My immediate reaction from leaving The Social Network was disgust, “Sean Parker is a drug addicted a–hole.” Right after that statement left my mouth, I stopped for a second, abruptly putting a cease and desist order to prevent my brain waves from creating any other unfounded criticisms on the movie because after stepping back I realized that the movie is a fictional interpretation of factual events.
As far as deciding whether or not I like the movie – yeah I liked the movie. I enjoyed the story it told about a disillusioned, socially inept, vengeful co-ed and his journey on sticking it to the girl who broke up with him as well as the only true ally he had.
The main issue I had with the movie was the illusion it gave me as what was factual and what parts of the movie were writers embellishment. I’m not trying to say anything badly about Aaron Sorkin – he wrote an amazing screenplay and I enjoyed his cameo as a possible venture capitalist. All of the actors in the film played their roles impeccably – I’ve always been impressed by Jesse Eisenberg’s incredible acting this was no different… Andrew Garfield was equally as fantastic in his role as Eduardo Saverin, and he is f-i-n-e fine.
Certainly the film’s catchphrase holds true in all spectrums of business – there really is no possible way to get to the top of your game without stepping on others along the way. That being said – the film certainly turned me off from my avid Facebook using as it portrayed users as thoughtless, bored collegians who use the medium as a means of revisiting (or a means of filling in the blanks) crazy parties, pseudo-stalking acquaintances — oh wait, that part was true. It’s the fact that this was their intended purpose that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Zuckerberg purposefully created a medium which effectively causes a passive way at becoming more acquainted with strangers and friends alike.
As a PR student I learned that perception is everything. So I wonder what Columbia Pictures and Zuckerberg’s team think about the people who are coming out of the film angered and completely bothered by the story. My immediate observations of the movie more or less dealt with what I thought about the people involved in the story, and then almost instantaneously realizing that my anger should have been targeted towards the characters.
While we’ll never know the full truths involved with the beginnings of Facebook, I think it’s important to be cognizant of a few things – the first: the people in the film are basically caricatures of real people; second: the movie depicts that Facebook was designed out of malice; third: it’s up to the viewer to determine how they feel about the real people involved in the story – I can speak for myself when I say that I’ll be decreasing my Facebook presence.
What did you think after the movie? According to Variety‘s website, the movie has made $24.5 million to date. If you haven’t seen it, what are you waiting for. If you have, I’d love to hear what you thought about it.
