The Social Network

MOVIE ANALYSIS

The Social Network

About the Story
“The Social Network” is director David Fincher’s fascinating look at the birth of Facebook, and the men
responsible for its creation. It is a story of entrepreneurship and theft, and of friendship and betrayal.
More than anything else, though, it is a study of Mark Zuckerberg – Facebook’s enigmatic creator, and
the world’s youngest billionaire. Thrown into the mix are some intriguing concepts of greed, integrity,
and intellectual property rights, elevating “The Social Network” from a simple biopic to a critique of our
culture.
Plot
In late 2003, 19-year old Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg is dumped by his then girlfriend Erica
Albright. After returning to his dorm, Zuckerberg writes an insulting entry about Albright on his Live
Journal blog and then creates a campus website called Facemash by hacking into college databases to steal
photos of female students, and allowing site visitors to rate their attractiveness. After traffic to the site
crashes parts of Harvard's computer network, Zuckerberg is given six months of academic probation.
However, Facemash's popularity attracts the attention of Harvard upperclassmen and
twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss and their business partner Divya Narendra. The trio invite Zuckerberg to
work on Harvard Connection, a social network for Harvard students aimed at dating.
After agreeing to work on the Winklevoss twins' concept, Zuckerberg approaches his friend Eduardo
Saverin with an idea for what he calls Thefacebook, an online social networking website that would be
exclusive to Ivy League students. Saverin provides $1,000 in seed funding, allowing Mark to build the website,
which quickly becomes popular. When they learn of Thefacebook, the Winklevoss twins and Narendra are
incensed, believing that Zuckerberg stole their idea while keeping them deliberately in the dark by stalling on
developing the Harvard Connection website. They raise their complaint with Harvard President Larry
Summers, who is dismissive and sees no value in either disciplinary action or Thefacebook website itself.
Saverin and Zuckerberg meet fellow student Christy Lee, who asks them to "Facebook me", a phrase which
impresses both of them. As Thefacebook grows in popularity, Zuckerberg extends the network to Yale
University, Columbia University and Stanford University. Lee arranges for Saverin and Zuckerberg to
meet Napster co-founder Sean Parker, who presents a vision for the company that impresses Zuckerberg. He
also suggests dropping the "The" from Thefacebook. At Parker's suggestion, the company moves to Palo Alto,
with Saverin remaining in New York to work on business development. After Parker promises to expand
Facebook to two continents, Zuckerberg invites him to live at the house he is using as company headquarters.
While competing in the Henley Royal Regatta for Harvard, the Winklevoss twins discover that Facebook has
expanded to Oxford, Cambridge, and the LSE and decide to sue the company for theft of intellectual
property. Meanwhile, Saverin objects to Parker making business decisions for Facebook and freezes the
company's bank account in the resulting dispute. He later relents when Zuckerberg reveals that they have
secured $500,000 from angel investor Peter Thiel. However, Saverin confronts Zuckerberg and Parker when
he discovers that the new investment deal allows his share of Facebook to be diluted from 34% to 0.03%,
while maintaining the ownership percentage of all other parties. His name is removed from the masthead as
co-founder. Saverin vows to sue Zuckerberg for all the company's shares before being ejected from the
building. Later, a cocaine possession incident involving Parker and his attempt to place the blame on Saverin
finally convinces Zuckerberg to cut ties with him.
Throughout the film, the narrative is intercut with scenes from depositions taken in the Winklevoss twins'
and Saverin's respective lawsuits against Zuckerberg and Facebook. The Winklevoss twins claim that
Zuckerberg stole their idea, while Saverin claims his shares of Facebook were unfairly diluted when the
company was incorporated. At the end, Marylin Delpy, a junior lawyer for the defense, informs Zuckerberg
that they will settle with Saverin, since the sordid details of Facebook's founding and Zuckerberg's own
callous attitude will make him highly unsympathetic to a jury. After everyone leaves, Zuckerberg is shown
sending a friend request to Albright on Facebook and then refreshing the webpage every few seconds as he
waits for her response.

