Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook, A Billion "Friends", And A Few Enemies

Rating: 8/10 (21 May 2018)

Of all the Internet social platforms that have ever existed, Facebook is, and unless something better comes alone, will likely remain the best known. Initially a platform conceived by Mark Zuckerberg on the campus of Harvard University in 2004, Facebook was then later expanded to other Boston area institutions of higher learning, plus other Ivy League schools, and then to Stanford Univeristy, the latter which is, not coincidentally, located within driving distance of Silicon Valley. Zuckerberg founded the site with roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes; but as is the case with more than a few projects of this kind, Zuckerberg's ego got the best of him, and got him more than a few enemies in the process. This great saga of the Internet became the subject of the 2010 film THE SOCIAL NETWORK.
Based on Ben Mezrich's book "The Accidental Billionaires", directed by David Fincher (FIGHT CLUB), and scripted by Aaron Sorkin (of A FEW GOOD MEN and "West Wing" fame), THE SOCIAL NETWORK stars Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg, who, along with his friend Severin (Andrew Garfield), Moskovitz (Joseph Mazzello), and Hughes (Patrick Mapel), came up with the social networking site that started life with a somewhat grotesque name called "Facesnash", Eisenberg later changes the name to Facebook via a suggestion made by high-tech Silicon Valley hustler Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake). But those efforts come to enrage the Winklevoss Brothers (Armie Hammer; Josh Pence), who had come up with the idea that may have inspired Zuckerberg's moves. And then later, other moves that Eisenberg makes on his own enrage the guys who helped him start it, resulting in the young Internet genius getting himself into legal hot water. And, as we have seen of late, it wouldn't exactly be the last time both Facebook and its creator would end up in hot water, both legally and politically.
With numerous flashback and flash-forward sequences detailing the rise of Facebook and the legal entanglements that Eisenberg must go through, many of which were of his own making, THE SOCIAL NETWORK is noted for a huge amount of expository dialogue that, as is the case with more than a few films done from Sorkin's screenplays, is delivered in rapid fire and often blackly comic fashion. But the overall impression, layered in with a great neo-futuristic score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, is one of a feeling of uber-superiority on the part of Zuckerberg getting the best of him, and in the process, even as Facebook gains a billion-plus "friends" (as of 2018), making enemies for himself, mostly unnecessarily. And, as is the case with films like 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and WESTWORLD, to name just two, THE SOCIAL NETWORK is also about the rapid pace of technology outpacing our ability both to deal with it and not allow us to be thoroughly immersed in it. Eisenberg does a good turn as the resident genius Mark Zuckerberg, as do a lot of the other, mostly younger, actors in this epic film that will, in the future, be seen as a portrait of the world that was shaped in the first ten to twelve years of the 21st century.