Why everyone needs to watch 'The Social Network' by Anonymous
My favourite thing of
all time to do as of the last, say, two years has been to watch movies.
Immersing myself in a different world of relevance and culture is extremely
important to me. Although there are still some classics I'm yet to conquer, I
have watched many critically acclaimed movies of different genres and different
(but equally talented) directors. David Fincher is currently regarded as one of
the most preeminent directors of his generation having created notable projects
like Gone Girl, Se7en and the iconic Fight Club. However, today my focus is on
what I like to call my first favourite movie, The Social Network.
Starring Jesse
Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield it tells the story of Mark Zuckerberg who creates
a social networking site, Facebook, with his friend Eduardo's help. Though it
turns out to be a successful venture, he severs ties with several people along
the way. I won't get into the nuance of the film because this whole prompt is
to urge you to watch it and I wouldn't want to spoil the movie. However, I would
like to point out particularly why this movie stands out so uniquely to me.
Although it's not my
favourite film (a title I'm still contemplating) I think it's a deeply, deeply
important watch because of two things: character and relevance. This film however
depicts Zuckerberg during his up-and-coming and delves into his creating
Facebook while he was a student at Harvard and was actually criticised for
writing his character too harshly.
My favourite thing for
a movie to do is give main characters that are unlikeable. Well-written, of
course, but unlikeable. It provides the audience with a complexity because it
opposes this idea that we are so used to which is that a protagonist is
supposed to be exactly that- a protagonist, the good guy. Zuckerberg is more of
an anti-hero. I think that by seeing so much of him and being able to conclude
by dissecting his nature that he is cocky, rude and extremely self-centred is a
very important thing to be able to do. His priorities are all over the place
and he constantly deems his needs more important than others and doesn't care
about exploiting or taking advantage of people and I think it's all down to ego
and his inherent belief that he is better than his peers. Zuckerberg is
obviously a genius, and this is explored in this movie and the complexity of
this character is that an audience is naturally inclined to admire his
intelligence, but is repelled by his arrogance. People would much rather
appreciate someone humble and kind but from the beginning of the film, it's clear
that he's nothing like this. This is shown through the cryptic way he speaks.
He's unable to have a normal conversation because he talks very quickly and
jumps around conversation topic as if he's trying to prove that his brain works
faster than yours. He knows he's smart and he believes he's smarter and better
than everyone. There are other cases where this is obvious for example during
the instance that he's being sued, a lawyer asks him if they have his attention
to which he responds with "You have part of my attention--the minimum
amount needed. The rest of my attention is back at the offices of Facebook
where my employees and I are doing things that no one in this room, including
and especially your clients, are intellectually or creatively capable of
doing." The reason I love this movie so much is because if I met this
character in real life I would deem him elitist, condescending and annoying.
But watching him and hearing lines like these, parts of me can't help but think
this cockiness is perhaps unapologetic confidence because he knows how good he
is and doesn't shy away from making this apparent. I wouldn't want to say that
this confuses an audience, instead I'll just say it makes you really think.
Think about your morals, think about what defines a good person, think about
these characters and their backgrounds and if they are truly flawed or if
that's just what makes them human and relatable. Mark is also presented as
quite socially awkward throughout the film and doesn't have many friends in college
so an audience would usually empathise with a character like this. But, at the
very beginning of the movie someone says to him "Listen, You're going to
be successful and rich. But you're going to go through life thinking that girls
don't like you because you're a tech geek. And I want you to know, from the
bottom of my heart, that that won't be true. It'll be because you're an
a**hole." So, maybe, Fincher doesn't actually want us to empathise with
him. He doesn't want us to care that he's a 'nerd' or doesn't have many friends
because it's not these traits that make him unlikeable, it's his personality.
I think this movie is
important to watch because anti-heroes are important and you'll appreciate
them because they portray the duality of man and challenge traditional
narratives, all while providing engaging and thought-provoking entertainment.
This movie is also
culturally relevant because of its deep dive into betrayal and the tragic end
of friendships because of greed. I can't get too deep into this aspect without
giving out some major plot points, but it truly makes you question just how
grave the concept of temptation is and how easy it is to have your perspective
totally shuttered because of the object that is money and power.
I'd quickly like to add
for some fellow cinephiles that this film also has some of the most incredible
writing. It's basically a film about people talking and I know that may sound
boring but this dialogue is so good it feels like an action movie.
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