'Drop the 'the'. Just Facebook. It's cleaner.' - Sean Parker
Since its creation in 2004, Facebook has consistently been the most popular social networking platform in the world, with just under three billion active users as of 2023. It is one of the most important technological developments of the 21st century, and whilst its impact on society may not have always been positive, it brought the world together in a way that was never possible before.
But the story of Facebook’s creation and early years is just as extraordinary as the site itself. I’m not alone in thinking that David Fincher’s 2010 dramatisation of Facebook’s founding is a great film, but I’d go so far as saying it’s one of the best films ever made.
Mark Zuckerberg (Jessie Eisenberg) is an extremely talented computer programmer, but he has an attitude problem, and he cares little for the people he hurts with his cruel websites, or for the laws he breaks in breaching secure systems to download restricted data.
When he is approached by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (both played by Armie Hammer) to build a dating website for them, Mark is inspired to think bigger and connect university students across the nation using a universal face book. Partnering with his best friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), Mark begins a digital revolution in the way people communicate, and is subsequently taken to court by the Winklevoss’, their friend Dyvian Narenda (Max Minghella), and Eduardo for intellectual property theft and his unethical business practices.
But the story of Facebook’s creation and early years is just as extraordinary as the site itself. I’m not alone in thinking that David Fincher’s 2010 dramatisation of Facebook’s founding is a great film, but I’d go so far as saying it’s one of the best films ever made.
Mark Zuckerberg (Jessie Eisenberg) is an extremely talented computer programmer, but he has an attitude problem, and he cares little for the people he hurts with his cruel websites, or for the laws he breaks in breaching secure systems to download restricted data.
When he is approached by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (both played by Armie Hammer) to build a dating website for them, Mark is inspired to think bigger and connect university students across the nation using a universal face book. Partnering with his best friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), Mark begins a digital revolution in the way people communicate, and is subsequently taken to court by the Winklevoss’, their friend Dyvian Narenda (Max Minghella), and Eduardo for intellectual property theft and his unethical business practices.
I joined Facebook in 2008. Like most people, I was introduced to it by a friend who helped me create an account and I used it primarily to talk to school friends and post about the latest film I’d watched or game I was playing. So, Facebook was a huge part of my teenage years as the majority of my social interactions were happening online.
What does that have to do with The Social Network? Well, I feel it helps convey why I have such a strong admiration for this film, because whilst it is often dismissed by the masses as ‘that film about Facebook’, it’s actually far more than that but uses Facebook’s foundation as the staging area for a high stakes, fast paced, and frankly thrilling legal drama.
This is a story that over a third of the world’s population has stakes in, and to the untrained eye this is just the story of a computer nerd who made a website, but in reality, this is about the conception of one of the world’s most important communication platforms and the lives that were destroyed in its creation.
Let’s start with the screenplay, the marvellous screenplay. Aaron Sorkin is well known for his incredible talent, but I really do think that The Social Network may well be his magnum opus. There’s so much dialogue and it moves a mile a minute, so you really need to pay attention to keep up with what our characters are saying, and what they actually mean. The opening scene shows Mark and his at the time girlfriend Erica (Rooney Mara) at a bar discussing final clubs, and Mark’s obsession with gaining entrance to one. The conversation bounces between various topics, with each party getting somewhat frustrated with the other for changing the topic or being ignorant to the real conversation at hand, and that is the fact that their relationship isn’t working out and it’s primarily down to Mark’s ego and his need to be the smartest guy in the room. It comes to a boil spectacularly with Mark getting caught completely off guard by Erica dumping him, too obsessed with his own reputation to understand how he has belittled her.
It sets the tone for the whole film perfectly and reflects exactly how all of Mark’s closest friendships will end up dissolving by the end of the film, a result of prioritising his own pride at the expense of those he deems inferior to himself.
What does that have to do with The Social Network? Well, I feel it helps convey why I have such a strong admiration for this film, because whilst it is often dismissed by the masses as ‘that film about Facebook’, it’s actually far more than that but uses Facebook’s foundation as the staging area for a high stakes, fast paced, and frankly thrilling legal drama.
