Film
A Zillion Friends, and a Few Enemies
IN a trailer for “The Social Network” — the new movie about the tumultuous origins of the social networking site Facebook — a cursor makes its way across the modern digital landscape, full of “friends” who may or may not be friends, and strangers smiling in intimate ways. It promises a story that is as sexy and clickable as a seconds-old status update, one about the most modern of subjects in a frantically wired world. Then again, the film — written by Aaron Sorkin and directed by David Fincher — deals in archetypes and conflicts as old as the Bible.
Even while they trade on its currency, as headlines about Facebook’s astounding growth and problematic privacy issues keep coming, the makers of “The Social Network” prefer to dwell on its timelessness.
“We’re not fad hopping,” said Mr. Fincher, sitting in a conference room on the Sony lot late last month. “There’s an ironic story behind this thing that’s about friendship and the need to connect. The fact that it was Facebook brought an interesting context for this simple drama of acrimony.”
Scott Rudin, one of the producers of the film, said that in spite of its thoroughly modern tag line — “You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies” — “The Social Network” is built on themes that would not be out of place in ancient Rome. “It’s very classic,” Mr. Rudin said. “The men want to kill each other, the women are cruel, and only the fittest survive.”
