Right, its post revisitation time and the post in question will be my review of the 2010 biographical drama, The Social Network that is based on the true life events of Mark Zuckerberg and his creation of Facebook and how it grew to become a worldwide social media platform.
So, after 8 years, how does The Social Network fair??? Well, let's take another look...
And yes, the usual warning is coming up...
PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!
STORY
So the film starts back in 2003 with 19 year old Harvard student, Mark Zuckerbeg (Jesse Eisenberg) who is dumped by his girlfriend, Erica Albright (Rooney Mara). Mark returns to his dorm where he blogs about Erica and insults her, and he then goes on to create an on campus website called Facemash. Facemash allows students to rate the attractiveness of female students from other campuses, which Mark accessed by hacking into the servers of the other houses and selecting student photos. As a result of this the Harvard network temporarily crashes and Mark is put on six months academic probation.
Afterwards Mark is approached by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (Armie Hammer and Josh Pence) and their business partner Divya Narendra (Max Minghella) who ask him to work on their project which is a dating site called the Harvard connection, which Mark agrees to work on with them. Mark on the other hand has another idea for a website which he calls Thefacebook, which is an online social networking website for Harvard students, which he presents to his best friend, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) who provides initial fudning for the project. The site soon becomes popular on campus with other students, however the Winklevoss brothers and Narendra soon find out and believe Mark has stolen their idea, and they approach the Harvard president to complain, Larry Summers (Douglas Urbanski) who is not interested in their complaint.
As the Thefacebook gains popularity on campus, Mark expands to other universities including Yale, Columbia and Stanford, which attracts the attention of Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) the entrepeneur who formed Napster (who was sleeping with a Stanford student at the time!). Eduardo's girlfriend, Christy Lee (Brenda Song) then sets up a meeting for Mark and Eduardo with Sean, who expresses his vision for their company, which Mark shares but Eduardo doesn't and disapproves of Sean's attitude.
Mark then moves out to Palo Alto in California at the behest of Sean, who soon moves in with him to help and expand the company as Sean promises to put Facebook on two continents, meanwhile Eduardo is in New York trying to secure advertisement support. The Winklevoss brother however while they compete in rowing in London they find that Facebook has expanded out to London and Cambridge. After this the Winklevoss's decide to sue Mark for intellectual property theft.
However things aren't going so well on Mark's front either as Eduardo continues to show his disapproval of Sean whom he doesn't want to make decisions for the company, so he freezes the company's bank account, which angers Mark. Mark however says he is willing to forget that as he has secured a $500,000 investment from an investor and he wants Eduardo to come out to sign papers.
However as Eduardo travels to the new Facebook office in San Francisco, he discovers that his interest shares in the company have been reduced from 34% to 0.03% and he decides to sue Mark. And throughout the film there are sequences intercut from different depositions from lawsuits against Mark from the Winklevoss brothers and Eduardo, which soon culminates into the film's conclusion...
THOUGHTS
The Social Network as a dramatisation of the creation of Facebook works surprisingly well as on paper it would sound difficult to somehow bring such a theme to life in a way that would fascinate an audience. But thanks to the excellent screenplay from Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher's sharp direction the film works very well although it has to be said there aren't that many in the way of sympathetic characters in the film with maybe the exception of Eduardo Saverin and Erica Albright, Mark's ex-girlfriend.
Aaron Sorkin himself said that he was attracted to the idea of doing the story not from Facebook itself but from a paper that was written by Ben Menzrich called the Accidental Billionaires and it was the themes of jealously, loyality, friendship and betrayal of the story that inspired him to get involved. Mark Zuckerberg himself had criticised his potrayal in the film as a cynical and pedantic youth, who created Facebook as a means for people to try and get girls, whereas he said he created Facebook as he enjoyed building things and it was a means to get his creative output across. And when you look at Jesse Eisenberg's portrayal, you can see why Zuckerberg would have been upset!
PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section will contain spoilers!)
As for the performances they are excellent as the cast are all on solid form.
Starting with Jesse Eisenberg who while his rapid fire delivery has a tendancy to grate, he potrays the character if not accurately then he certainly shows Zuckerberg's ambition and desire to succeed in establishing his creation of Facebook, which would become a worldwide phenomenom.