This is a story that over a third of the world’s population has stakes in, and to the untrained eye this is just the story of a computer nerd who made a website, but in reality, this is about the conception of one of the world’s most important communication platforms and the lives that were destroyed in its creation.
Let’s start with the screenplay, the marvellous screenplay. Aaron Sorkin is well known for his incredible talent, but I really do think that The Social Network may well be his magnum opus. There’s so much dialogue and it moves a mile a minute, so you really need to pay attention to keep up with what our characters are saying, and what they actually mean. The opening scene shows Mark and his at the time girlfriend Erica (Rooney Mara) at a bar discussing final clubs, and Mark’s obsession with gaining entrance to one. The conversation bounces between various topics, with each party getting somewhat frustrated with the other for changing the topic or being ignorant to the real conversation at hand, and that is the fact that their relationship isn’t working out and it’s primarily down to Mark’s ego and his need to be the smartest guy in the room. It comes to a boil spectacularly with Mark getting caught completely off guard by Erica dumping him, too obsessed with his own reputation to understand how he has belittled her.
It sets the tone for the whole film perfectly and reflects exactly how all of Mark’s closest friendships will end up dissolving by the end of the film, a result of prioritising his own pride at the expense of those he deems inferior to himself.
The screenplay’s strength is bolstered by career best performances from Eisenberg and Garfield. Eisenberg plays Zuckerberg in the most alien way he possibly can, which whilst may not necessarily be true of the real Mark Zuckerberg, but for the purposes of this film and the screenplay it works brilliantly. If he lived in a world where Facebook already existed then he would be an incel living in his mother’s basement, what separates him from everyone else is that he has nobody to vent to because he has no friends and the internet doesn’t have a social networking platform sophisticated enough for him to be able to have his misogynistic and hurtful worldviews spread to anyone and everyone. Eisenberg’s comedy sensibilities come into play really well with Sorkin’s script because it would have been so easy to play Zuckerberg as a dry and generally malevolent presence, but Eisenberg makes him charismatic in a backwards kind of way by playing up those qualities to such an extreme.
Garfield meanwhile plays Eduardo in a much more likeable and sympathetic way. The way Sorkin’s screenplay frames the narrative puts Zuckerberg in the role of antagonist, with Eduardo arguably being the protagonist. Whilst he may not be the main character, he is the nicest guy in the room (not really saying much), and he is ultimately the person who loses the most and undeservedly so.
Garfield brings the same kind of energy that he would end up taking through into his stint as Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man films, he’s charming and makes clever jokes, but ultimately is easy to take advantage of because he spreads himself so thin and is in a constant state of near panic.
Justin Timberlake is a surprising casting choice for Sean Parker, the founder of Napster who would become Facebook’s most influential figure during its early development. If Zuckerberg is the antagonist then Parker is the devil in Sorkin’s screenplay, sitting on Mark’s shoulder and whispering evil deeds into his brain to push him further down the rabbit hole. Whilst I don’t think Timberlake is a fantastic actor, I feel he does a decent job here because he plays slimy bastard really well. He’s a total douchebag and you love to hate him.
Finally, Armie Hammer is also worth mentioning because of his fantastic dual-role as both Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. They're always on screen together, so a body double is used with Hammer's face digitally transposed onto them, but the way that Hammer has managed to have onscreen chemistry with himself is extremely impressive.
Garfield meanwhile plays Eduardo in a much more likeable and sympathetic way. The way Sorkin’s screenplay frames the narrative puts Zuckerberg in the role of antagonist, with Eduardo arguably being the protagonist. Whilst he may not be the main character, he is the nicest guy in the room (not really saying much), and he is ultimately the person who loses the most and undeservedly so.
Garfield brings the same kind of energy that he would end up taking through into his stint as Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man films, he’s charming and makes clever jokes, but ultimately is easy to take advantage of because he spreads himself so thin and is in a constant state of near panic.
