The Social Network

Columbia Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 121 minutes



Click below to watch The Social Network trailer.



Columbia Pictures The Social Network is about the creation of the website Facebook and the legal problems Harvard computer undergrad creator Mark Zuckerberg had as a result of the website's creation.

With flashbacks between the creation of Facebook and the legal problems Zuckerberg goes through, and a script by Aaron Sorkin, there is twice as much dialog in this film than in a normal film which can be exhausting if you are not used to that much dialog. This is evidenced by the first five minutes of the film of an intense dialog with Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg, and his then girlfriend who are sitting in a bar before the opening credits roll. That was supposed to be eight pages of dialog crammed into five minutes of film - where normally it is a minute's worth of dialog per page. Although there is a lot of dialog, with David Fincher's direction, this is not a talking-heads movie. The dialog basically shows what an intense jerk Zuckerberg is in the movie and you can imagine how his personality could lead him into trouble as he goes about creating what was then known as The Facebook, a social networking site allowing people to stay connected with each other which was originally created for Harvard. When Zuckerberg gets involved with Justin Timberlake, as Napster creator Sean Parker, the business potential for Facebook grows into the billions - where most of the legal troubles begins.

Watching the movie initially brought back memories of college for me, both with the intense academic life and the sorority life. It is interesting that while the Facebook website was originally created for college students, a lot of the movie-going audience that I saw the movie with was of an older crowd. While it is said that a lot of the material was created for the movie, and is not real, the movie gave me an idea of what goes on behind the scenes of such a big business.

Another aspect of the movie deals with the twins Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss, with Armie Hammer playing both parts. The Winklevoss twins - Hammer - got Zuckerberg involved in creating a Harvard social networking website for themselves. One interesting thing about the Winklevoss twins, aside from their legal actions against Zukerberg for stealing their idea, is that the Winklevoss twins were part of Harvard's Crew Team. As a videographer who spent a season videotaping the Orange Coast College's Crew Team - who are known as "The Giant Killers" for defeating well-known crew teams such as Harvard, it was a delight for me to get a glimpse of this sport again as it is rare that I get to see crew in a movie. It was also a delight to see Disney Channel star Brenda Song in an adult role for once as the girlfriend of Zuckerberg's friend and co-creator of Facebook Eduardo Saverin, Andrew Garfield.

There is talk of an Oscar and I could see an Oscar for this film.

Rated PG-13 for sexual situations, language, and drug use. Running time 121 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

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