A review on "The Social Network".
It is a place that we lovingly look over, from within the glass-walled offices or the comforts of home or amid the hustle-bustle of an eatery, or in a vehicle on the move. It straddles bits of a social life within – be it the boastful chin-wagging, spirited partying, hearty sharing, or brazen swearing. It forms the hum-drum smidgens of a small world that we have created bit by bit within our blue-green sphere. It is what we call the “FACEBOOK”. But look carefully, you will see layers of aspiration, creativity and genius of a person who created this experience that was to be shared by 500 million users the world over.
Social Network gives a glimpse into the mind of Mark Zuckerberg who created Facebook in his college room in 2004 with his friends, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. This started over a row with his date, who termed him as a nerd whom no girl would want to date. Mark gets back with nasty comments about the girl in his blog and also creates a website that compares girl student’s dorm photos in a Hot-or-Not fashion (after he downloads the photos from the college sites). He gets 22000 hits in a single night that brings the servers of the college crashing down. Mark is reprimanded by the college authorities for this act. But this brings him to the notice of the three Harvard students, Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra. The trio want Mark to help them create a social network tool called HarvardConnection.com. However, this plants the seeds of a more ambitious idea in Mark’s gung-ho mind.
Three months later, he launches “Facebook” on his own, that dovetails a photo directory, status and other info, notes, groups, and a personal wall. I came across this image of Facebook’s first cut (then known as “the Facebook”)
This site could be accessed only by members of the recognized schools and university (with students logging in with a valid e-mail ID of the associated institution). The site becomes a student phenomenon in a few days of its launch; and Mark plans to kick back his heels with further plans of expansion. He meets Sean Parker, the co-founder of Napster, who advices him to aggressively pursue his goals. The latter is to become the founding President of Facebook, and a stakeholder too.
Mark launches the site on a global stage and shares a stake in the social networking pie while taking to the space between online photo directories, chat messengers, and blogs. He ends up making a lot of enemies including the Harvard trio who claim that their source code was stolen to create Facebook.
Without lending its own emotions to a realistic story, the film maintains a high- adrenaline tempo throughout. The acting by Jesse Eisenberg is top- notch and you would feel that his reel-life nerdy looks and mannerisms are much more convincing than that of real-life Mark’s! Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker does make his presence felt in the movie.
Some of the scenes from the movie that will remain in your memory for long are:
1. A Eureka moment for Mark when he hears his friend saying that people should carry a sign-board declaring their status – this innocuous comment was to give birth to the “Relationship Status” tag on Facebook.
2. The crushed look on Saverin’s face when he realizes that his stake in the company has been reduced to 0.03% (as part of Sean Parker’s plan to keep him out of FB’s share); Interestingly, Saverin had made the initial investment of a few thousand dollars for building Facebook. This scene will remind you of the edgy sides of wheeling and dealing in a big bad world.
3. Mark’s restlessness in the courtroom and during the rendezvous with potential “clients” - both of which he declares as a waste of time.
4. The “Hackathon” parties arranged by Mark to select the programmers to work with him. These innovative means helped Mark to design the website with definitive features vis-à-vis his competitors, and to give it the mark of exclusivity.
5. The title on Mark’s business card “I am a CEO, bitch” (reminding you of how it all started). Mark, searching for the girl’s name on Facebook, adding her, and refreshing the page every second to see her response.
David Flencher’s movie will definitely make you go back and revisit your regular Facebook page to see the story of glamor, chutzpah, and sweat unfold simultaneously. This is one of the movies that may not make your innards flip but will nevertheless blow you over with the revelation that all phenomenons of the world have a humble or a frivolous beginning.
It is a place that we lovingly look over, from within the glass-walled offices or the comforts of home or amid the hustle-bustle of an eatery, or in a vehicle on the move. It straddles bits of a social life within – be it the boastful chin-wagging, spirited partying, hearty sharing, or brazen swearing. It forms the hum-drum smidgens of a small world that we have created bit by bit within our blue-green sphere. It is what we call the “FACEBOOK”. But look carefully, you will see layers of aspiration, creativity and genius of a person who created this experience that was to be shared by 500 million users the world over.
Social Network gives a glimpse into the mind of Mark Zuckerberg who created Facebook in his college room in 2004 with his friends, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. This started over a row with his date, who termed him as a nerd whom no girl would want to date. Mark gets back with nasty comments about the girl in his blog and also creates a website that compares girl student’s dorm photos in a Hot-or-Not fashion (after he downloads the photos from the college sites). He gets 22000 hits in a single night that brings the servers of the college crashing down. Mark is reprimanded by the college authorities for this act. But this brings him to the notice of the three Harvard students, Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra. The trio want Mark to help them create a social network tool called HarvardConnection.com. However, this plants the seeds of a more ambitious idea in Mark’s gung-ho mind.
Three months later, he launches “Facebook” on his own, that dovetails a photo directory, status and other info, notes, groups, and a personal wall. I came across this image of Facebook’s first cut (then known as “the Facebook”)
This site could be accessed only by members of the recognized schools and university (with students logging in with a valid e-mail ID of the associated institution). The site becomes a student phenomenon in a few days of its launch; and Mark plans to kick back his heels with further plans of expansion. He meets Sean Parker, the co-founder of Napster, who advices him to aggressively pursue his goals. The latter is to become the founding President of Facebook, and a stakeholder too.Mark launches the site on a global stage and shares a stake in the social networking pie while taking to the space between online photo directories, chat messengers, and blogs. He ends up making a lot of enemies including the Harvard trio who claim that their source code was stolen to create Facebook.
Without lending its own emotions to a realistic story, the film maintains a high- adrenaline tempo throughout. The acting by Jesse Eisenberg is top- notch and you would feel that his reel-life nerdy looks and mannerisms are much more convincing than that of real-life Mark’s! Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker does make his presence felt in the movie.
Some of the scenes from the movie that will remain in your memory for long are:
1. A Eureka moment for Mark when he hears his friend saying that people should carry a sign-board declaring their status – this innocuous comment was to give birth to the “Relationship Status” tag on Facebook.
2. The crushed look on Saverin’s face when he realizes that his stake in the company has been reduced to 0.03% (as part of Sean Parker’s plan to keep him out of FB’s share); Interestingly, Saverin had made the initial investment of a few thousand dollars for building Facebook. This scene will remind you of the edgy sides of wheeling and dealing in a big bad world.
3. Mark’s restlessness in the courtroom and during the rendezvous with potential “clients” - both of which he declares as a waste of time.
4. The “Hackathon” parties arranged by Mark to select the programmers to work with him. These innovative means helped Mark to design the website with definitive features vis-à-vis his competitors, and to give it the mark of exclusivity.
5. The title on Mark’s business card “I am a CEO, bitch” (reminding you of how it all started). Mark, searching for the girl’s name on Facebook, adding her, and refreshing the page every second to see her response.
David Flencher’s movie will definitely make you go back and revisit your regular Facebook page to see the story of glamor, chutzpah, and sweat unfold simultaneously. This is one of the movies that may not make your innards flip but will nevertheless blow you over with the revelation that all phenomenons of the world have a humble or a frivolous beginning.
2 comments on "A World Called Facebook"
smashing review :)
thanks dear :)
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