 I don't think it's a controversial statement to say that the social network is a great movie, nor would it be a stretch to put in a league with the best movies made so far this century. The only negative thing that I've read about this movie is that it won't hold up, its success relies on the success of Facebook. But that's wrong. This movie will outlive Facebook. That's because it's not a movie about social media. I mean, the movie, you know, is hopefully about bigger things than technology. It's about relationships, individuals, friendships, and what these mean in the digital age. It just uses the creation of Facebook as a backdrop to further explore these ideas. I suppose I could be glib and say you could make the same movie about the invention of a really good toaster. Today I'd like to break down the social network and dive into the character of Marcus Eckerberg. Look at what he hopes to achieve, why he wants to achieve it, and the means that he goes to in order to do this. The easy answer can be found within the opening scene, in fact, in the third line. Here's my question. How do you distinguish yourself in a population of people who all got 1600 under SATs? This one question drives the entire movie. Every scene, every conversation, and every line of dialogue is obsessed with Marcus' attempts to distinguish himself. And what the toll that obsession takes on those around him. But this scene does a lot more than just tell us about the central conflict. More important than that is this scene establishes who Mark is. And that is, he's not a good person. It was the first time I was writing about an anti-hero. And Mark spends the first hour and 55 minutes of the movie being an anti-hero. Less than a minute into the movie, Erica unintentionally insults Mark. She holds him to a standard that he cannot match. On the other hand, I do like guys in real group. Even after saying, I was kidding. he still retorts. To real group? No, are you like, whatever, delusional? After Erica mentions his inferiority, he responds by bringing up his strengths. Yes, I got nothing wrong with the test. And this can be found throughout the entire movie. Whenever somebody attacks Mark, he'll either insult them back or say something to strengthen his perception of himself. You have part of my attention. You have the minimal amount. Returning to the opening scene, up to the point where Mark is insulted, he was rude to Erica in that he really didn't listen to what she was saying. I mean, you actually got nothing wrong. I could recruit her into a $25 PC. After that moment, however, he begins to insult her. Why do you keep saying I don't want this guy? Because you go to be you. At first, we're led to believe that he does this because he's a nasty person, which is basically a delicate way of saying, You're an asshole. But that's not why Mark does it. His goal isn't to be rude. His goal is to put himself ahead of others. His means of doing so is through putting others down. And throughout the entire movie, it isn't good enough for Mark to succeed. He needs others to fail. He can't succeed with the Winklevoss twins. He needs to win despite the Winklevoss twins. With that in mind, the film doesn't paint him in an entirely negative light either. During this scene, when he is creating face mash, his actions are wrong. He's objectifying women and jokes about comparing them to cattle. However, through editing, while we were watching Mark hacking, we were also watching the same woman he is objectifying, objectify themselves. And we watched them being treated literally as cattle being shipped around and lined up. This shows us that Mark is no worse than the people around him. That the environment that he is a part of is what shaped him. The film is structured in a way that helps us understand different characters. Given the intrinsic conflict between the different plaintiffs and Mark's accounts of what happened, we can never be sure of what is real. The movie continually reminds you that you are listening to a series of unreliable narrators. The very first words out of Mark's mouth when we cut to the deposition room. That's not what happened. The film structure helps to complement this. We cut back and forth in between the two depositions in the events that affected depositions. This helps to strengthen the relationship between Mark and Eduardo. Just minutes after meeting Eduardo, we jump ahead a few years and watch the legal battle play out. This really helps to establish the relationship. It's an easy and believable way to show off exposition. We hear the lawyers announce, your best friend is suing you for $600 million. And they may have called each other best friends, but that isn't actually what we were seeing. After watching the movie, it stuck out to me that we never once really learned who Eduardo is. He's had a successful past. He's clearly very smart and has a respect for Mark, but beyond that, we don't know anything about him. Not once do he and Mark have a real conversation where they talk about anything substantial. In fact, 100% of their conversations are either facilitated by lawyers or begin with Mark asking. I need you. I'm here for you. No, I need the algorithm used during chess players. We're gonna need a little startup cash to rent the servers and get it online. I need a dedicated Linux box running Apache with a MySQL backend. It's gonna cost a little more money. Mark never really cared for or about Eduardo. He just saw him as a means of completing his goal. The film hints that there is more to his character, but we never actually see it. Normally, I love it when movies have a well-developed cast of supporting characters when we understand the motives not only of our protagonists, but also of everybody around them. In this movie, we only get to know one character. There are general archetypes that other characters fit into. The Winklevoss twins, for example, are hard-working, dedicated, and don't like to lose. But those are general traits found within billions of people around the world. Nothing specific to them. The only character who has any real development is Mark. I wouldn't call it development, but it is worth noting that Sean Parker ends up revealing his true nature to the audience. For the majority of his time on screen, he appears to be cool, calm, calculating, and determined. During this, he is all talk, and once he is faced with any real problem, his act starts to melt away. That's not mine. Eduardo was able to see through this from the start. A psychiatrist would say that he was paranoid. But Mark wasn't. He believed everything that Sean had to say and incorporated most of it into the company. And I think that understanding why leads us to understand who Mark really is. The reason that all these characters are so underdeveloped is that we're seeing the story unfold from Mark's point of view. He isn't a sociable person. He's just so wrapped up in trying to stand out and trying to make Facebook the best that it can be that he never pays attention to those around him. This changes in the last five minutes of the movie. For the first time in the movie, he reaches out to someone else, not worrying about himself, just trying to take part in the social network. At this point, Mark really begins to change. Final five minutes of the movie being a tragic hero, which means that he has paid a price and experiences remorse. When he reaches out to Erica, it's the first human thing that he does in the entire movie. He is making himself vulnerable in order to try and become happy. In the background, baby, you're a rich man by the Beatles plays. A song that isn't about financial wealth instead about emotional richness. Either that or LSD, but I think in this case, it's about emotional richness. And going off of what Sorkin just said, the last arc of a tragic character is redemption. And the last scene in the movie is where Mark is trying to redeem himself to move past his childish ways and to start living a fulfilling life. Hey everyone, I hope you enjoyed. Man, that last scene is perfect. I know most people call the first one the best in the movie, but those last three minutes can definitely give it a run for its money. No dialogue, just Mark refreshing the page. Cinematic perfection. Anyway, I'd love to know what you think of this movie, so please drop a comment and get your thoughts out there. I also wanted to put a big thank you at the end of the video. We just crossed 40,000 subscribers, which is absolutely insane. I don't say it often enough, but when I do, I really do mean it. So thank you so much. If you've enjoyed this video, be sure to hit that subscribe button. I put a link to my last video on Baby Driver and my playlist to discussions of David Fincher films if you're interested. Thanks for watching and I will see you next week.