Analysis of key aspects of the film

From a cinematic standpoint, “The Social Network” is outstanding. The performances by Eisenberg and
Timberlake are especially notable – Eisenberg is perfectly believable as the slightly tortured genius Mark,
while Timberlake perfectly captures Sean’s egotistic, devil-may-care attitude. A tightly plotted script –
alternating between college flashbacks and future lawsuits – keeps the story moving along at a fast
pace.

Power: Basically, ever character in every scene is either trying to gain
power, maintain a position of power, or actively remove someone else from power. When
Erica uses the only authority she has – her own personal authority – to break up
with Mark, he responds by establishing his intellectual power by demeaning her
online. When Eduardo has his power stripped from him by Mark and Sean, he
responds by taking a position to grab monetary power. Sean successfully attempts
to replace Eduardo in a position of power with Mark.


An interesting side note to the power theme is the way in which
traditional power is depicted an ineffective and/or indifferent. The Winkle Voss
twins spend most of the second act trying to go through standard legal means to
no effect, and when they then turn to the university, they’re mocked. And at the
end of the story, Mark is told that despite what the reality of situation might
be, he is going to settle out of court because he is “unsympathetic” and a jury
would never side with him (this is also the ultimate denial of acceptance that
Mark has spent the entire script trying to achieve).


Friendship: The theme of friendship is right at the front of THE
SOCIAL NETWORK. Mark’s driving force is to be accepted – to gain the social
status and the friends that he so desperately wants. As mentioned in the
discussion of character, it’s also part of the tragic ending to his story that
a man so determined to gain friendship – develops a world-changing way for
people to connect with one another while simultaneously losing every person in
his life. He ends up alone – friendless – because he put his trust in the wrong
person (Sean instead of Eduardo).

Class: Finally, there is a lot of class distinction used
throughout. At the very beginning we see Mark mock Erica for being “less well off”
and going to B.U. instead of Harvard. We also have Mark’s obsession with the
Final Clubs and the “better life” they bring. It’s this sense of not belonging –
this desire to join a perceived “higher-class” that drives Mark to develop
Facebook in the first place. You could actually view the entire
Zuckerberg-vs-Winkle Voss fight to be an analogy for class warfare.
Mark Zuckerberg Character Bio
The character of Mark Zuckerberg in the film ‘The Social Network’, directed by David Fincher, is
portrayed as an arrogant person.
Zuckerberg’s personality is made clear within the first 5 minutes of the film, not listening to a word his
girlfriend is saying and humiliating her at every turn, not knowing how to handle the situation resulting
in him losing his girlfriend. This sets up the motivation for why everything in the film takes place,
creating a giant chain reaction, with each decision leading to another conflict. He is socially inept, unable
to connect to anyone and not caring for others (while ironically creating the biggest social networking
website), being only concerned about his own interests and out-doing his peers. All that he does is to
improve his own image and become someone worth knowing, not caring the pain he may cause others
on his way to achieving this goal. Throughout the entire film he doesn’t change but seems to get worse
with his desire to become famous and rich growing, causing him to make even more drastic decisions to
get what he wants, such as betraying his best friend(Eduardo) who made his dream possible in the first
place. Zuckerberg’s stubborn attitude results in him losing his case against Eduardo and the Winklevoss’
twins and this triggers something in him, finally realizing what he has done, wanting to make up for it.
Although it is too late for it and he ends up where he started, being alone with only his computer and
Facebook.
Eduardo Saverin
Eduardo Saverin, the initial CFO of “theFacebook” was the best friend Mark had. He supports Mark and
Facebook by providing monetary help and the algorithm used for Facemash.com . He does this in order
to help Mark to realize and fulfill his dream.
He is caring which is shown in the instance when he visits Mark after he came to know about is breakup
from the blog.
He remains dedicated to facebook in the entire movie. He gathers $19000 so as to setup the servers for
facebook and later goes to NY searching for advertisers. He is concerned about developing Facebook
from a “cool idea” to a revenue generating company.