Jesse also has plenty of good scenes to deliver from Aaron Sorkin's wonderfully rich screenplay such as in the scene during one of the depositions, a lawyer asks Mark if he has his attention. And Mark turns to him saying "You have part of my attention - you have the minimum amount. The rest of my attention is back at the offices of Facebook, where my colleagues and I are doing things that no one in this room, including and especially your clients, are intellectually or creatively capable of doing! Does that adquately answer your condescending question?".
Then there is another scene Mark also expresses his arrogance and frustration to another lawyer and says "Ma'am I know you've done your homework and you know that money isn't a big part of my life, but at the moment I could buy Mt. Auburn Street, take the Phoenix club and turn it into my ping pong room!".
Eisenberg also shows Zuckerbeg in the film to have less than graceful social skills, even when he is talking to Eduardo, who in the scene where Eduardo tells him he got punched by the Phoenix, Eduardo says "But it was probably just a diversity thing" and Mark says "It probably was a diversity thing, but so what?". And later Eduardo tells him he got to the second stage of the initiation process into the Phoenix house and Mark says "That's great. You should be proud of that right there. Don't worry if you don't make it any further."
Another good scene from Jesse is during a legal meeting with Mark and the Winklevoss brothers and their business partner, Divya Narendra and they become angry at Mark for how they percieve that he stole their idea. So, Mark angrily asks them "Do you see any of your code on Facebook?! Did I use ANY of your code?!" and he continues "You know, you really don't need a forensics team to get to the bottom of this. If you guys were the inventors of Facebook, you'd have invented Facebook!". And Divya looks at Mark with contempt and says "I can't wait to stand over you and see you write us a cheque" and Mark while doodling on some paper says "No shit!".
Then there is the scene where Mark is interviewing candidates to become coders for Facebook but they have drink a series of shots while they do it.
So, in the scene, Eduardo arrives and Mark explains to him what is going on "Every 10th line of code written, they have to drink a shot. And hacking’s supposed to be stealth, so anytime the server detects an intrusion, the candidate responsible has to drink a shot. I also have a program running that has a pop-up window appear simultaneously on all five computers--the last candidate to hit the window has to drink a shot. Plus every three minutes they all have to drink a shot!". So, Eduardo asks a very good question "Can I just ask, what part of intern's job do they need to do drunk?" and Mark sarcastically says to him "You're right. A more relevant test would be to see if they can keep a chicken alive for a week!" and Mark realising he has overstepped his bounds says "That was mean". But then two of the candidates finish their hacking and put their hands and Mark goes over and checks their terminals and then says "Welcome to Facebook" to them both and shakes their hands.
Another good scene is when Mark calls Eduardo and is furious at him for freezing their bank account for the company. So, as Mark asks Eduardo "Did you freeze the account?!" Eduardo tells him "I had to get your attention, Mark!". Mark then frantically tells Eduardo "Do you realize that you jeopardized the entire company?! Do you realize that your actions could have permanently destroyed everything I've been working on?!". Mark then angrily continues "Without money the site can't function. Okay, let me tell you the difference between Facebook and everyone else, we don't crash EVER! If those servers are down for even a day, our entire reputation is irreversibly destroyed!"
However, Mark calms down and tells Eduardo "Wardo, we've got some good news. Peter Thiel has just made an angel investment of $500,000". Eduardo, surprised asks "What?!" and Mark continues "A half a million dollars and he’s setting us up in an office. They want to re-incorporate the company, they want to meet you they need your signature on some documents so get your ass on the next flight back to San Francisco! I need my CFO!". Eduardo, takes a moment and smiles and says "I'm on my way" and Mark proudly says "Wardo! We did it!".
Andrew Garfield is also very good as Mark Zuckerberg's good friend and co-founder of Facebook, Eduardo Saverin, who is potrayed as a more sympathetic character than anyone else in the film, especially as he is potrayed as being screwed over by Zuckerberg.
Garfield has several highlights in the film, particularly his scenes with Mark and the depositions where he at time painfully recounts how he was betrayed by Mark and Parker.
