The Social Community is likely one of the most critically acclaimed David Fincher films. But, this dramatic depiction of the founding of Fb and the conflicts surrounding it, based mostly on the e book “Unintentional Billionaires,” is arguably an anomaly in classical narratives.
The Social Community isn’t your ordinary good versus evil story. Whereas screenwriter Aaron Sorkin describes the lead characters, particularly Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), as antiheroes, the character arcs really feel just a little extra complicated than that.
The movie neither establishes a protagonist nor an antagonist. By acutely specializing in the founding of Fb, each Fincher and Sorkin refuse to declare a hero. As a substitute, the unlucky flip of occasions establishes the first characters as shifting villains.
On this article, we’ll unveil how The Social Community ditches “heroes” to vividly discover “villains”.
Story and Theme
The Social Community follows the creation of Fb, after a Harvard undergraduate, Mark Zuckerberg, creates a controversial web site to distract himself from a considerably nasty breakup. Though he’s punished with educational probation after his web site crashes Harvard’s community, the stunt catches the eye of three different Harvard college students, who invite Zuckerberg to work with them on a extra refined model of the concept. Zuckerberg realizes the potential in his concept, and as a substitute approaches his good friend to construct their very own web site the place folks can digitally community, which we now know as Fb.
The Social Community is a pointy commentary on ambition, exploring how as a rule, innovation and legacy can price you your emotional safety or isolate you from the world.
Analyzing How The Characters In The Social Community Are Merely Villains In Rotation
All through the narrative, The Social Community’s lead characters preserve passing the “villain baton” to one another. For those who analyze carefully, no person actually did the fitting factor, or even when they did, they had been removed from doing it appropriately. Let’s start by analyzing Mark Zuckerberg’s depiction within the narrative.
Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) in ‘The Social Community’Credit score: Sony Footage Releasing
Proper from the start, the story establishes Zuckerberg as a genius and not using a coronary heart. He’s chilly, boastful, and snobbish, even to his girlfriend. The movie opens with Zuckerberg getting dumped by his then-girlfriend, Erica Albright (Rooney Mara), after he passes a snide remark about her intelligence on their date. His remark turns into the final nail within the coffin of their relationship, which was already a catastrophe attributable to Zuckerberg’s fixed emotional unavailability.
Fuming, Mark returns to his dorm and creates an internet site, Facemash, out of spite and ego, by hacking into Harvard’s database for the images of feminine college students. The location allowed web site guests to price the ladies on the campus based mostly on their appears. Fairly naturally, a poisonous web site like Facemash turns into a success in a single day and crashes Harvard’s community. Zuckerberg is caught and punished with educational probation for six months.
However his stunt will get him an invitation from two different Harvard twins and their enterprise accomplice to construct a courting web site centered on Harvard college students. The invite helps Zuckerberg understand the potential in his concept, and he units out to construct his personal web site together with his good friend Eduardo Saverin.
Zuckerberg does nothing proper all through the narrative, apart from developing with the seed concept of Fb and constructing the web site. All through the narrative, he acts impulsively, additional aggravating folks’s dissatisfaction. For those who ask me, trash-talking about an ex on the web after which creating an internet site like Facemash to degrade an ex and all of womanhood after a awful breakup are in themselves questionable acts, or extra exactly, outright acts of betrayal.
Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) in ‘The Social Community’Credit score: Sony Footage Releasing
Fuelled by ambition, Zuckerberg goes on to betray a number of folks, together with his good friend Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), who was his greatest pillar of assist by Fb’s creation. Saverin was the seed investor of Fb, presenting Zuckerberg with a possibility to construct the web site. Zuckerberg additionally manipulates the opposite group, the Winklevoss Twins, Cameron and Tyler, and their enterprise accomplice, Divya Narendra, as he retains them hanging at the hours of darkness for a solution to their invitation for knowledgeable collaboration, whereas actively working with Saverin on Thefacebook.
Mockingly, regardless of being the creator of a worldwide networking web site, Zuckerberg is rendered remoted all through the narrative. Actually, at some factors, it turns into actually onerous to maintain liking Mark Zuckerberg!
Eduardo Saverin can be an equally complicated character. Whereas he isn’t outrightly within the fallacious, or moderately, arguably a sufferer of Zuckerberg’s impulsiveness, he by no means actually sought significant battle decision when disputes started creeping in between him and Zuckerberg. Each time, Saverin selected a watch for a watch, additional complicating the matter, which in the end culminated in authorized strife between the 2 over Fb.
Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) in ‘The Social Community’Credit score: Sony Footage Releasing
Napster co-founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) additionally contributes actively to the mess. He masterfully performs by the divide-and-rule technique to cement his place in Fb’s entrepreneurial panorama. His snide makes an attempt to interchange Saverin in Fb develop into evident from his first scene, however Zuckerberg chooses to show a blind eye in pursuit of success.
Because the three proceed to work towards one another, as a substitute of working collectively, each character turns into a villain in another person’s story, every now and then, together with the Winklevoss Twins and their enterprise accomplice, who sue Zuckerberg in a while, accusing him of stealing their concept.
The Cultural Affect
Along with mirroring a bigger shift in trendy storytelling for an viewers that’s not perceived in black and white, The Social Community is a masterclass in narrative complexity with its morally ambiguous characters who’re neither good nor unhealthy; or moderately, they’re equally good and unhealthy. Very similar to our actuality, The Social Community isn’t solely a narrative of shifting morals but additionally a narrative of shifting views.
Everybody has wronged everybody on this story, so who do you empathize with essentially the most? Tell us within the feedback.
