The Social Network
This movie is good, I mean it stars Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, AND Justin Timberlake, so it kind of has to be good. However, besides the blockbuster movie stars, the plot is what is truly captivating. Facebook and all its success really boils down to a few decisions in Mark Zuckerburg's life. He decided to make facemash.com which got him recognized by the Winklevoss brothers. He decided to manipulate Eduardo into investing in the project by naming him CEO and co-founder. All of those decisions helped him find the success of Facebook and made him the world’s youngest billionaire.
My favorite scene from the movie is when he is making Facemash.com and he is blogging at the same time. He does everything so quickly, from blogging and coding to drinking beer and making mathematical equations with friends. I thought the scene did a wonderful job of showing how fast his brain works even when intoxicated.
The movie also shows the two lawsuits Mark Zuckerburg faced as Facebook took off. The Winklevoss twins and Eduardo both sued Zuckerburg. While the Winklevoss twins had a reason to be angry with Zuckerburg, I don’t think they had grounds to sue him and they definitely did not deserve the $65 million settlement. As Mark said in the movie, “If I create a new chair, I should not have to pay royalties to anyone that has ever made a chair,” and I think he is totally right. The Winklevoss twins sparked an idea within Zuckerburg but what he made was completely his own (he definitely could have gone about it in a different way).
The real injustice of the movie is what Zuckerburg did to his “friend” Eduardo. Eduardo was there from the beginning. Zuckerburg promised Eduardo a position at CFO and shares of the company but in order for there to be a company, the needed money. So, Eduardo invested $1,000 into Facebook so it could get it up and running. Later, he invests more money and we find out that he invested a total of $19,000 for Facebook. Then, he ambushes Eduardo and diminishes his shares of the company from 30% to 0.03% and takes his name off as co-founder. This was such a messed up thing to do but Eduardo ends up suing Zuckerburg and ends the case with his name restored as co-founder and a bigger share of Facebook, which is valued at $13 billion.
