On This Day

The Social Network premiere

September 24th 2010

17:34 24 September 2024

The premiere of David Fincher's 'The Social Network' took place at the New York Film Festival on this day in 2010. Emerging in the 90’s as one of Hollywood’s most exciting talents, Finchers’ decision to direct the film seemed an unusual one to many at the time. The man who had brought us ‘Se7en’ and ‘Fight Club’ was now going to take on what some were dismissively calling “The Facebook movie”.

‘The Social Network’ is, in reality, much less a film about the creation of Facebook and much more about the age old themes of betrayal, revenge, ambition and greed.

The opening scene sets the tone perfectly. It is late 2003 and Harvard University student and computer genius Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is being dumped by his girlfriend. It is clear from Eisenberg’s portrayal and Aaron Sorkins' distinctively brilliant dialogue that this is not the most likeable of leading men, yet somehow, as the film progresses we find ourselves rooting for him.

Returning to his dorm Zuckerberg writes a spiteful entry on his blog about his ex and then creates a website called ‘Facemash’ by hacking into the college databases and stealing photos of female students to allow site visitors to rate their attractiveness. After causing the Harvard servers to crash Zukerberg is given six months academic probation.

The fuse has been lit though and inadvertently he has caught the attention of several influential figures, most notably the Winklevoss twins and their business partner Divya Narendra who approach him with their idea for a social media site. With financial backing from his best friend Eduardo Savarin, Zuckerberg creates what he calls ‘thefacebook’. With his business partners kept in the dark about its launch, a bitter legal wrangle ensues. The courtroom scenes are interspersed throughout the film and having relocated to California and cut his ties with Savarin, Zuckerberg and his team watch the newly renamed ‘Facebook’ grow in strength, culminating in its first one million members.

Eisenberg is excellent as Zukerberg, a young man consumed with ruthless ambition and not prepared to let anything stand in his way.

Superbly scripted, directed and acted, the film defied all preconceptions and was a success both critically and at the box office, going on to win three academy awards and three Baftas. A triumph for Fincher and Sorkin and one of the best films this century.