Sandrine Lareine 1

O.M. Sandrine Lareine

Dr. Erin Dietel-McLaughlin
WR13300-SS13
Monday 10/13/2014

Every detail tells about who we are.

The Social Network is an American drama film based on the famous social media
Facebook. It was released on October 1st 2010 in the United States by Columbia Pictures,
directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin. The movie stars Jesse Eisenberg who
plays the main role: founder Mark Zuckerberg. Also starring are Andrew Garfield as Eduardo
Saverin and Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker. The film is adapted from the 2009 book The
Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal
written by American author Ben Mezrich.
The film relates the process of founding Facebook, the problems Zuckerberg encountered
and the resulting lawsuits. This process puts friendships and other relationships to the test. As
such, throughout the movie, Fincher presents us with differing kinds of relationships, many of
which change over time. This leads us to probe our personal relationships and think about how
well we deal with them.
One of the ways he does this is through the structure of the film.

Although the

chronological approach to the story would consist of gradually growing in intensity to reach the
climax, and eventually coming to a final resolution, the movie goes back and forth between the

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past and the present. Fincher uses arrangement, the planned ordering of a message, to achieve
the greatest effect (Herrick 14). This emphasizes the contrast between the way things are and
the way things used to be between the characters. Mark Zuckerberg and his former friend
Eduardo Saverin, for instance were very good friends at the beginning, but not anymore by the
end. They went through many ups and downs. At first, we see them as college friends providing
emotional and intellectual support to each another, then business partners. They did not see eye
to eye on everything, which led to some partnership issues: Eduardo freezing the business
account, Mark excluding Eduardo from decisions as Sean earned his trust. Eventually, their
relationship did not work out, essentially because: Thats not what friends do. What do friends
do? Eduardos definition pretty much defines a solid, strong friendship: If theres something
wrong, if theres ever anything wrong, you can show me. Im the guy who wants to help. This is
our thing. This line gives us a description of what friendship should be.
Most relationships we see in the film are unhealthy ones. While Kristy Lee and Eduardo
are supposed to be a couple, Kristy is always trying to have control over the relationship. Fincher
shows this in the scene where Kristy sets fire to Eduardos room after he comes back from his
trip just because he did not call her or respond to any of her calls, but answers Marks call. There
is a parallel between this relationship and the one between Mark and Sean Parker. Sean tries to
lure Mark into doing what is in his personal advantage; he also tries to control Mark. The
characters use rhetoric in the form of psychological power (Herrick 19) to get to their ends.
Another example of a detrimental relationship is that between Eduardo and Sean, filled with
tension, jealousy and hate, where the one is always trying to discredit the other. The end of that
relationship is somewhat predictable: Eduardo lashing out at Sean at the end as he is the victim
of an ambush and his shares are reduced to 0.03%.

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Though not many, there are other stable friendships that we see during the movie. Erica
Albright and her roommate, for instance, seem to always have the others back. At the beginning
of the movie, Ericas roommate warns her about Marks insulting blog posts about her. The
Winklevoss twins with Divya Narendra have a smiliar relationship, always looking out for one
another. These are the only characters on the film that share a stable, mutually beneficial
relationship. Is Fincher trying to tell us that success and money tend to bring out the worse in
people?
Characterization is another device that Fincher uses to show how each character reflect
their social life. Mark, as from the beginning, is depicted as a lonely, socially awkward computer
programmer, with a few friends. He had a girlfriend that he lost in the movies opening scene. He
is clearly not able to maintain a good, stable relationship with anyone. When we think about it,
we never hear him talking about his family while the other characters mention theirs. Actually,
he only has one friend, and that only best friend is suing (him) for $600 million.
Eduardo, on the other hand, looks like he could be trusted. He is always very well
dressed, mostly in suits, maintains a good composure and cares about his image. The audience
tends to comply with his feelings as he is the most reasonable one of all the characters. When he
is ambushed by Mark and Sean, we feel sympathy for him, as opposed to the rage we feel
towards the other two. This is to say that the way a character is presented through their dress and
dialogue appeals to the values of the audience. They are those symbolic strategies that either
aim to elicit an emotion or to engage the audiences loyalties or commitments. (Herrick 13)
Sean may be outgoing and very social, but the viewer would never be inclined towards
him as he as presents as a manipulative and carefree character. Although he seems charming the

