The Social Network

If you're thinking about going to see The Social Network, do it. It's completely worth your $8.50 a ticket. Masterfully directed, beautifully shot, meticulously written and exquisitely performed by the cast, it really leaves an impression, although I'm wondering what that impression was for other people.

Without giving too much away about the story, Mark Zuckerberg, one of the founders of Facebook, is being sued by twins the Winklevoss brothers for the supposed intellectual property theft of their original website. He is also being sued, at the same time, by Eduardo Saverin, the co-founder of Facebook, former CFO of Facebook and Zuckerberg's ex-best friend. The film covers the story of Facebook's inception, it's growing pains and those involved in it's current state as arguably the most powerful social networking site on the internet at this time.

In my opinion, the Winklevoss twins were poor losers. Their claim is the website they conceived could have been Facebook, whereas it was more like Harvard meets Match.com to rephrase a statement from the film. Zuckerberg misled them by not telling them anything, and for that he was wrong, but in the end he was still the main creator and progenitor of Facebook. The work was his, the concept was his and the final product was his, no question.

As for Saverin, he put up the initial money for Facebook (a total of $19,000) and was initially promised a 70/30 split of the profits with 70 going to Zuckerberg and 30 going to him. Throughout the film, Saverin is constantly not one or two but twenty steps behind Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg is unprofessional and embarrassing at meetings but that's because he doesn't care, whereas Saverin is trying to gain support for the company via traditional methods and nothing comes of that. When Facebook moves to California and starts picking up speed on it's own, Saverin stays in New York to try and drum up support which never appears despite Zuckerberg begging him to join him at the new base of operations. While Saverin is away, Zuckerberg and Sean Parker of Napster fame join forces and Parker delivers on everything Saverin never could, getting enormous funding for Facebook and making them all millionaires if not billionaires. At this point, it's clear that Saverin should leave, but Zuckerberg and Parker try to cut him out completely. If they had tried a polite exit strategy I'm sure things could have worked out, if not perfectly than at least far better than they did. I don't know if it was Parker's idea to end the partnership that way, although it seems like one of his ideas, but Zuckerberg is just as responsible and for that, despite Saverin's lack of true involvement beyond the initial start-up financial support and possibly one algorithm, Saverin should have been awarded his 30% or at least something more polite without the awful treatment he received.

Now, if you haven't seen the movie, read the book (The Accidental Billionaires, which I'm going to be picking up soon) or heard the details, despite going over some important facts here the film is still riveting and essential, as there is far more to all of this than what I've just conveyed, and I'm sure the book gets into the true nitty-gritty of what was at hand. That said, I was astounded by Zuckerberg's mind and I'm sure many so-called "nerds" can relate to his disconnect from society despite bringing much of it together in a new way. He and Parker are brilliant in ways that the average individual may not know what to do with, as most rogues are, but they lack the control necessary to maintain their momentum as they let important details fall to the wayside. I, as I'm sure many others would also, would love to sit down with them and discuss their lives, although I'd be more interested in watching them in their environments, almost like an anthropological study. I would like to understand them in a way that a film or a book, no matter how great they are, and this film is certainly GREAT, could explain. That, of course, is probably a pipe dream, but that's alright, I now have a partial understanding of them.

On the way out of the theater, a couple behind me were talking loudly and the man announced that after returning home he would be deleting his Facebook account. I was shocked. I wasn't about to discuss this with the man as I don't know him and he was definitely somewhere else, but I did discuss it with my friend who attended the film with me. What do the trials and tribulations behind these events have to do with the final product? If you invented a revolutionary device, lets say a flying car, and you wanted your flying car to work fantastically while maintaining it's appearance of cool, wouldn't you think there might be complications along the way? People who might claim your work is theirs? People who might claim your product is theirs? If the fellow walking out of the theater realized how many great inventions were born in litigation and anti-social behavior would he attempt to dismiss them all? His car? His cell phone? The electricity in his home? They all suffered similarly convoluted origins, many with far nastier stories behind them than that of Facebook. Facebook isn't for everyone and if you don't like it you don't need to use it, but the final product is a clean and inviting system, unlike it's prior competitors (anyone else glad you don't have to visit MySpace pages so regularly now?). It revolutionized something, and you don't have to think about the trials and tribulations behind that revolution if you use it, all you need to know is that it works. I'm sure others will walk out of the theater and say the same thing, but I also hope they realize how stupid a statement it is that they have just made.

In the end, this film is great but it did something even greater afterward, it sparked conversation. With that said, this is one team's angle of the story, there may be things that are never conveyed in any film, book or other document. Just remember that there is no such thing as a definitive retelling, but this is a brilliant work and if you can go, you should most definitely go. It is truly an essential film.