The Social Network
I first watched The Social Network a few years ago, however, I forgot what happened so I felt like I was watching it for the first time. From the very start, it was easy to see Mark Zuckerberg’s personality and how he interacts with others. He was sarcastic even in situations where he should have been serious. Yes, he’s smart and was able to do something impressive with FaceMash, but it was a gross and frankly misogynistic thing to do just because he was mad that Erica Albright broke up with him.
One thing I enjoyed about the movie is how easy it was to follow, even with the timeline jumps from the two lawsuits and him growing The Facebook. The way that Mark played both groups- Eduardo Saverin and the Winklevoss Narendra group was interesting and it made me wonder whether he intended to play his friend Eduardo or not. After all, it was very clear that he was playing the Winklevoss’ like a fiddle.
Eduardo was the one who kept pushing Mark to start having advertisers and make money, but Mark didn’t want that. At least not until the great Sean Parker showed up. It made me wonder if Mark just liked the positive attention that Sean gave him or whether Sean was just a good manipulator. Also, the amount that the Winklevoss’ and Eduardo were suing Mark for was insane but fair considering Zuckerberg is now worth billions.
Mark was not very likable throughout the movie and it makes me wonder if how Jesse Eisenberg portrayed him is exactly how he is in real life. The fact that Mark let Eduardo’s shares be diluted by so much without sticking up for his supposed best friend and the person who allowed Facebook to even be funded in the first place was irritating. Not even the more “irrelevant” members like Dustin’s shares were diluted. I couldn’t help but feel bad for Eduardo and I don’t know if a majority of that reason has to do with Andrew Garfield or not. He did a wonderful job playing the character.
I wish it was known how much Eduardo settled for. I also wonder if Mark has seen the movie and what his thoughts are on it. Is he pleased with how they portrayed him and the events that happened? My last thoughts on the movie are that yes, Mark Zuckerberg is in fact an asshole. Obviously people and events were dramatized to make for an entertaining movie, but isn’t there some truth in adaptations like this? The fact that he expanded Facebook to other colleges because Erica didn’t want to talk to him is fan behavior. Mark Zuckerberg is an asshole and the fact that one of the last shots of the movie was him adding Erica as a friend and refreshing the page to see if she accepted his request proves it.