Justin Timberlake is a surprising casting choice for Sean Parker, the founder of Napster who would become Facebook’s most influential figure during its early development. If Zuckerberg is the antagonist then Parker is the devil in Sorkin’s screenplay, sitting on Mark’s shoulder and whispering evil deeds into his brain to push him further down the rabbit hole. Whilst I don’t think Timberlake is a fantastic actor, I feel he does a decent job here because he plays slimy bastard really well. He’s a total douchebag and you love to hate him.
Finally, Armie Hammer is also worth mentioning because of his fantastic dual-role as both Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. They're always on screen together, so a body double is used with Hammer's face digitally transposed onto them, but the way that Hammer has managed to have onscreen chemistry with himself is extremely impressive.
So far all of the praise seems to go towards Sorkin’s screenplay and I think it’s easy to forget just how much heavy lifting Fincher does for the rest of the film because it looks so effortless. Visually The Social Network is clean and precise. Jeff Cronenweth’s cinematography allows the frame to breathe so much whilst also feeling incredibly claustrophobic, and I love just how sublime every shot and movement is, it’s so smooth and it really draws you into the scene because of how unobstructive it is.
The choice to speed the dialogue up because Fincher didn’t want to cut any of it was a masterful decision, because it turned what could have been a boring courtroom drama into something that has such a speedy pace to it. The film is propelled forward by how fast the dialogue is delivered, and it helps conversations feel so much more natural because there’s no pause for dramatic effect or actors feeling as though they’re just waiting for their opportunity to speak. It makes the performances feel so much more dynamic because everyone is always on their toes, and often cutting through other lines making the dialogue stack in such a unique way.
This is then compounded by the amazing score from Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor. The rock synth vibes mesh well with the tech centric plot, and the creative way in which beats are created and how they intertwine with both the shot and the dialogue. It’s really memorable and I frequently listen to it outside of the context of watching the film. Ross & Reznor would collaborate with Fincher again on the remainder of his films, which is fantastic because their sound and his vision work together so well, a match made in heaven.
I don’t say this lightly, but The Social Network is borderline perfect. There’s nothing about the film that I actively dislike, and whilst there are a couple of clunky elements here and there, they’re so small in the scale of things that it really is nit-picking to go after them. Practically everything about this film is a complete winner for me, and it’s a film I find myself rewatching frequently because of how much I love it. This and Fight Club often duke it out for the place of my favourite Fincher film, but I do feel that The Social Network is the more cohesive and well-made film out of the two. The story of the creation of Facebook is one of the most important technological tales of our time, and it’s told in a film that delivers it in the best way it possible.
The choice to speed the dialogue up because Fincher didn’t want to cut any of it was a masterful decision, because it turned what could have been a boring courtroom drama into something that has such a speedy pace to it. The film is propelled forward by how fast the dialogue is delivered, and it helps conversations feel so much more natural because there’s no pause for dramatic effect or actors feeling as though they’re just waiting for their opportunity to speak. It makes the performances feel so much more dynamic because everyone is always on their toes, and often cutting through other lines making the dialogue stack in such a unique way.
This is then compounded by the amazing score from Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor. The rock synth vibes mesh well with the tech centric plot, and the creative way in which beats are created and how they intertwine with both the shot and the dialogue. It’s really memorable and I frequently listen to it outside of the context of watching the film. Ross & Reznor would collaborate with Fincher again on the remainder of his films, which is fantastic because their sound and his vision work together so well, a match made in heaven.
I don’t say this lightly, but The Social Network is borderline perfect. There’s nothing about the film that I actively dislike, and whilst there are a couple of clunky elements here and there, they’re so small in the scale of things that it really is nit-picking to go after them. Practically everything about this film is a complete winner for me, and it’s a film I find myself rewatching frequently because of how much I love it. This and Fight Club often duke it out for the place of my favourite Fincher film, but I do feel that The Social Network is the more cohesive and well-made film out of the two. The story of the creation of Facebook is one of the most important technological tales of our time, and it’s told in a film that delivers it in the best way it possible.