I've been following the career of Aaron Sorkin since "A Few Good Men" came out. I enjoyed "The American President" and I watched "The West Wing" religiously, and I was one of the few fans of "Studio 60 On the Sunset Strip". When this movie came out, it went to the top of my list of "must sees". Sorkin utilizes a verbal smackdown approach in his storytelling that I find irresistible.
The movie is a fictionalized account of the creation of 'Facebook', the on-line network that connects friends, family, co-workers, and consumers. I enjoy the product, but I've missed Sorkin's writing style, so that was the true selling point for me. I recommend this movie to anyone who ever plans to work for themselves, and to anyone who likes a fast paced story.
The movie begins with a confrontation between the fictionalized Mark Zuckerberg, and a girl he is dating. The girl is so turned off by his condescending approach that she leaves Zuckerberg sitting there after obliterating him in a local pizza place. This experience propels Zuckerberg to create a temporary website where women are judged one on one. As you can well imagine, it didn't endear him one bit to the campus or the audience in the theater either.
So, Zuckerberg's antics reach the ears of a few Big Men On Campus who hire him out to make a website that fits their specifications - he agrees to do this for the group. In actuality, he doesn't agree with the concept, has some other ideas of his own, and instead of saying just that - or doing what most sane people would have done - asked to be made a partner instead of a worker bee, he blows them off and gets the money from his "best friend" to make the website according to his own specifications. That's where it gets interesting.....
Now, Zuckerberg is supposedly not interested in money at all - and it appears that he doesn't have a single dollar to his name, but his friend is rolling in the stuff because he actually ("horrors") works! Anyway, FACEBOOK gets started and the people who hired him are more than a little miffed at his defection - which is a situation that many can understand. The "Big Men On Campus" decide not to handle it gansta style - guns, beat downs and baseball bats - they go to the University President (who happens to be a fictionalized version of Larry Summers) and complain that Zuckerberg has violated Harvard student policy - and Summers shows them the tender understanding and concern of a man about to squash a bug. There's been a great deal of talk about this movie making a jerk out of the main character, the "best friend" and the "Big Men On Campus", but if you ask me, NO ONE should he racing to an attorney faster than Larry Summers. At least the others got paid! Summers is depicted as a self absorbed moron in this movie, and let me tell you, if the actual exchange had any approximation to the one in the movie and that had been my child, he'd be asking Libya for asylum because I'd still be trying to find him and give him a piece of my mind!!! I'm not sure that it's in Summers best interest to be depicted as a moron in his role as the President of Harvard University and I'm certain it's not in his best interest as a Director of the National Economic Council, a position that he recently threw in the towel on.
The funny part of the movie is when he meets the fictionalized version of Sean Parker, the founder of "Napster". Napster (was, is - does it still exist?) a website that people used to share and (borrow, steal, avoid paying for - enter your own verb here) music that someone else had produced and was selling so that they could get paid for their effort. Sean Parker felt that the record company's business model was old school and record companies should stop functioning the way they had because their model could be circumvented. Now, I'm just going to divert a second on this - it's relevant to the movie, but more important to think of as it may apply to you - if you have a job or ever aspire to have one. Let's say you get paid to make music. You get paid a portion of the money that is collected based on the sales made of your product. With Napster, that portion is lessened because now instead of getting a portion from everyone who has the record, you are only getting a portion from those who actually paid for the record. Everyone who is (borrowing, sharing, stealing, avoiding paying for) the record is giving you nothing but they are still getting down on your groove - if that were you, would you be cool with it? Of course not! That's why I'm not down with Napster. I don't want to steal from anyone because I don't want to be robbed. But enough of my personal mission statement, let's get back to the movie.
David Finch didn't add this to his movie, but it was in my mind as I watched it - the fictionalized Sean Parker walks into a restaurant to meet Zuckerberg while the music to "Skin Tight" is playing. From the very beginning, the fictionalized Sean Parker is throwing money around like water, and women are running up to him like he's Magic Don Juan, only thing missing are some colorful clothes and a chalice in his hand. It's intriguing, and it makes it understandable that Zuckerberg falls into his web also. The "best friend" hates Parker from the beginning, and here the true seduction of the movie takes place. The fictionalized Zuckerberg and Parker are kindred spirits - together they plan to take over the world by tossing everyone else in on their "dream" overboard. When all the dust settles - it's about getting paid, and that's when the roof starts caving in on the dream. Depositions start flying and billion dollar settlements begin to stack up like the Great Wall of China. I'm pretty sure that there was a better way to handle this.
The movie is a cautionary tale - don't go into business with people you obviously don't respect, get everything in writing and get a real lawyer to read it on your behalf, speak your truth with your foot above the gas pedal, and maybe it's time to be reminded that even Darth Vader had a soul. This movie doesn't leave you with ANY good feelings about the real FACEBOOK founder. Mary Kay said it better than I ever could " You may be the only Bible a person will ever read." That means that you should always try to present your best self, because you are the product in your customer's mind. She epitomized graciousness and giving, and we cared about how we did business as much as who we did business with. Mary Kay has gone on to her reward - but the company is still making that paper! What's your bet FACEBOOK will be as viable long term? Millions of people have seen this movie, and not that many are going to read about his philanthropy. If it were my name, I'd do whatever it took to blunt the impact, a herculean challenge.
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