The Social Network, Facebook and the Cultural Zeitgeist

So, The Social Network didn't win Best Picture at Sunday's Academy Awards. Despite many people predicting it would win (including myself), the late surge of support for The King's Speech ended up extending all the way to Oscar night. The King's Speech claimed awards for Directing, Writing and Lead Actor along with its Best Picture win, resulting in one of the more balanced and convincing wins in recent Oscar memory.

I'm not sure if you ventured onto Twitter after the awards, but people were pissed. Whether we're talking about the Aaron Sorkin loyalists or the college-aged movie fanatics, lots of people were voicing their disappointment with the awards. No voice was louder than Rolling Stone's resident movie critic (and my personal archenemy) Peter Travers. Although his official write-up of the show toned done the ire a bit (despite being titled "Worst. Oscars. Ever."), his in-the-moment reactions consisted of tweets like this:

"The King's Speech wins Best Picture. Justice is not done. The Academy again mistakes Oscar night for Valentine's Day." - Peter Travers, Feb. 27, Twitter

This tweet nicely summarizes most of the reactions I've read. Many critics claim that The Social Network is a once-in-a-lifetime film, that perfectly captures the mood and atmosphere of contemporary culture. Furthermore, many of the actors are young and unestablished, as compared to the cast of The King's Speech, who've been winning accolades for the past thirty years. It's easy to make The King's Speech look like the bad guy here: stiff, British movie full of old(er) people is victorious over the young, modern, edgy masterpiece. What could be more in touch with our modern lives than "Facebook: the Movie?" How could the Academy choose the safe and boring option over something so ground-breaking and relevant?

Well, here's the truth: The Social Network is NOT about Facebook. Nor is it about social networking. At no point in the film do we really see how the creation of Facebook has changed the way people interact. I'm sorry, Aaron Sorkin, but a scene where someone spontaneously turns "Facebook" into a verb doesn't cut it when it comes to representations of massive cultural change. Here is, in order of importance, what The Social Network is really about:

1) Mark Zuckerberg
2) litigation
3) intellectual property
4) friendship and loyalty

At its heart, The Social Network is a legal drama. The fact that the plot revolves around Facebook doesn't mean that the film actually deals with Facebook, as a phenomenon of cultural significance. As much as the critics are whining that The King's Speech is just another boring biographical movie, that description can just as easily be applied to The Social Network. Whether you're following Mark Zuckerberg or the King of England doesn't make a whole lot of difference. Both films hit the same beats: establishment of a flawed protagonist, attempts to overcome obstacles, unforeseen consequences and complications, and finally some level of resolution. Both films are based on true events and both films take wild liberties with their source material.

However, what The Social Network doesn't have is the emotional core of The King's Speech. By featuring a main character who is presented as borderline autistic, The Social Network's Mark Zuckerberg is a difficult protagonist to sympathize with. Of course, Sorkin goes one step further, implying that his ultimate motivation for creating Facebook was puppy-dog sadness and bitterness after being spurned by too many girls. Even if there was any evidence suggesting this was true (the book Sorkin adapted, The Accidental Billionaires, featured no interviews with Zuckerberg himself), this reduction of a complicated human being into a stereotype is ridiculous.

The Social Network does not tap into the cultural zeitgeist. It does not show what life is like for college students in the late 2000s. Hell, it doesn't even really show you Facebook. It is most certainly not "Facebook: the Movie." If it was, it would show how Facebook has utterly altered the way people, young and old, are communicating and relating to each other. It would show the weight of Facebook-mediated relationships. It would explore the very slippery concept of the "Facebook friend." It would show how this social networking site, created by a college student for other college students, has evolved into something white-collar employers use to evaluate their employees. Yet, The Social Network does none of those things. It's just another biopic. The King's Speech is also a biopic and it happens to be a better one. Now, can we all calm down and enjoy another year of movies?