View From the Phlipside - Facebook Movie

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media. TV, Radio, the Movies and more. I love them and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View From the Phlipside.

While I talk about movies on this program I don’t do many movie reviews. But when a movie comes along that’s about social media it just seemed too obvious to pass up. Last week I went to see “The Social Network” better known to many folks simply as the Facebook movie.

The movie tells the story of Mark Zuckerberg and the creation of Facebook. It’s an excellent movie and is being compared in some quarters to “Citizen Kane”. Certainly the story lines are similar. Aaron Sorkin, the brains behind the TV hit series “The West Wing”, wrote a brilliant script that does take some liberties with the facts. Zuckerberg calls the entire movie fiction.

But what really grabbed me beyond the acting and the script is how this movie is different from “Citizen Kane”. I never felt any sympathy for Kane. For the uber-nerd version of Zuckerberg presented in the movie I will admit to a fair bit of sympathy. I would certainly never do business with him without a dozen lawyers at my side but you could say the same about any big business man. Maybe it’s the nerd boy in my own history but I understand how Mark Zuckerberg ends up where he does. His character is totally socially inept, smarter than most people in the room and looked down on by the social elite. When he’s given money, power, the interest of beautiful women, the chance to dump on the jocks and the favor of his geek superhero(played superbly by Justin Timberlake) his character’s ethical compass is lost. That doesn’t excuse what he does but I have to admit I understand how he gets there.

The movie is one sided. It’s based mostly on the version of history from Zuckerberg’s former best friend and partner Eduardo Savarin. So approach the historical aspect with great caution. The whole girl friend motivation from the first scene is total fiction. Like Citizen Kane this is a magnificent examination of the effect of power on flawed personalities. Just don’t be surprised if you come away from the movie feeling more sorry towards Zuckerberg than angry.

It might not be a bad thing from Mark Zuckerberg to watch “Citizen Kane”. Here’s hoping that Mark finds the way to avoid his very own “Rosebud” moment.


Call that the View From the Phlipside.

"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010