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first time we see him on screen, we soon discover that he just wants to earn Marks trust to be
able to influence him. He uses his good looks, and success stories to lure people in.
As for the Winklevoss twins, they are mostly concerned with preserving their image and
popularity in the school as gentlemen of Harvard. They tend to be manipulative too as long as
it is in their advantage. This could help rebuild your image, they say to Mark as they try to get
him on board for the Harvard connection website. They are not trying to restore Marks image,
but because they need him for their project, they will say anything to get him on board. Of all
these characters, Eduardo is by far the better friend. Thus, everything about a character dress,
speech, posture, personality reflects about the kind of person and friend they are.
Visual and audio elements are also used in the film to better understand the contrast
between the different relationships. The double scenes at the beginning of the movie accentuate
the fact that Mark is a lonely character, not part of the vibrant college social life. He does not
have many friends, except for his roommates, with whom he only shares the room, and Eduardo.
Bolter and Grusin state that the borrowing might be said to be translucent rather than
transparent. (46). The movie is not totally loyal to the book, but seeing facial expression and
characters disposition also helps in understanding how they feel and get a feel of the scene than
if the viewer was reading the book, which is the original medium. For example, we can see at the
first meeting with Sean Parker that he is trying hard to please Mark with everything he says,
always making sure that he says what Mark wants to hear. From this point, the audience sees his
true colors and instantly knows that Sean Parker will try to influence Mark and thus cannot be
trusted. This is confirmed later when he haphazardly happens to be living opposite from Mark in
California. Indeed, the appeal to immediacy here was that a moving picture () is more

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realistic than a static image. (Bolter and Grusin 37). That way, the movie easily succeeds in the
Seeing is believing concept (Lancioni 107).
The background sound also helps the audience to visualize the scene. Door slamming and
melancholic music, for instance, rhymes with conflicting relationships. Also, the party music
playing in most of the scenes Sean is involved in makes him appear as a shallow character, not to
be trusted or taken seriously. Sounds and visuals therefore help the audience to better understand
the scene.
As far as the setting is concerned, the movie is set in the present time. The audience is
therefore very familiar with the themes it presents. One of them is Facebook. As Mark craves
for Ericas acceptance from the beginning to the end of the movie, he sends her a friend request
via Facebook. The viewer sees him refreshing the page on and on waiting for a response. What
does it really mean though if she accepts his friend request? How real is a virtual friendship?
The film also features alcohol which is depicted as a facilitator in relationships. At
Caribbean night, for example, when Mark talks to Eduardo about the idea of creating Facebook
and asks him for money, Eduardo seems very much intoxicated. All the characters also get drunk
during the first meeting with Sean Parker, and the atmosphere appears to be a light one. When
Eduardo discovers the letter from the Winklevosses about stealing intellectual property, Mark
asks him to have a drink as he deals with the implications of this situation. Another example is
when the twins decide to sue Mark in court. Cameron Winklevoss instantly agrees to the idea
after taking a shot. We notice that alcohol eases communication and somewhat makes
relationships easier. We wonder however how real these relationships are since they are made or
strengthened while the characters are intoxicated.

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By using these various elements, The Social Network does a good job in showing the
different aspects of a relationship and some of the things that could impact on its stability and
truthfulness. However, some facets may still be hidden given that we see only what the director
wants us to see. In film and television, the point of view was set in motion, but it was the
director or editor who controlled the movement. (Bolter and Grusin 28). The movie may not be
completely true to the real story, but its main goal is to be entertaining rather than informative.
Thus it can be said that Fincher did a good job at this by presenting us some facts about the
creation of Facebook in an enjoyable way.

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Works Cited
Bolter, Jay David and Richard, Grusin. Chapter 1: Immediacy, Hypermediacy, and
Remediation. Remediation: Understanding New Media. 21-50. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1999.
Print.
Fincher, David, dir. The Social Network. Columbia Pictures, 2010. Film.
Herrick, James A. Chapter 1: An Overview of Rhetoric. The History and Theory of
Rhetoric, 2nd edition. Allyn & Bacon, 2000. Print.
Lancioni, Judith. The Rhetoric of the Frame: Revisioning Archival Photographs in the
Civil War. Visual Rhetoric: A Reader in Communication and American Culture. Newbuy Park,
CA: SAGE Publications, 2008. Print.