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The Social Network: A Movie Review On

The document provides a review of the 2010 film "The Social Network" about the founding of Facebook. It summarizes that the film is not really about the creation of Facebook but about the human need for acceptance. It depicts the character of Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, as someone who craves acceptance from elite social groups but whose aggressive actions to gain approval end up alienating others. While the audience cannot sympathize with Mark, they can relate to his basic desire for belonging and equality with socially prominent peers.

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Rosh Pilapil
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76 views

The Social Network: A Movie Review On

The document provides a review of the 2010 film "The Social Network" about the founding of Facebook. It summarizes that the film is not really about the creation of Facebook but about the human need for acceptance. It depicts the character of Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, as someone who craves acceptance from elite social groups but whose aggressive actions to gain approval end up alienating others. While the audience cannot sympathize with Mark, they can relate to his basic desire for belonging and equality with socially prominent peers.

Uploaded by

Rosh Pilapil
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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A

Movie Review on

THE SOCIAL NETWORK

Submitted by:

Pilapil, Ma. Rosher S.

IV-Serenity

Submitted to:

Mrs. Elsa Calubayan


Some people are born with good looks or with the natural hand-eye coordination
necessary to hit a fast ball. Others come from money or are naturally charismatic; they
draw people to them in a way that just can’t be learned. Then there’s the rest of us. We’re
nothing special. We’ll never be those people. We look at them and say it’s ok, but can’t even
convince ourselves. Whether we choose to admit it or not, we want to be them or at least
gain their approval. We want those people to see us as their equals. 

Known to many as “The Facebook Movie,” David Fincher’s. The Social Network is a
2010 drama film about the founding of the social networking website Facebook and the
resulting lawsuits. The film was directed by David Fincherand features an ensemble cast
including Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Brenda Song, Armie
Hammer, Max Minghella, Rashida Jones andRooney Mara. The film was released in
the United States by Columbia Pictures on October 1, 2010 to critical acclaim. The Social
Network is not about the creation of one of the internet’s most successful websites. It’s not
about becoming the world’s youngest billionaire. It’s not about greed and it’s not about
power. The Social Network is a film about the inescapable need for acceptance inside each
one of us. 

It’s the fall of 2003 and Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is sitting in a bar with his
girlfriend (Rooney Mara). He explains to her the importance of belonging to one of Harvard
University’s eight prestigious all-male social societies called “final clubs”. Why? Because
they’re “exclusive,” a word that Mark does battle with throughout the movie. Mark has a
serious personality problem. To put it in psychological terms, he’s an asshole. Because of
his intelligence, he gives off a stink of superiority and has no tolerance for those whom he
thinks are beneath him (Read: everybody). He’s bullish and stubborn, which, of course,
makes him unlikeable. His only option is to do something that makes people accept him. 

Enter the Winklevoss twins (Armie Hammer). These 6’5” blonde Adonis’s are
everything Mark is looking for: members of the Porcellian “final club”, future Olympic
rowers, and holders of inherited money. They sit at the head of the cool kids’ table, shining
examples of the kinds of people Mark wants attention from. He gets it after creating
something called FaceMash.com, a small website so powerful it shuts down Harvard’s
servers. The Winklevoss twins bring him in for a meeting with the Porcellian Club stairway
and tell Mark their idea: create a social networking site defined by exclusivity, where women
can find and meet Harvard men. It seems like everything Mark wants. But he’s not in a
“final club,” he’s in a stairway. He’s not friends with the Winklevosses, he’s a business
partner. He hasn’t been accepted – he’s been reached out to with a ten foot pole. 

Whether because of his attitude or his approach, everything that Mark does to gain
acceptance ends in rejection. He tells his girlfriend that being in a final club would allow her
better access to the upper class, leading her to dump him. Mark’s first attempt to make a
website in the film, a site where pictures of female Harvard students are posted next to
each other and the users click on the girl that they think is the hottest, is wildly popular but
results in every girl on campus seeing him as a sexist pig and their boyfriends repeatedly
threatening him. Facebook is a billion dollar idea that winds up with Mark dealing with two
simultaneous lawsuits, one of which comes from his best friend. 

You may be tempted at this point to think of Mark Zuckerberg as a sympathetic


character, a Willy Loman or Shelley Levene for the 21st century. Don’t be fooled - Mark
Zuckerberg is a tyrant, an unstoppable force. Every effort Mark makes to gain acceptance
winds up hurting someone; he is a serial bridge burner. Feeling disrespected by the
Winklevosses, he morphs their idea and keeps them dangling on a string before cutting
them off entirely. When his best friend and Facebook business partner, Eduardo Saverin
(Andrew Garfield), becomes a prospective final club member, gaining the acceptance that
Mark craves, he begins to shut more and more doors, rejecting idea after idea, before
Eduardo is left behind completely. Mark is attempting the impossible, trying to gain
acceptance through rejection. 

This isn’t a simple film. It’s not the paint-by-numbers approach that you might see
from a director less talented than David Fincher. At no point during the movie is the
audience meant to sympathize with Mark. There’s no emotional scene during the climax
where he crawls into a corner and bawls uncontrollably because he feels so alone. While the
audience may feel the occasional shiver from the cold, Aaron Sorkin’s script never lets the
audience feel distanced from the material. Eisenberg, recently stuck playing the nebbish,
nervous weakling elsewhere, is stronger and more captivating here than we’ve ever seen
him. There’s more than a film here; there’s a comment. 

All of us can relate to Mark Zuckerberg. And that’s what will keep you engaged. You
and I both want that same acceptance and equality Mark wants. Plenty of movies show that
heavy is the head that wears the crown. We have enough movies where money goes to
people’s heads and they espouse that greed is good. The Social Network outright rejects the
tropes of power and money. Instead, Fincher and Sorkin have given us something that we
can all understand and relate to: the costs of the desire for acceptance when it mutates into
the blind ambition of social climbing. There are a finite number of slots on a baseball team
roster, only so many seats available at the cool kids table, and we all want to be offered
that last spot.

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