“You’re not an asshole, you’re just trying so hard to be,” someone told Mark Zuckerberg. Best Movie Site
Producer Scott Rudin is not a fool. Viewing Facebook users who reach 500 million people, he must make a film that is closely related to these 500 million people and their hangout: Facebook. David Fincher is in charge of directing. The Social Network focuses on Mark Zuckerberg, the young man who made Facebook for the first time from his dorm room at Harvard University. And because Zuckerberg finally became the youngest billionaire in history, he became very famous. Zuckerberg’s ties and Facebook inevitably make Rudin and Fincher even more excited. There are two audience expectations that must be met by a film that tells the story of a famous figure.
First, the audience wants to know the story of the figure from his most personal perspective. Zuckerberg must be described not as the inventor of the Facebook application and the leader of Facebook, Inc., but as an ordinary human being who departs from daily obstacles and conquers them brilliantly. That’s why infotainment shows sell out! Because the audience wants to know how the figure of a famous when not being represented by artificial media. Infotainment finally appears in the news report mode although there is no guarantee that this news report is sterile from manipulation. Films about famous people, must suppress the artificiality as low as possible. Movie Review
Second, the audience wants to know as many facts as possible about the famous person. especially about daily life when he was becoming a “normal human being” and the dramatic and influential incidents that ultimately made that person a “star”. Of course everyone is interested in recognizing the fact that Justin Bieber started his career as a Youtube singer, or that Klantink (finalist of the Indonesian reality show Seeking Talent) was a terminal busker in Surabaya. Try to compare with the story that Mozart is said to have held his solo concert at the age of four years, people will only pout “Ah, that’s really a talent,” there is no dramatic element. In this case Justin Bieber has the opportunity to be more interesting than Mozart.
Both of these are just hope. The audience does not want to know how, no matter how expensive, they must get what they are waiting for. The method and cost, let the filmmakers think. And the bitter sweet experience made Fincher understand that he had to fulfill these demands.
Zuckerberg is a genius, it’s really stupid if Fincher tells us that Zuckerberg succeeded because he was a genius-from-birth. His life must be explored from the angle that he had also been hit by a girl, and the heartache took him to his first important discovery, FaceMash, which is a Facebook embryo. FaceMash only intended Zuckerberg to discharge his heart-sickness. The Social Network film departs from these human premises. Because besides effective as a tool for the audience to identify themselves, this premise also meets the fundamental demands of the audience.
Fincher tried desperately to formulate a cinematic language which he would use to meet the second demand: He must be able to tell a lot in a logical duration. The Social Network finally appeared as a film that uses a lot of cutting, both spatial and temporal. Not stylish, but it is an effort so that the audience can pick up as much information.
Then the story, about what exactly is the film The Social Network? Is it a film about the programming language Runyam that can finally wrap the world with a network of friends? This guess strengthens because the phrase “The Social Network” has been used to define sites like Facebook; phrases that have existed since the golden era of Friendster and MySpace. Especially for those of us in the Indonesian audience who are accustomed to stereotypes that films about friendship networks must involve procedural use of applications, and then only the stories will be spiced. Take for example the film I Know What You Did on Facebook (2010) or Satan’s latest film release Facebook (2010). Top Movie
Responding to this, Fincher returned to the first premise, that the audience did not want to see Zuckerberg appear with Facebook on his forehead, but rather Zuckerberg as an ordinary human. The Social Network then directs conflict to the social strife that Zuckerberg has to face for his project. How does he have problems with law, economics, the association of young people he is always acting with, and of course romance. The Facebook project presents him with many dilemmas: accusations of stealing people’s ideas, sacrificing a lot of time, to making his friendship with Eduardo Saverin (Facebook co-founder) threatened, Zuckerberg even had to come to some sort of court forum. The phrase “The Social Network” in the film, starring Jesse Eisenberg, does not present itself as a definition of Facebook alone, but also as a definition for Zuckerberg’s life and profession.
In the “trial”, Fincher meticulously juggled prosecutors’ demands as a back door to tell the chronology of Zuckerberg’s career from FaceMash to Facebook becoming popular with millions of users. So that in one link duration,
The Social Network can tell two things simultaneously. The Social Network is indeed not Fincher’s best film, this must be emphasized because many viewers are annoyed at Fincher because they never (can) again make films like Se7en (1995) or Fight Club (1999). But for me, Fincher continues to make The Social Network a portion, in accordance with what he and the audience expect about the film and the people filmed in the film.