Social Network Critique

“Social Network” is a movie based on the real story behind the invention of the world No.1 social website, Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg, a Harvard undergraduate student starts this social network website with his friend Eduardo Saverin, the original CFO of Facebook. However, later on a lawsuit between the two founders evolves because of their disagreement with the company development. Within two hours, this complicated story becomes clear to the audience.

The unique narrative of Social Network, which largely uses the backward-chronological method between the cuttings of lawsuits, successfully explains this rather complicated issue (Ebert 2010). It reminds me of the movie “Slumdog Millionaire”, which incorporates a similar story-telling method to show the life stories of the protagonist. This movie is unique because it involves several different fields such as law, computer science and operating finance. The two-hour length is used very well thanks to this unique narrative strategy from the director David Fincher. He successfully avoids the possible embarrassing scenes that may be generated by engaging in specific background knowledge.

The next successful part of the movie comes from the sympathy feelings of the audience. People may say that the movie is successful because of its reputation of Facebook, the world-famous website. However, I would argue that this movie would never be such popular without the successful sympathetic feeling it creates. It is irrelevant whether the audience hears of the story behind the movie. Audience for Social Network can easily get first-hand compassionate about most of the characters. For example, the excitement from the scene when Mark comes up with the idea that he wants to expand his website beyond Harvard’s network. Furthermore, this sympathetic feeling comes from both sides. For instance, when the two brothers from the Harvard crew learn about their “Harvard Connection” idea is used by Mark, audience can understand their anger as well.

While the movie in general is very successful, there is one part I do not agree with. Fincher seems to achieve a great success to use as little specific knowledge as possible to general audience this Facebook story. However, he may seem too conclusive sometimes. For example, the movie shows a lot of scenes of the two Asian girls that Zuckerberg and Saverin dates after the success for their Facebook website. Personally I feel the movie puts too much effort on those two characters. They are not as relevant as the other characters in the movie.

Work Cited:

Ebert, Roger. "The Social Network." Rogerebert Movie Reviews. Chicage Sun Times, 20 Sep 2010. Web. 24 Oct 2010.