Film Studies
The movie “The Social Network” was shown in 2010 and gives a detailed story on how Mark Zuckerberg transformed the social networking site “Facebook” to become a global phenomenon. It presents a simple story of how a young student from Harvard University in the person of Zuckerberg was able to create a campus website which was named “Facemash” and made him the second youngest billionaire in the world. The story begins when Zuckerberg was dumped by his girlfriend, Erica causing him to create a blog which was intended to insult her. This prompted him to create a website known as “Facemash” which gave the opportunity for the students to rate whether a female student was attractive or not. This became the starting point of Facebook and the rest was history.
The fascinating combination of ingenuity, talent, craftsmanship and technology will amaze the audience how a young man accidentally became a billionaire. With the help of his friend Eduardo Saverin, Zuckergberg launched his idea called “The Facebook”, which became an instant hit to popular universities like Harvard, Stanford, Yale and Columbia, allowing them to interact with old friends and new acquaintances. The social networking website allows its members to post pictures, videos and interact with their friends all over the world, which is a relatively new technology.
The movie also tackles the friendship, deceit, greed and betrayal of the characters. This was shown when Zuckerberg worked his way to look for new investors to earn control of the company by becoming the majority shareholder, and diluting the shares of Saverin without his consent. Aside from this, Zuckerberg had to deal with lawsuits filed against him not just by his friend Saverin, but by the Winklevoss twins who claimed that he stole their idea, which is a violation of the intellectual property. Towards the end of the movie, Zuckerberg was advised by his lawyer to enter an amicable settlement with the Winklevoss twins and Saverin in order dispense the trial proceedings, which may turn out to be unfavourable to him. At the same time, paying off Saverin and the Winklevoss twins will help in maintaining the good name of Facebook.
The actors of the movie include Jesse Eisenbergas, who played the role of Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg; together with Justin Timberlake, as one of the founders of Napster, was able to expand Facebook network; and Andrew Garfield, who played the role of Eduardo Saverin, as the main characters who created the website.
The acting of the main characters was superb, particularly of Eisenbergas, for e earning him a nomination for Best Actor. The film also received other nominations in the 68th Golden Globe Awards and 83rd Academy Awards, where it won Best Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score and Best Motion Picture in Drama.
The lighting in this movie was excellent, which was able to capture the emotions in the major scenes which were shot inside the prep campuses in Massachusetts. The cinematography was also a delightful sight for the audience giving crisp and vivid scenes of the movie. The music for this film is suitable for its young audience. Overall, the film is well-crafted, as there are three different sides of the story which were told by the main characters. In my opinion, the movie is fresh, new and exciting by presenting how a simple young student transformed himself to an accidental billionaire.
