What is so special about this Facebook movie? In this video we’ll look at the film’s deepest layers, beneath the creation of Facebook, the friendships and betrayals, and Mark Zuckerberg being a jerk. In this video, we look at what the film has to say about society, about those who live in and those who change it, and what that says about the filmmakers themselves. For it is at these depths, at the heart of this film, that we discover what The Social Network is really about.
Credits:
Footage from
The Social Network (2010), Dir. David Fincher
Music from
The Social Network Soundtrack - Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Full transcript:
Hi. My name is Gabe and in this video, I’ll be looking into The Social Network, my personal choice for the best film of the last thirty years. I thought the response to this film was fascinating: critics loved it, but unlike most films critics love, audiences liked it too. They didn’t like it nearly as much as the critics though, which begged the question: what made this film so special? What do some people see in it that others don’t?
First, a disclaimer. Whenever I talk about this film, I am specifically talking about the film, not its real-life counterparts. Mark Zuckerberg is Mark Zuckerberg the character, not the person. How accurate this film is to real life really doesn’t interest me, for reasons I’ll get into later.
Oh, and there’ll be spoilers here as well.
Alright, back to our video. In my opinion, what makes The Social Network so special is simple: depth. What the film is really about. There are so many things going on in this film, so many layers all working together, it really is incredible.
First, you have your base layers: the plot is how Facebook was created, the characters are the creators, and the story is how the creation of Facebook destroyed the relationships of its creators.
EDUARDO: How about now, you still wired in?
I think these aspects are what most audiences enjoyed about the film.
But to find out what is so special about The Social Network, we have to go deeper, beyond plot and story to what the film is actually about. And here, The Social Network is a treasure trove.
So, what is The Social Network about? Is it about friendship? That’s the story after all. Or betrayal, which is how the story is resolved? Is it about entrepreneurship? Ambition? The act of creation?
Or maybe it’s more specific. Is the film about old versus new? Old east coast versus new west coast plays a big part in this film.
Maybe the film is about well-roundedness versus obsession? The Winklevii are well-rounded, as they so often love to remind us:
WINKLEVII: Three hour low rate technical row before breakfast, full course load, studying, another three hours in the tank, and then studying.
while Mark is anything but.
EDUARDO: Mark was supposed to pick me up at the airport an hour ago, I’ve been calling his cell.
SEAN: He was on a thirty-six hour coding tear so he took a nap for a couple hours.
Maybe the film is about education versus instinct, or what we’ve learned versus what we know? Everything Eduardo does is based on his education,
FACEBOOK LAWYER: I love working with business majors.
EDUARDO: Economics.
while everything Mark does is based on what he somehow just knows.
MARK: Adams has no security but limits the number of results to twenty a page. All I need is to break out the same script I used on Lowell and we’re set.
It’s pretty amazing how much was packed into this film, how much it is about. Just check out these three moments:
EDUARDO: Eduardo Saverin, co-founder and CFO. You have no idea what that’s going to mean to my father.
MARK: Sure I do.
EDUARDO: I’m being accused of animal cruelty; it’s better to be accused of necrophilia.
MARK: It is better to be accused of necrophilia.
EDUARDO: I’ll have to explain this to my father.
EDUARDO: I was your only friend, you had one friend. My father won’t even look at me-
EDUARDO’S LAWYER: Okay, Eduardo...
Minus the Winkleviis who hide behind their dad, these are the only references to parents in the entire film. But even so, the message is powerful, and it took less than twenty seconds to add this dynamic to the film.
The truth is, The Social Network is about everything I just mentioned, but it is also about none of them. Because the next layer down, the layer that is so rare for a film to execute on, is what the film is really about. Some people may call this the theme, although I’m not a huge fan of that word, it’s great for analysis but doesn’t have much use in the creative process. Instead, I like to say it’s the film’s heart, it is the singular idea where everything comes from: plot, character, meaning, everything. It is where a film’s power comes from, it is what makes the film resonate, it gives the film everything and is what makes it great.
So, what is Social Network really about?
MARK: I’m talking about taking the entire social experience of college and putting it online.
Simply put, it’s about change. About changing the world, about changing yourself. More specifically, The Social Network is about how for some people it is easier to change the world than it is to change themselves.
