13 February 2011

Behind The Scenes Of ‘The Social Network’ - fiction near fact is still useful fiction

This is a reply to the blog post below:
I wonder if it will also help remind people that the film nominated for eight Oscars isn’t a documentary about Facebook but rather a work of historical fiction.

The Social Network has been one of my favourite films over the past year.  It's quick, it's well thought out and has a killer sound track.  Best of all, even though it's not the "truth" (what ever that maybe) it's certainly enough that you can understand the background to Facebook which is now the world's biggest website. The argument here is, film is both entertaining and close enough to the truth.  In this sense it is very successful and educational at the same time.

It's a big budget movie; it is not a peer reviewed journal. Audiences ought to have a different expectation of truth, and ought to look a bit deeper on the matter if they wish to make judgements about Mr Zuckerberg‎ character or business management style.

So what if there weren't quite as many mostly naked girls in the real word? Timberlake was actually (surprisingly) a good actor and it was terribly entertaining.  Of course I know that nerds are no where near as cool as any film could ever possibly make out. Interestingly enough, I once met one of the Piranha Task Force detectives, and they were sledging the Underbelly because, as he put it "I followed Carl Williams for years, I listened to his every telephone call, I knew what he was up to, and never do I remember so much sex being involved".  Possibly because he being a professional voyeur, he might have enjoyed his work even more if that were the case.  Oddly enough however, all the other little details about the characters, (including their hair styles and choice of footwear) was rather accurate.


I'm sure that Hitler would claim that Downfall was incorrect. I'm lothe believe anything 100% from any one source, and especially not at the movies.  So ought  any other right minded person.  This isn't a courtroom, and facts are kind of slippery when you ask different people their sides of the story.

No. it's not an accurate representation, it's a dramatisation. But for the sake of telling a story (and a damn interesting one at that) - near enough IS actually good enough. 





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