Then there is the scene where during Eduardo's deposition, he recalls his and Mark's first meeting with Sean Parker. And in the flashback of the meeting, Eduardo, Mark and Christy wait patiently for Sean, who is running late, making Eduardo nervous and when Sean finally shows up, Eduardo looks at him and says "So, he DOES have a watch!". Edurardo during his deposition then tells them "When he finally arrived it was a Sean-a-thon after that and he owned Mark from that point on". And at the end of their meeting with Sean, Eduardo recalls "He picked up the check, he told Mark they’d talk again soon and he was gone. But not before he made his biggest contribution to the company" and it flashes back to the end of the meeting with Sean telling them to change the name to just "Facebook".
Another good scene is when Eduardo arrives at Mark's new apartment in LA where he has already set up his base of operations for Facebook and Sean is onboard aswell. So, as Eduardo shows his disapproval of Sean, he has a private discussion with Mark.
So, Eduardo tells Mark of Sean "I do not want that guy representing our company!" but Mark is not listening and tells him "You gotta move out here, Wardo, this is where its all happening and I'm afraid you don't come out here, you'll get left behind". Mark goes on to excitedly tells Eduardo "Its moving fast than any of us would have imagined and Sean thinks..." and Eduardo interrupts "...Sean is not a part of this company!". Mark then tells Eduardo how they so many members in so many schools throughout the US and even in Europe" and Eduardo angrily shouts "I'm aware of that, Mark! I'm CFO!".
Mark then goes on to tell Eduardo that Sean has been setting up meetings all over town, which angers Eduardo, who asks "He's been setting up other meetings? Without me knowing anything about it???". Mark then says to Eduardo "You're in New York" Eduardo then shouts at him "I'm in New York riding subways 14 hours a day, trying to find advertisers!" and Mark angrily shouts back "How's it going so far??!!" which silences Eduardo and he then says after a moment "What did you mean, "get left behind"?".
Also during the scene where his jealous girlfriend Christy Lee rows with him and he gives her a scarf as a present she says "Since when have you ever seen me wear a scarf?!" and he replies "This will be your first!" after which she sets fires to the scarf puts it into a bin and tips it onto his hotel bed. Then as Mark angrily calls Eduardo as he learned that Eduardo had frozen their account, Ed tells Mark "I had to get your attention, Mark!" and Mark continues to ramble angrily at him. However, Mark then tells Ed the good news about their new investment. So, after Eduardo hangs up, Christy comes back into the room and asks if he is going to California and he says "Yes! And I'm breaking up with you!".
Another good scene is when Eduardo during his deposition recalls the fateful business meeting at the Facebook 1,000,000 members party, where his business shares were diluted down to virtually nothing. So, Eduardo in his deposition recalls "I didn’t know whether to dress for the party or for the business meeting so I kind of dressed for both" but he continues "But it didn't matter because I wasn't called out there for either one". So, the lawyer, Gretchen asks him "What were you called out there for?" and Eduardo says "An ambush!".
So, in the next scene, Eduardo reads the papers that he is to sign and looks shocked at what he sees, so he storms out of the office toward Mark, who is "wired in" doing some intensive software coding. Sean then tells Eduardo "Mark's wired in" and Sean angirly grabs Mark's laptop and smashes it onto desk and he shouts "How about now?! You still wired in???!!". And going back to Eduardo's deposition he tells the lawyers how his shares in Facebook were diluted down to "0.03%".
Eduardo then angrily confronts Mark over the shares and Sean, who berates Eduardo for thinking he was going to parade around in "ridiculous suits" and run the company. So, Eduardo yells at him "SORRY!!! My Prada's at the cleaners! Along with my hoodie and my "Fuck-You" flip-flops! You pretentious douchebag!!". And Eduardo finishes by warning Mark "You better lawyer up, asshole, because I'm not coming back for 30%, I'm coming back for EVERYTHING!". And as the security are about to escort Eduardo out, Sean gives Eduardo back his cheque for $19,000 which he invested into the company. Sean however teasingly says "I won't it cash it in if I were you. I drew it on the bank account you froze" and Eduardo suddenly lunges at Sean as if to hit him, which sends Sean reeling back. This draws a smile from Eduardo, who says "I like standing next to you, Sean. It makes me look so tough!".
