A brand new, not co-opted post. Sometimes I am capable of things.
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About two decades ago, I was working at Boston University, and as such, had an email address that ended in .edu, which at the time was the only way an adult person could get a Facebook account. Of course, I didn’t know that many people on facebook that I could interact with, but it still made me feel cool. Although, a lot of universities, including BU, allowed alumni to keep their email addresses after graduation, so the pool started growing pretty quickly once people figured that out. Hence, I felt much less cool in short order. Then everyone could get an account, and I haven’t felt cool since.
(Incidentally, my college email address was mystudentIDnumber@emerson.edu. It was a number I have not had to know in over 25 years, so even if they let me keep it, I wouldn’t know it. Hardly anyone emailed me on it, anyway, since no one wanted to type that shit out. It was 1996, by the way.)
These days, I work in various elementary schools, turning teacher’s laptops on and off to “fix” them, and if Facebook is ever brought up by the teacher, the students laugh and laugh at how old their teacher is. It’s one thing to not post or really care about Facebook in 2023 (which I don’t), but it’s another thing to come to the realization that, in 2023, Facebook is the thing that old people do. So, I guess I[‘m old. But come on, my Dad still gets a newspaper delivered to his house daily, but I don’t laugh in his face for it.
The point is, it may be hard for people of the current generation to grasp how big a deal this Facebook thing was twenty years ago. It wasn’t just an online marketplace to buy and sell cheap junk that you no longer want. It was an actual way to communicate, and if you met someone in real life, it was a way to immediately stalk them and see what kind of life they really lived (which I definitely did to my wife before meeting her in person). It was a thing you updated a lot, with meaningless status messages and pictures of what you were doing or eating, so much so that my brother once asked me if I ever was concerned that checking in to a place meant that anyone following me on Facebook instantly knew that I wasn't at home and could go rob me. And I suppose it would have concerned me, if I owned anything worth stealing.
Regardless of your level of involvement with it, Facebook was at least a big enough deal back in the day to have a movie made about its creation, The Social Network. And it’s actually a compelling movie, written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher, with great performances by Jesse Eisenberg (at peak Eisenberg-ness), Andrew Garfield, and once again, Armie Hammer, playing both Winklevoss twins. As I mentioned in my last post, I wish I knew what really is going on with Armie Hammer, because I tend to enjoy his work and would hate to support a total freak. Still, back then, playing two people who share every scene together deserves some credit.
I remember at the time, and I was not alone, wondering how the creation of a social networking website would make for good cinema. Well, they pulled it off, to the tune of $224 million on a $40 million budget and 8 Oscar nominations. It also took home a bunch of critics’ awards that nobody really knows except critics, but if you’re into that kind of thing, it’s got 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. So, the question is, how did they take nerds creating a website and make it one of the best movies of this century? Because it’s not about the creation of the site. It’s about people, and one in particular.
Based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich, The Social Network is the story of a Harvard student who gets dumped by his BU girlfriend (rightly), and how he then gets drunk and creates a website that allows other students to rate their peers’ attractiveness. He and some of his friends (of which he has few) start monkeying around with the site, and it eventually morphs in what they call “The Facebook,” and yes, that guy who got dumped was Mark Zuckerburg (Eisenberg), and yes, he is a bit of an asshole.
I’ve always had a funny way of looking at who the good guys and bad guys are in stories, so I'm not sure if it’s just me, or if Zuckerburg is the bad guy, or just misunderstood, or what. As Facebook evolves throughout the film, and money starts being made, Zuckerburg’s one friend, Eduardo (Garfield) seems to be the one getting screwed the most, because it was his money that helped them get started. Eduardo thought that they were partners in the whole venture, but Zuckerburg was the one making all the decisions, and it does seem like he was just using Ed for his money. But it also seems like at times that he is doing what he thinks is best for the company. And I’ll be honest, I find him compelling.
