The Visage Volume

Poster by the fantastic Olly Moss.

[More old stuff.]

Here's a little history lesson about Facebook. Firstly, the term "Facebook" is older than you think. The former private school of founder Mark Zuckerberg had a student directory, which worked like a yearbook - names with a face above it. Students took to calling it the Face Book; similarly, in the opening scene, the various houses of Harvard have their own Face Books. Facebook itself began in 2003 as Facemash, where Zuckerberg hacked private student IDs to get girls' photos that he would then email to classmates to rate in terms of appearance.

Yes, the world's most popular social networking website started out as a Hot or Not competition. We've come so far.

Within 2 hours, Facemash had rocketed 22,000 hits, but almost led to Zuckerberg getting expelled. Still, having seen there was a need for social interaction amongst college students, or the desire to replicate the college experience online in a way that was cool, Zuckerberg began writing code for a new website in January 2004. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Why am I telling you all this? Because that whole section probably contains more information about Facebook than The Social Network. Y'see, the film's "about" Facebook in the same way that Wall Street was actually about Wall Street - it serves as a frame of reference and a theme and you'll hear terms bandied about, but it's not the focus. In fact, here it's essentially a MacGuffin to drive the story along. No, the attention is on the people responsible - in this case, Mark Zuckerberg; Eduardo Saverin, his one and only best friend; and Sean Parker, the founder of Napster and the story's Mephistopheles figure.

Based on The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich, the film kicks off with Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) creating FaceMash after his girlfriend (Rooney Mara) dumps him, partly because his social skills are worse than mine, and partly because he's an arsehole, in a drunken fit of revenge. After the surprising amount of success his actions generate, he quickly discovers a need for social interaction amongst the students of Harvard, and along with his friend Saverin (Andrew Garfield) endeavours to make the online equivalent of an exclusive club that they call "thefacebook".

And then, things get complicated. The film's framing device has Zuckerberg in the midst of two lawsuits - one from Saverin over Zuckerberg diluting his share in the company, and the other from the Winklevoss twins (Armie Hammer and Josh Pence, with the help of some impressive FX work) who had asked Zuckerberg to help start up their own social networking website HarvardConnect; we visit each lawsuit throughout. And then Zuckerberg catches the ear of Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), a charismatic entrepeneur who offers to make his protége a billionaire.

So yeah, this is a film at exactly two hours long that's almost entirely dialogue about nerds getting rich and suing each other. Why is it so good? Because that dialogue is penned by Aaron Sorkin, and if you've watched The West Wing, then I don't think you need any further provocation to see this. It's fitting it runs off at a fast pace because that's the kind of person our protagonist is; Zuckerberg is undoubtedly a genius, able to hack state-of-the-art security in a few hours while drunk, and his mind is moving too fast for his mouth, and his social grace in general. Similarly, director David Fincher manages to make all of this gripping right out of the gate through the use of punchy editing, lovely visuals and a talented young cast. Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, along with Atticus Ross, both turn their industrial music leanings to the score to startling effect; dark, mechanical, and constantly surging forward, it keeps the movie's momentum going while also giving a musical insight into how Zuckerberg's mind works. This is how you'd imagine the gears in his head to sound like, with the possible exception of the haunting Wendy Carlos-style remix of Hall of the Mountain King.

The cast's youth is probably the most intrinsic thing about the film, as The Social Network is all about playground politics. Zuckerberg is the bright kid with no way to express himself and wants attention, but not necessarily to be liked personally; he just wants people to talk about him and to be popular. The opening scene has him express his worries about Harvard's "final clubs"; essentially, exclusive social groups for undergraduates. He's not someone you can warm to, frequently coming across as aloof, arrogant and insufferable; during a lawsuit, when asked if he has the lawyer's full attention, he responds with "You have part of my attention. The minimum amount". The truth has definitely been embellished somewhat, since the real life Zuckerberg has been with the same girlfriend since 2003, was captain of the Harvard fencing team, and frequently quoted from The Iliad, which you can't see the film's version doing.  But he's not meant to be likeable and the film itself isn't meant to be completely accurate. It's a drama that paints a picture of the zeitgeist, a la Citizen Kane. And like Charles Foster Kane, he's a brilliant, complex and tormented man.

Meanwhile, Saverin is hurt when his friend decides he doesn't want to hang out with him any more and gets a new bestie in the form of Parker, and throughout the film is given a whole lot of shit to work through. He is treated like a money fountain, and is turned on when he decides enough is enough. Facebook gets him a girlfriend (Brenda Song) who proves jealous, clingy and downright psychotic at times, and ultimately the website he helped create leads to him losing one of his closest friends. The Winklevosses, meanwhile, are handsome, rich and athletic, but want to be smart as well. For all the good things they have, their status as bluebloods might have left them disconnected from everyone else, and they want popularity - associated with happiness by numerous characters throughout - so they can feel on top of the world. They respect Zuckerberg for his astronomical IQ, and abstain from suing him for as long as they can because they're "gentlemen of Harvard"; isn't this like the big kids trying to be more mature?

And, as is standard with playground politics, things get petty. Gentlemen of Harvard they may be, the Winklevosses are prepared to kick Zuckerberg's scrawny ass the first chance they get, and tell the teacher about the fact he copied their work. It's implied Parker spread a rumour around Harvard that Saverin tortures chickens to try and get him fired, and isn't that just a childish insult? Saverin returns by cutting off funding as a means of getting attention. On the more 'adult' side of things, Parker previously had his own social networking website that got killed in the crib, and sees Facebook as revenge of sorts.

This probably sounds exaggerated, and must make all the characters sound like characters from Bugsy Malone with real guns, but this isn't intended as an honest account. Like Citizen Kane, this is a story about success and the downsides that come with it; Zuckerberg is the world's youngest billionaire, and has connected 500 million people around the world. The cost is that he has no friends and ends up enbroiled in bitter lawsuits. I can't recommend this film highly enough.