College students live on it, obsess over it and scan through it for hours on end. Now, Facebook — the world's largest social networking site — is coming to the silver screen.
Is a site where people chat with friends worthy of a feature film? It turns out that there is more to the story of Facebook than meets the eye.
"The Social Network," which opens Friday, chronicles the founding of Facebook from its Harvard dorm room origins to the lawsuits that followed. Jesse Eisenberg ("Zombieland") stars as founder Mark Zuckerberg — a young entrepreneur who was accused of stealing the idea for the site from two classmates. These accusations led to legal battles and multimillion-dollar settlements.
For Zuckerberg and the Facebook Corporation, the film's tagline applies: "You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies."
The film's dramatic tone, employed by director David Fincher ("Seven," "Zodiac") and writer Aaron Sorkin ("A Few Good Men," "The West Wing"), is subverting students' expectations.
Junior telecommunications major Keith Jackson said students' preconceptions stem from their belief that the film is "Facebook: The Movie," a conceptualization of the site's functions in society.
"I think the story of Facebook's creation, however liberally writer Sorkin and director Fincher take the facts, is an interesting one, with an intriguing lead character in Mark Zuckerberg," Jackson said. "Whether you agree with this being the basis of a film or not, you can't deny the impact Facebook has had."
Junior telecommunications major Austin Lugar, who saw film in advance, said its story is definitely worthy of the big screen treatment.
"Facebook is the most popular website on the Internet. We all check it constantly, so this film applies to everyone," Lugar said.
Even more appealing is its rich — and sometimes tragic — character study, Lugar said.
"The film makes Mark Zuckerberg look like a sad figure, a man so desperate to be part of an elite social scene that he had to invent one on the Internet," he said.
Lugar compared the story to the 1941 film "Citizen Kane," which was also a hard-hitting exposé of a man in power at the time — the media mogul William Randolph Hearst.
One man who might not be so excited about the film is Zuckerberg himself. A recent Los Angeles Times article covered his $100 million donation to New Jersey's largest school district.
During the Sept. 24 news conference, Zuckerberg noted the irony of the contribution coinciding with the release of a film that shines a negative light on him.
"That deed may cushion the blow, but this film is still not going to have a positive effect on him," Lugar said.
Jackson and Lugar said the film will not have a major effect on the social media site.
"As far as affecting Facebook, I don't think anything necessarily will change, and I don't think it's the intent of the film to cause some sort of movement against Facebook," Jackson said. "People will probably just come out with a better understanding of the people and events that went into creating such a popular social network."
Lugar drew a comparison to another film in discussing the issue.
"‘Super-Size Me' didn't stop people from eating McDonald's," he said. "‘The Social Network' is not going to make me delete my Facebook, but just make me feel guilty about it, just like how we continue McDonald's burgers despite knowing more of the facts behind their content."
So, what's next — a film about Google, MySpace or Twitter?
Junior anthropology major Evan Dossey said emerging social media is due for many more cinematic interpretations.
"The filmmaking process has been so expedited by technologies that it's only natural for those technologies to be made target by drama," he said.
We'll see how palpable the drama is when "The Social Network" opens at the AMC Showplace 12 in Muncie.
"The Social Network," Rated R
Opens Friday at AMC Showplace 12 (860 E. Princeton Ave.)
Showtimes: 1, 4, 7 and 10 p.m.
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