Then there is “The Winklevii,” as Zuckerburg calls them, who hired Mark to create a social networking site called HarvardConnect, and then he decided to create Facebook instead. Even though it seems pretty cut and dried when they read the email exchanges between the two sides that Zuckerburg avoided them at all costs, at first the twins don’t want to just sue the pants off Zuckerburg because, as one of them puts it (who cares which one), “we are gentlemen of Harvard.” When they do take their gripe to the President of Harvard, they are told by him, an older fellow who doesn’t see any potential in the idea of Facebook, that they should just come up with a new concept. To make the audience understand, Sorkin, through President Summers, uses the line, “Everyone at Harvard's inventing something. Harvard undergraduates believe that inventing a job is better than finding a job.” The Winklevii are Harvard undergraduates who claim to have a 3.9 GPA and are the stars of the crew team. It is a nice way of saying, “Do something else and get out of my office!” Zuckerburg was hired by them, and then created Facebook, and that’s how the cookie crumbled. And it is quite amusing to think back to a time before basically all social media existed and realize that it was a time when nobody, especially the President of Harvard, gave a shit.
The movie portrays Zuckerburg as an incredibly smart, shrewd guy, but also as slightly awkward when it comes to relationships. As I mentioned earlier, the catalyst of the whole endeavor is when his BU girlfriend, Erica Albright, played by Rooney Mara, breaks up with him for the way he treats her, and for insulting her school (“You go to BU,” he says. “You don’t have to study.” As a BU employee at the time, that one cracked a lot of us up.) There is a reason this is the opening scene, because in the end, that one event is basically why Zuck did anything. After all the things he had done to his friends and partners, and all the money he had made, the final scene is Mark Zuckerburg, sitting alone in a conference room where his hearing is taking place, constantly refreshing his Facebook page to see if Erica has accepted his friend request. Just prior to that, the last line of the whole movie, uttered by Rashida Jones, one of his attorneys who actually seemed to feel sympathy for him, is “You’re not an asshole, Mark. You’re just trying so hard to be.” Mark Zuckerburg could have worked at Staples (although, let’s face it, the stakes would have been a little lower) but the fact is that the movie was really about his fragile ego, and how it’s basically easier to get people to hate you than like you. The irony of that being that getting “Likes” is what Facebook is intrinsically all about.
But despite all that, and the message of the movie and the story of Mark Zuckerburg, will anyone under the age of twenty ever watch this movie and really care about it? Would they even know who Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) is and why he is important? Will it matter?
It will matter as much as any movie, I suppose. When I was a film student, I was told to watch a bunch of movies from a previous era to admire their techniques and nuances. Because I was a cynical, young idiot, I didn't really care about a lot of them. Not every movie is going to touch everyone, and not all movies are timeless classics. All the filmmakers can do is try to make the stakes feel important enough that the audience understands why these people are doing this stuff. A perfect example is A Few Good Men, also written by Aaron Sorkin, when Tom Cruise says that the Marines he represents are on trial for murder because they followed an order, and his job is to convince a jury (and by proxy, the audience) that they are not guilty. Since most of us aren’t Marines, Sorkin has to convince us of the stakes. I think he accomplished his goal, but most people only really remember that movie for Jack Nicholson.
Maybe I’ll check in on The Social Network in a few years and see if it still can’t handle the truth.
I like Fincher and Eisenberg (Luthor aside!). I am equally surprised and not surprised (is that a real reaction) that you connected with this film, while trying to enjoy it. I see the connection here with your day jobs! My MassArt, ND email was in Pine Mail on a Terminal Screen. I suppose we could have been internet friends back then in the dark days! Great stars in this movie, and Trent Reznor soundtrack 'slaps'. Even though I don't listen to scores so much, I like Atticus and Trent's work! Zuck may indeed be an asshole, and even so, I think Elon has eaten his lunch in that regard, and while I think Meta/Facebook is evil and could have done more to protect people's privacy and other controversies, they have done some good in the social media space. I too am an 'Old' using Facebook a lot for things! It's connection with "young" instagram is good for work as well. We shall see what Meta does in the next 20 years. Though it is an exaggerated biography, with Fincher's style and over the top storytelling, this is a good movie, in my opinion. I am not sorry nor ashamed to admit that! It's no Zombieland, but Lex is great in this and and in Fleishmann is in Trouble. I'm a fan. Sorry and ashamed to be a Jesse Eisenberg Stan. Please leave a like! Just kidding.