The Social Network Reflection

The Social Network is a brilliantly constructed film. Its cinematography, actors and script contribute to its cinematic excellence. The story is told through a non-linear timeline, which helps to dramatize its narrative.

I want to focus on the difference in the relationships between Mark and Eduardo, versus Mark and Sean Parker and how they are portrayed on-screen. Director David Fincher highlights these differences with incredibly subtle cinematic variations. Mark and Eduardo’s friendship is the strongest at the beginning of the film, and essentially the foundation on which the film and Facebook are based. As the film progresses, the viewer sees the shattering relationship between Mark and Eduardo. Fincher displays their fracturing friendship with their physical distance from each other. When Mark moves out to California, Eduardo remains behind on the east coast. On the west coast, Mark continues to advance Facebook with Sean Parker’s help, and Eduardo is physically and figuratively left behind and kept separate from their developing company.

Their physical distance is representative of the distance between the pair, but is not Fincher’s only cinematic device that portrays their broken partnership. When they speak on the phone, they are not facing each other, as they would if they were relating and talking in person. Instead, they are both speaking, but not communicating. They are visibly upset with one another and it isn’t until Mark tells Eduardo of their angel investment, that they look in each other’s direction and appear to be connecting once again. In this same scene, the fire that Eduardo puts out is representative of the metaphorical fire he tries to put out between him and Mark. It is also symbolic of the many different fires that Eduardo is trying to juggle at once, as his girlfriend is causing additional stress in his life.

Mark’s scenes with Sean Parker differ greatly from his scenes with Eduardo. He seemingly idolizes Parker and follows him to places that he would never have gone before. Parker takes Mark to a club, which marks his personal transformation and the beginning of the Facebook revolution. Mark is stepping out of his comfort zone under Parker’s influence. At the club, their business discussion is overshadowed by the theatrics of the club scene. When Eduardo lives on the east coast, Sean Parker moves into Mark’s house with him, representing he is encroaching on Eduardo’s territory.