Justin Timberlake also puts in a good performance as the charismatic and cocky Sean Parker, who seizes his chance to get involve in Facebook and guide it to its success, although his partying and womanising eventually get's him into trouble.
And Timberlake has his share of good scenes such as the one where he first meets Mark and Eduardo is good where he woos Mark with his entrepenaurial prowess but Eduardo is less impressed and wary of him.
So, in the scene, Eduardo says to Sean "Settle an argument for us, would you? I say it’s time to start making money from theFacebook but Mark doesn’t want advertising. Who’s right?". And Sean says "Neither of you, yet. The Facebook is cool, that's what its got going for it. You don't want to ruin it with ads because they aren't cool. It’s like you’re throwing the greatest party on campus and someone’s telling you it’s gotta be over at 11:00" which has Mark in total agreement with him. So, Sean continues "How big it can get and how far it can go. This is no time to take your chips down. A million dollars isn’t cool. You know what’s cool?". And it cuts back to Eduardo at the deposition, who says "A billion dollars. And that shut everybody up!". Then at the end of the business meeting, Sean finishes by saying "Drop the "the". Just "Facebook". Its cleaner" and he walks out, leaving Mark gobsmacked.
Another good scene from Timberlake is when Sean and Mark are at a nightclub in LA and they discuss the company. So, Sean tells Mark about Napster and how he sees Facebook going "Napster wasn't a failure. I changed the music industry for better and for always. It may not have been good business but it pissed a lot of people off. And wasn't that what Facemash was about? They're scare of me, pal, and they're gonna be scared of you. What the VC's want is to say, 'Good idea, kid. The grown-ups will take it from here.' But not this time. This is OUR time. This time you're gonna hand 'em a business card that says 'I'm CEO... bitch.' That's what I want for you".
Then there is the scene where Sean and Mark drive out to a business meeting in San Francisco, where Sean has Mark dressed in a robe and his PJ's. So, Mark excitedly asks "You sure about this?" and Sean tells him "You're twenty minutes late. You're gonna walk in there and say you overslept and didn't have time to get dressed. They're gonna pitch you. Case Equity is gonna pitch you. They're gonna beg you to take their money. You're gonna nod, you're gonna nod, you're gonna nod, and then you're gonna say, "Which one of you is Roth?" No, not Roth. Manningham. "Which one of you is Mitchell Manningham?" And he'll say, "I am." And then you say, "Sean Parker says, 'Fuck you,'" Walk out!". So, Mark grins and walks up toward the building for the meeting.
And last of all is the scene where Eduardo turns up at the million members Facebook party only to find out that he has been squeezed out of the company and Sean remorselessly ejected from the building after Eduardo has it out with them both.
So, Eduardo angrily says to Mark "Its like I'm not gonna a part of Facebook!" and Sean tells him "It won't be like you're not a part of Facebook. You're not a part of Facebook". So, as the security show up to escort Eduardo out, Sean goes up to Eduardo with his cheque and says "Here's your $19,000. I wouldn't cash it, though. I drew it on the account you froze". So, Eduardo makes as if to punch Sean but he pulls back at the last moment and Sean jumps back and after Eduardo leaves, he tells the onlooking staff "That’s it, that’s our show for tonight, people!".
Sean then goes up to Mark, who is looking somewhat guilty over the whole situation and he tells Sean "You were kind of rough on him" and Sean says "Well, that's life in the NFL". But Mark insists "Sean, you didn't have to be that rough on him!" but Sean tells him "He almost killed it!" and after a pause, Sean says to Mark "I'll send some flowers".
Armie Hammer also provides an excellent performance as the two Winklevoss brothers, one of whom was acted by Josh Spence, who was a double for Tyler Winklevoss, and Armie's face was superimposed using CGI over Spence's to show they are twins.
