“The Social Network” dominated the box office this past weekend, raking in $23 million. Purporting to portray the story of Mark Zukerberg and his rocky rise to riches as founder of Facebook, the movie, in true Hollywood style, takes some liberties with the story to add viewer appeal.
For example, in the opening scene of “The Social Network” Zuckerberg’s girlfriend Erica (played by Rooney Mara,) breaks up with Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and tries to excuse herself to go home so she can study. Zuckerberg keeps blowing her off, telling her she doesn’t need to study. In truth, the girlfriend is a figment of Hollywood imagination.
To be fair, the movie wouldn’t have attracted so much attention if it had been a factual documentary. How many would have sat through a full-length feature watching computer geeks writing line after line of code in order to get what we take for granted; like downloading a photo? As Zuckerberg said in an interview, “I mean, the real story is actually probably pretty boring, right? …We just sat at our computers for six years and coded.”
The movie has been quite controversial for its portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg as a slimy, underhaded nerd-genius. In fact, several people have come forward to contend that the evil nerd-genius Zuckerberg that was portrayed in the movie is not the mild mannered programmer that they know.
Scott Rudin, one of the film’s producers, told the New York Times that the filmmakers worked hard to tell an accurate story. The movie, he has insisted, is an accurate portrayal of the people and the events surrounding Facebook’s inception. “The movie is thoroughly vetted… I’m very comfortable that we got the facts right.”
