Gates, which I instead watched. That one, I liked a lot.
You're talking about "The Pirates of Silicon Valley." I saw it on TV some years back. And since I was reminded of it in this movie, I tried for a downloadable copy. And I found it. So, I watched it again a few hours after viewing "The Social Network."
ReplyDeleteI agree, the Gates-Job movie is more likable than this one about Mark Zuckerberg. The big difference, in my view, is that "Pirates" was less about deception and betrayals but more about pioneering spirits and the single-minded pursuit of dreams. The conflict in the "Pirates" movie was about two guys who really were out to revolutionize the world, and trying to outdo each other bringing the best out of each other in the process. The "Network" movie was more about how the bright idealism of youth turned to bitter animosity between friends when ambition and greed rear their ugly heads. This, however, is not to say that Facebook is not revolutionary in itself, for it, too, changed the way people relate to each other or how we (at least the half-a-billion or so FB users) "socialize."
I agree.
ReplyDeleteHowever, maybe what we have may be a case of a bad storytelling. Or talagang a bad story to tell? I gotta watch it.
As I pointed out Choie, the Social Network movie is based on a book entitled, "Accidental Billionaires," which the writer and the film director maintain is fiction. But reports have it that the book was written from the viewpoint of Zuckerberg's co-founder or partner who slapped him with a lawsuit. That may be then a case of both bad story-telling and bad story in itself.
ReplyDelete