Response to The Social Network
To keep things fresh since we’ve all seen the movie, I wanted to avoid using scenes from the movie in my GIFs. What this means however is that now you guys get a bunch of no-context clips from tv shows or interviews that I’ve seen and thought could be applied to my feelings towards the movie. Enjoy!
So I’m going to start off by saying that this movie pleasantly surprised me. I try to stay away from news and gossip so I went into this film with zero prior knowledge about anything to do with Facebook beyond the fact that it’s social media. Needless to say, I was very confused for a good portion of the movie, and although I didn’t think the first half was very interesting, I thoroughly enjoyed the second half and the movie as a whole!
Right off the bat, I spiritually resonated with Mark’s sarcasm and over-the-top pettiest for lack of a better term. However accurate it may or may not be, the fact that Facebook technically stemmed from the bitterness of a broken heart alone makes this movie worthwhile. I thought it was interesting how this bitterness both defined and destroyed Zuckerberg along the way. I felt that by having the opening and ending scenes both show Mark and Erica’s relationship, or lack thereof, the viewer was able to feel and see just how much of a impact Facebook had on Zuckerberg’s life. It’s creation simultaneously carried him to the top in a fame and money sense, while dragging him to the bottom in a social and relational sense. Ironic that the man credited with creating one of the largest social media platforms would end up with so few friends.
Honestly, the hardest thing about this movie to watch was how Mark and Eduardo continued to drift apart. I’m not sure how much of the falling through in real-life was due to Mark intentionally pushing Eduardo out or Sean interfering behind the scenes, but needless to say I have never experienced such feelings of anger towards Justin Timberlake until today.
The cast in this movie was superb. Jesse Eisenberg was able to brilliantly capture Mark from the little I have seen of him and Garfield’s eyes tell stories a script could never beat. What really surprised me though was how natural Armie Hammer looked as a twin. I loved the “good cop, bad cop” play and banter between the two of them and thought the moment when Cam finally decided to sue Zuckerberg, becoming more like Tyler, was strangely poetic. It was probably just me, but I feel that what people do and post on the internet is a reflection of who they are, and the internet can push those reflections onto other people. I feel Facebook does this in particular as it’s constantly showing the user what their peers have that they don’t, often leading people to try and change themselves. In the case of the movie, it was Tyler’s reflection that was being pushed onto Cam who eventually caved under the pressure to conform and went along with Tyler and Divya.
Another message I felt shown through the movie was the idea that people are people no matter what they have or haven’t accomplished and sometimes they are just plain crazy. In the case of Christy, I think she just needs some help. But for other slightly more developed character such as Sean and Mark, perhaps there is a bit more too them then meets the eye.
While I feel that Eduardo may have been right about Sean being a bit paranoid, I also think that Sean’s real issue, and something that Mark was guilty of as well, is that he couldn’t comprehend the feeling of losing. Both Sean and Mark displayed pretty intense payback and denial tendencies, Sean going as far as to repeatedly claim he “won” the Napster case in the end and even having Mark turn down a potential investor out of spite towards a past, personal issue where he was “beat”. In a similar way the entire story of Facebook supposedly stems from the moment where Erica dumped Mark. Just like Sean, Mark can’t handle the idea that he didn’t end out on top or get to make the calls and turns to belittling her on his blog. While great things like Facebook were able to stem from this, I can’t help but feel that success is just a really good cover-up for someone who’s insecure and frustrated but doesn’t know how to convey or handle those emotions.
