THE SOCIAL NETWORK

"It's a movie... a lot of it is fiction, but even the filmmakers will say that."
--Mark Zuckerberg, interviewed on Oprah.


     Sometimes F2F has to point out the potential lack of truth and factual information in a film.  Many want to believe The Social Network chronicles an accurate story of Facebook and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg.  However, there are enough substantial reports of fictionalized scenes and misrepresentations of the billionaire braniac to raise an eyebrow or two.  First, check the source of the screenplay, based on the book The Accidental Billionaires-- The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal, by Ben Mezrich.  The author's been criticized for his questionable reporting tactics, including not interviewing Zuckerberg.  Business Week said the book was "a fictionalized account of the founding of Facebook." Eliot Schrage, a spokesman for Facebook compared Mezrich to Jackie Collins and Danielle Steele (ouch!).  And this isn't the first time Mezrich's non-fiction work has come under fire.  In Bringing Down the House, a group of techno-savvy M.I.T. students (sound familiar?), devise a system to cheat at blackjack and win big in Vegas. The Boston Globe criticized Ben's work for making up scenes and characters.  The film was adapted into the film, 21, which, coincidentally, starred Kevin Spacey, one of the producers of The Social Network.

     Zuckerberg jokes that he was too busy creating code to be partying all the time, as the film suggests. Friends and colleagues also say the film was inaccurate.  Matt Choler, an early FB employee disputes the notion that Mark came up with Facebook to impress a girl. "That's just wrong," he says.  Others claim he's 'warm', 'introverted', and a 'man of few words' as opposed to cold, arrogant, and full of sharp-witted dialogue (as seen in the film).  For that matter, can an author, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, or others portrayed in the film confirm the accuracy of conversations shown in The Social Network?  David Kirkpatrick, who wrote The Facebook Effect, had the advantage of actually meeting and interviewing Zuckerberg. When asked if The Social Network accurately portrays his character?  "Not even close," Kirkpatrick said.  A film, he says, can't define a person's image.  He points to Zuckerberg's considerable donation to Newark schools as a way of showing Mark's better qualities.  Still, critics call his timely show of charity as nothing more than damage control and that his public speeches are carefully scripted.  The Winklevoss brothers who sued Facebook think the film was more generous of Zuckerberg than it should have been.  
     Some writers have made interesting comparisons of Zuckerberg's film persona to Bill Gates.  Both are nerdy tech-heads who created ground-breaking computer programs in their 20's, left Harvard, became billionaires, were accused of copyright infringement and settled huge claims out of court.  But only one of them has a hit motion picture based on their lives.
     There is one fact that can't easily be disputed: even though Facebook wants its users to freely share their public lives online, its wunderkind founder guards his privacy and prefers to remain 'anonymous'.  Only time will tell how much of the world sees the real side of Mark Zuckerberg.   Meanwhile, we can choose to pass judgement on this controversial genius through real interviews (see links below) and a well-crafted film.  And F2F will continue to track this film come Oscar time.  

Oprah interview

ABC interview

You Tube Interview

Zuckerberg's Facebook page