If Mezrich’s book took liberties with the facts, Adam Sorkin’s
screenplay can best be described as a hot air balloon that has become
detached from its moorings. For example, in the opening scene where
Zuckerberg’s girl friend breaks up with him for being an “asshole”, no
such thing happened in real life.
Also, despite the attempts to turn the Winkelvoss’s into technologically
challenged jocks who are totally reliant on Zuckerberg’s skills, the
facts are that they simply did not have the time. Inan interview
<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/article6988642.ece>with
the London Times, Cameron Winkelvoss states:
We had the ability. At the age of 13 we taught ourselves HTML
[programming language] and started a little web-page company. We had the
aptitude, but with our major and our rowing we just didn’t have the time.
Also, Zuckerberg was not quite the nerd of the film representation. He
was captain of the fencing team at Phillips Exeter Academy, a prep
school designed to place people in Ivy League schools. He also was a
member of the crew team there, just like the Winkelvoss’s.
With respect to Sean Parker being busted for cocaine possession, this
did happen but not in the house that Facebook used for its first office.
He was arrested in North Carolina in a house that he was using during a
kite-boarding vacation having nothing to do with Facebook.
Also, despite the movie trying to paint Eduardo Saverin as a victim left
stripped of his Facebook holdings by Zuckerberg’s machinations, the
truth is that he owns 5 percent of Facebook shares today, worth $1.3
billion.
Sorkin took elements of the truth and fiction and wove them into a saga
about life in the fast lane. As we know, biopics often take liberties
with the truth but Sorkin’s manipulations have come under more scrutiny
than usual. You can finda pretty good dismantling
<http://www.slate.com/id/2269250/>of the movie’s authenticity at Slant
Magazine that concludes:
Sorkin, too, has left us with a myth, and the mythmaker has washed his
hands of the mythmaking process. Some critics call this a brilliant
meta-disclaimer, an acknowledgment that there is no universal truth in
the Zuckerberg story. It’s not. It’s an abdication of responsibility for
a story that pantomimes Zuckerberg and is poised to transform Mezrich
and Sorkin’s version of reality into whatever passes for truth these days.
Alas, here’s the rub: The Social Network is also a lot of fun. Go buy a
ticket. Just don’t buy the story.
In my next post, I will review/Catfish/, a documentary about the role
Facebook played in a strange relationship between a young, hip and
handsome New York photographer and a lonely housewife in Northern
Michigan. Like/The Social Network/, it also plays fast and loose with
the facts.
full: https://louisproyect.org/2010/10/14/the-social-network/
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