In their first scene Hammer get's a funny moment where the Winklevoss's outrow their competitors in a practice race and Cameron says "Is there anyway we can make this a fair fight?" and Tyler says "We could jump out and swim". Tyler also suggests "Well you could row forward and I could row backward" and Cameron tells him "We're genetically identical. Science says we'd stay in one place" and Tyler says wearily "Just row the damn boat!".
Another good scene is when Tyler and Cameron discuss with their business partner Divya, how Mark has shafted them and stolen their idea, once theFacebook is up and running. So, in the scene, they remember that in the Harvard student handbook, it states that it is forbidden for students to steal from one another, so Cameron is determined to set up a meeting with the president to sort the situation out.
So, in the scene Cameron tells Tyler and Divya "My brother and I pay tuition at this school, we carry a 3.9 GPA at this school, we’ve won trophies for this school and we’ll be rowing in the Olympics for this school. I want a meeting with the goddam president of this school!".
And then there is of course the scene where Tyler and Cameron meet with the Harvard president, Larry Summers and Cameron takes forever to make his point and Larry calls out to his secretary and says "Punch me in the face!". And at the end of the scene as they leave Tyler angrily pulls the door knob off with his hand and says to the secretary "Whoops, I seem to have broken his 335 year old door knob!" and drops it on her desk.
And lastly there is the scene where the Winklevoss's discover that Facebook has expanded to UK universities after they lost their rowing race in Helney-on-Thames. So, Tyler says to Cameron "I don’t mind that we lost to the Dutch today by less than a second. That was a good race, that was a fair race and they’ll see us again. What I mind-- and what you should mind --is showing up on Monday for a race that was run on Sunday. We tried talking to him ourselves, we tried writing a letter, we tried the Ad Board, and we tried the president of the University. Now I’m asking you. For the last time! Let’s take the considerable resources at our disposal and sue him in federal court!". So, Cameron finally turns around to his brother and Divya and says "Screw it! Let's gut the friggin nerd!" and Divya, stunned, hugs Cameron and Tyler exclaims in delight "That's what I'm talking about!!".
Rooney Mara also provides a good performance in her role as Erica Albright, and in the first scene of the film she argues with Mark when they are dating and she soon grows fed up and breaks up with him. And she says "Its exhausting, dating you is a like going out with a stairmaster!". And before she leaves him she says "You are going go on and probably become a very successful computer person, and you might think that you might go through life thinking girls won't like because you are a nerd. But I want to tell you from the bottom of my heart that won't be true, it will be because you are an asshole!".
And lastly Max Minghella is excellent as Divya Narendra, the Winklevoss brother's business partner, who rushes in on them while they practice rowing and tells them "I just thought I'd let you know that Zuckerberg stole our website! He stole our website. Its been live for more than 36 hours!".
And during the deposition he talks about how "And Mark was the biggest thing on campus, that included 19 Nobel laureates, 15 Pulitzer prize winnners, two future Olympians and a movie star" and a lawyer asks who the movie star was and Divya replies "Does it matter?".
And last of all there is the scene where are they have just learned that Mark "stole" their website and idea for Facebook, they sit around at discuss what to do. So, Cameron asks "What, do you want to hire an IP lawyer and sue him?" and Divya angrily tells him "No, I want to hire the Sopranos to beat the shit out of him with a hammer!". Tyler then tells Divya "We don't have to do that. We can do that ourselves! I'm 6'5", 220 and there's two of me!".
And when Divya compels Cameron to tell him why he refuses to sue Mark, Cameron says "Tyler might say it sounds stupid. Because we are gentlemen of Harvard! This is Harvard where you don't plant stories and sue people!". So, Divya snaps back "You thought he was the only one who thought was going to sound stupid?!".
DIRECTOR AND MUSIC
Direction wise David Fincher does a terrific job here as he gives the film a dramatic edge and has a great understanding of the story material and in doing so creates a film with vividly drawn characters. The Social Network isn't one of Fincher's more visually flashy films but it still maintains the kind of greenish tint that some of his other films has, especially in the deposition scenes, which gives the film the distinctive style that separates Fincher from other filmmakers from a visual aspect.
