My Thoughts On The Zuck Movie

 THE SOCIAL NETWORK: AN ANALYSIS

In 2010, The Social Network, directed by the iconic David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin, was released in theatres to box office success and long-lasting critical acclaim, cementing the film as a classic of the 2010s while launching the careers of Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, and many others cast in this telling of the creation of Facebook and rise of Mark Zuckerberg, today I’d like to dive deeper into the substance of the film to understand what lead to its success in 2010 and keeps it timeless 15 years later in 2025. The film is an adaptation of Ben Mezrich’s book, “The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal”. The book details the founding of Facebook from the perspective of its Co-founder Eduardo Saverin who served as a main consultant for the book’s narrative during an ongoing lawsuit with fellow co-founder and former business associate Mark Zuckerberg, other sources combined to paint Mark and the grounds of his billion-dollar empire in a less than amiable light.

To summarize, the film follows Mark Zuckerberg’s rise to the top of Silicon Valley and all the twists and turns it took to get there. The film is told largely from Mark’s perspective, he has the most screentime, the plot revolves around his actions, and he begins and ends the film, he is in effect the main character though he’s not presented as a hero or overly sympathetic in the story, literally the first scene in the film lays this bare, in which, Mark is at a bar with his girlfriend Erica and in this scene Mark is constantly talking about himself and his ambitions, displaying his intelligence and demeaning Erica seemingly oblivious to all that he’s doing and it ends with Erica breaking up with him and letting him know that he’s an “asshole”. This one scene says everything about Mark, he’s a genius, being able to pass incredibly difficult tests without failing a question, he talks quickly and erratically, alluding to some form of neurodivergence, he’s a social outcast, not being able to enter into the final clubs or relate with anyone he sees as less intelligent, he’s egotistical, he spends the entire date focusing on what he wants, what he can do for Erica, what he thinks of her life and how he views Erica asking if there’s an easier club to get into as an insult. Overall, Mark is presented in the first scene as a social outcast not due to his intelligence but more so his inability to think about others and not center himself in any situation. Mark’s response to this breakup is to make a hateful blog post about Erica and later a site based around rating the looks of girls on campus which becomes the spark that would create Facebook. The film follows other guys like Mark interacting and clashing with one another in a mad dash to the top, disregarding ethics or loyalties to get there. The men in this story are written as people with intelligence and ambition but an almost inhuman view of the world, they seem oblivious to their privileged backgrounds until they can use it to get what they want, the women in their life are treated as disposable objects for companionship or validation from other men or to fulfil their fantasies, the film is written and shot from these biased and skewed perspectives that make character decisions not make sense until you remember who’s perspective is being prioritized, for example, Christy Lee is Eduardo’s beautiful docile but quick witted girlfriend until she’s suddenly a jealous psychotic mess towards the end, in isolation this is just poor harmful writing but in the larger narrative of the men’s perspectives often clashing with reality it stands to reason that to Eduardo she’s simply gone mad instead of being rightfully angry at him ghosting her while he was chasing his ambitions and God knows what else miles and miles away from her.

I’ve watched The Social Network more than a few times, and I’m still stuck on the closing line of the opening scene, “You’re gonna go through life thinking girls don’t like you because you’re a nerd, and I want you to know from the bottom of my heart that that won’t be true it’ll be because you’re an asshole”. That line to me encapsulates Mark’s character to a tee because while the film doesn’t shy away from the realities of these men and their lifestyles, it doesn’t touch on the root of why they think and behave the way that they do, which to me is the fact that these are rich straight white men in a society constructed to benefit them the most. Class race and gender are 3 of the biggest determinants of one’s life in a society and often they intersect to the benefit or detriment of an individual and in the case of Mark, American society is built to suit his needs while bending others to it, this can be seen when Mark and his friends can hack female students private data, put their photos out for people to rank them and get let off with a warning by the school’s administrative board, it’s seen with the way the men are hailed and praised for their sexual exploits but the women are shamed and demeaned, it’s seen with how much the lives of the main characters are detached from everyday life, most can’t drop out of school to chase a billion dollar dream, most would suffer severe consequences for some of mark’s actions but mark continues to win at a rigged game. Within this context, it makes sense that Mark’s reaction to the breakup is to go on his blog and call her a bitch and insult her looks, it makes sense that mark would prioritize his ambitions and wants over that of others, it makes sense that he’s oblivious to the fact that he isn’t an outcast solely off of his intelligence though that certainly plays a part, he’s an outcast because he’s unable to form a meaningful relationship with someone without looking down on the person, this way of life is so ingrained into him that he seems genuinely confused when people don’t respond positively to his jabs, he seems honestly unaware of his ego which leads to a character dilemma where he craves acceptance but can’t personally take the steps to achieve it because that contradicts too much with his set worldview.

The film’s story is conveyed in more ways than just the actors on screen, it’s the desaturated colors that David Fincher is known for, it’s the soundtrack putting us in the minds of those who think in ways we can only imagine and still making them human, it’s the story’s non-linear structure jumping back and forth between the past and present as Mark and Eduardo settle their suit in the present and we the audience see the events that lead them here, it’s the way the story plays with fact and fiction emphasizing perspective and constantly daring the audience to consider the validity of what we are told and shown on screen and just how reliable the narrators truly are.

In conclusion, The Social Network, like Fincher's other classics like Seven and Fight Club remains timeless many years on by bringing relevant subject matter such as the ethics of social media, the impact of race class and gender in society and the validity of geniuses in society while also serving as a time capsule for the 2000s and 2010s portaying humanity’s first steps into the online age, the men behind it and asking it’s audience to think critically about who we glorify, the ethics of social media and the true cost of ambition.