“You’re not an asshole, Mark. You’re just trying so hard to be.”
This is my favorite quote from The Social Network. Though a bit sappy, it sums up the film pretty well.
Zuckerberg tries so hard to be an asshole because assholes are successful. Assholes become bosses. And with this earned status, assholes can legitimate their innate feeling of superiority over others.
Jesse Eisenberg’s Zuckerberg disgusts us with his blunt, no-apologies pretension. He earns our respect as a perceptive genius with an uncanny ability to tap into not just the entire internet, but the interests of his generation. And he garners a pitying sort of sympathy for his struggle to keep friends as his personal desires continuously overrule his sensitivities.
The film’s accuracy has been a hot topic of debate since its release. Friends of Zuckerberg (predictably) defended his moral character, and the film’s insinuations that Zuckerberg desperately wanted to be accepted into a Harvard final club and win back an ex-girlfriend have been widely disclaimed.
Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin never touted a “true story,” though. He knew he was working with a good story, but took creative liberties in bringing it to the screen.
Inaccuracy is no reason to disregard this film. As an artistic interpretation of a sociocultural phenomenon we can all relate to, The Social Network serves as an incisive study of institutions both formal and unspoken, of rules and regulations guiding friendship and business both adhered to and disobeyed. The film explores our human desires to create an identity, to develop a personal worldview, to judge and be judged.
See it. I think everyone should discuss this movie.-Erin Horan '11