It took Facebook about 10 months
to reach a million users. The Social Network is a film that attempts to tell
the story of its creation up to this point, and the aftermath of lawsuits and
broken friendships that it left in its wake.
Opening in 2010, the film won
awards, including the Golden Globe, and other nominations, such as one for the
Academy Award for Best Picture. Directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron
Sorkin, the film uses the lawsuits issued by some of the people involved in the
origins of Facebook in order to trace its history, from the first inspiration
Mark Zuckerberg, its creator, had in his Harvard dorm room to its rise to one
million users, and the effects felt upon all the characters. The film is based
a book called The Accidental Billionaires
by Ben Mezrich, which I have read. Eduardo Saverin, a cofounder of Facebook,
served as a consultant for the novel. Aaron Sorkin does a great job in creating
a compelling film out of the book, and David Fincher skillfully translates it
to the screen. The acting isn’t great, but it is good, and the actors inhabit
the characters nicely.
A good college film contains a
good portrayal of the social elements of college, a portrayal of the college
itself from the teachers to the classes, and a portrayal of a student, his life
as a student, and doesn’t simply include a college. The accuracy does not
matter because the portrayal will most likely use a certain stereotype and an accurate
account would be most likely boring.
The film spends much of the first
quarter of the film setting up the social aspects of college as it is
inspiration for Mark Zuckerberg to create Facebook in order to appeal to
people. The social element of college also plays an important for Mark in his
inspiration to create a college life on the internet. The film portrays Eduardo
Saverin as attempting to get into a final clubs, and the one of the scenes at
the beginning of the film shows a party being thrown by one of them. Later on,
however, the film moves very much away from college and the social aspects.
The film is adequate in showing
the college itself, but not much. A few scenes portray classes such as when
Mark Zuckerberg leaves a lecture before it is over. In another scene, the
president is involved in a discussion with some of the characters. The film is
much more about the characters place socially in the college and less about the
college itself. Most of the characters in the film are college students and it
does portray their life somewhat at the college. However, the film does go off
from the college later on, leaving the college and the life of the student.
The film itself is great and
compelling. The story really hooks you and the characters are great. However,
this is not a great college film, but maybe just a good college film. Much of
the story is away from the college, and the scenes taking place at the college
are more about the characters themselves and not their life at the college.