Every single aspect of Social Network comes from this. For example, here are two of the most important elements of any film: the first and last scenes. Just look at how different they are, the film starting dark and old-fashioned, filled with people talking face-to-face, then ending bright and modern, with Mark alone on his computer. The world has completely changed, yet in both Mark is an outcast, failing to communicate and rejected by society. Mark may have changed the world, but he hasn’t changed himself.
Eduardo on the other hand, definitely changes, from a think-small schoolboy to someone who has experienced how the world works. I mean, just look at the way he walks, in the beginning, in the end. Also, look at what he’s wearing, from a ridiculous Hawaiian outfit to a good-looking high-end suit. Compare this to Mark, wearing F-you clothes in the beginning, wearing F-you clothes in the end,
SEAN: You say: Sean Parker says fuck you.
not caring how he walks in the beginning, not caring how he walks in the end. It is also worth noting that unlike Mark, Eduardo never is an outcast, he’s accepted by the Fraternity in the beginning,
EDUARDO: I got punched by the Phoenix.
and accepted by the audience in the end.
SEAN: Here’s your nineteen thousand dollars. I wouldn’t cash it though, I drew it on the account you froze.
EDUARDO: I like standing next to you Sean, makes me look so tough.
As for the other characters, Sean doesn’t change, reckless and irresponsible in the beginning and the end.
AMELIA: You’re not like fifteen years old or anything, are you?
SEAN: No, wait you’re not like fifteen are you?
SEAN: The cops!
PARTYGOERS: What! Shit!
Erica changes, from thinking of Mark’s creation as a joke
ERICA: Good luck with your… videogame.
to using it herself.
And finally, Divya and the Winklevii don’t change: they are cocky insiders who hide behind their family in the beginning,
LARRY: Anne, how did they get this appointment?
ANNE: Colleagues of their father.
and they are cocky insiders who hide behind their lawyer in the end.
WINKLEVII: How would- how would you know? You weren’t even there.
WINKLEVII’S LAWYER: Ty!
It’s interesting what the filmmakers are doing here. The characters who created Facebook are obsessive, instinctual outcasts, ones who tried to change the world to fit in with them. The characters who tried to create Facebook but didn’t are well-rounded, educated individuals who don’t need to change because they already run things. And the characters who never thought about changing the world, they are well-rounded, educated individuals who change and fit in. It’s also not a coincidence that these last two are the likable characters in this film.
ERICA: Well why don’t you just concentrate on being the best you you can be?
MARK: Did you really just say that?
ERICA: I was kidding.
So, what does it mean that obsessed, instinctual outcasts changed the world, and well-rounded likables and insiders don’t?
MARK: I think if your clients want to sit on my shoulders and call themselves tall, they have a right to give it a try but there is no requirement that I enjoy sitting her listening to people lie. 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 that no one in this room, including and especially your clients, are intellectually and creatively capable of doing.
What does it mean that for some people it is easier to change the world than it is to change themselves? What are the filmmakers trying to say here?
All this once again brings us to what The Social Network is really about (last one, I promise). David Fincher didn’t go to film school; he dove straight into filmmaking instead. And as a director he’s definitely obsessed. Aaron Sorkin also never learned screenwriting, he just picked it up and it clicked. I also think it’s safe to say that he is an obsessive. And despite being Hollywood players, they are still outcasts of sorts, making deep, artistic films when that definitely is not in.
Are these two changing the world? That’s up for you to decide, but I think it is pretty clear that they put themselves into this film. They opened themselves up and spilled their guts, Sorkin on the page, Fincher on set. They did this so we could better understand them, so they could better fit in. Them and people like them. This is why I don’t care how accurate the characters are to their real-life counterparts: the film isn’t about the real-life counterparts; it is about the people who created it, and those who are like them. Like all great works of art, the artists put themselves on display in this piece, bleeding on the page, on the screen, showing us who they are, what they think, how they see the world, what they believe and how they feel. And letting us connect with all that, relate to it if we’re like them, understand it if we’re not. All of this, the personal, the openness, the connections these filmmakers make, that is what The Social Network is really about.
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