As for the music score for the film, it was composed by Trent Reznor (the man behind industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails) and Atticus Ross and it is excellent overall and has some great tracks in it and given that it is all electronic, it suits the tone of the film perfectly. The score also went on to win an Academy Award the following at the Oscars and even though it is an unusual choice by the industry's standards, its certainly a fine choice and something different than the usual orchestral scores we are used to in most Hollywood films.
FLAWS (Warning: this section may contain spoilers!)
Flaw wise how does it The Social Network fair up? Well it does have one or two.
To start with, perhaps one of the main one's is the potrayal of Mark Zuckerberg himself, as he is potrayed as a pedantic, arrogant little dick, and as such it is hard to empathise with him, especially as he ends up screwing Eduardo out of the company. Although Zuckerberg is seen to show some remorse toward shutting Eduardo out of the company in the scene where Eduardo finds out and he says to Sean that he didn't have to be so rough with him. Almost in a typical dramatic storytelling fashion it also sets up Sean Parker as a bit of a villain and Eduardo as the good guy and with Mark stuck somewhere in between the two, who's real loyalty is to the company he has created.
And by doing that is seems to make a bit of a mockery of the real life facts of the story of Facebook and in a way you can understand why Zuckerberg himself was not happy with the arrogant potrayal of himself on screen. And perhaps Sorkin tries to show Zuckerberg to be a bit of a nerd who has very little social skills and it appears to be a departure from the real life Zuckerberg who give seminars and goes on chat shows to talk about his invention, something which you can't see the jumped cinema version of himself doing.
Another issue to do with Aaron Sorkin's screenplay and even though it is wonderfully written, it is however also guilty of being excessively verbose and you feel that the characters, especially the Winklevoss's could arrive at their point long before they even make it! This is well highlighted in the scene where they talk to the Harvard president whom even says "Please, arrive at the point!" as he's even thinking the same thing as the audience i.e. GET ON WITH IT!!!
Another problem is also Jesse Eisenberg's rapid machine gun fire delivery as there are one or two scenes where you actually struggle to make what he says, such as the one where he is testing for new programmers and he all has them drink shots intermittently during their test. And in the scene where he parrots on about how he hacks into the other house servers to take the photos of every students to create Facemash its very hard for the non-programmers (i.e. the rest of us!) to follow as he quickly yaps on about Pearl, Metatags, etc etc.
Another issue I have is how can Mark be so stupid as to blog about his hackings while he does them! As the Harvard server network crashes, he has even left a trail of breadcrumbs for the Harvard staff to find out who was behind it all!! So he hasn't gone out of his way to cover his tracks very well has he???! But then again he was only 19 and a bit drunk so hey-ho.
It also has to be said that the film certainly does lean heavy on the party cliches seen in the college/uni movies with scantily clad girls, lots of booze and rowdy behaviour although in reality, Zuckerberg claimed none of that really happened, and he and his team more just worked really hard. So, obviously in that respect, Fincher had to take a certain cinematic licence with this, otherwise had it been as Zuckerberg described, it would have been a very boring film!
And last of all is the scene where Sean gives Eduardo a $19,000 cheque for the amount that he put into the company but of course Eduardo, in retaliation for Sean's interference with the company, freezes their account. Now, I'm fine with Sean giving Eduardo the money back to an extent, but it does make you wonder if Mark had even spent that money at all?! It would suggest that the $19,000 had just been sitting idly in that account all this time given that Sean had been setting business meetings "all over town" as Mark at one point puts it. Also would the 19,000 bucks last them that long over the summer given the costs for hiring out a place in LA, the cost to run it, not to mention costs to run their computers, servers??? It would certainly run out pretty quickly I'd say!
Anyway that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So to sum up, The Social Network is an excellent dramatisation of the events behind the creation of Facebook and it is very well written, directed and has some really good performances, particularly by three leads of Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield and Justin Timberlake.
And yes it is supposed to be largely fictitious in its depiction of what actually happened according to the real life people involved and there are also times where Aaron Sorkin's screenplay get's a bit too excessively verbose. However if you can forgive all this, then The Social Network is still definitely an excellent film well worth a look, which remains a compelling watch as it was on its first release.
OK, so that's it for now and I will see you soon with another post.
Till then, one agan, its bye fer now!
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