As I look through the mounds of reactions to the movie “The Social Network”,  and laugh at the length some will go to complain about what the movie didn’t get right,  there was one I think deserves the most attention (among the lists of its shortcomings).  It was pointed out most directly and articulated best (thus far)  by Lawrence Lessig,  whose review I posted about yesterday.

But the most frustrating bit of The Social Network is not its obliviousness to the silliness of modern American law. It is its failure to even mention the real magic behind the Facebook story.

‘The Social Network’: A Review Of Aaron Sorkin’s Film About Facebook And Mark Zuckerberg | The New Republic

Lessig is one of us.  He is a believer in the possibilities for the Net.  And he saw the same glaring omission/distortion of the movie as Jeff Jarvis and myself:(reminder:  I enjoyed watching it.  Though even Lessig complained about the level of articulation and wit of the students:

(ie “As with every one of his extraordinary works, Sorkin crafted dialogue for an as-yet-not-evolved species of humans—ordinary people, here students, who talk perpetually with the wit and brilliance of George Bernard Shaw or Bertrand Russell. (I’m a Harvard professor. Trust me: The students don’t speak this language.)”

As with the West Wing,  I enjoyed the humor.  I had the same kind of reaction to The West Wing’s  extremely quick and articulate wit of those West Wing characters the first couple of episodes, but that ”problem” soon dissolved into the story,  and it became one of my favorite shows of all time.

The thing with the West Wing,  however,  is that its story had a passion for an American  vision that was a huge part  of West Wing’s appeal.  In the case of The Social Network,  I agree with Jeff Jarvis and Lessig that it was severely lacking  in any vision on the part of Zuckerberg.  Those who know him all point to the huge fiction that is his character in the movie.  But whether I know him or not,  to have conceived and evolved so far,  so quick,  in execution of that plan,  there has to have been a driving vision.  In the movie we are given the motivations of impressing a girl who dumped him,  jealousy of his friend,  who won  entry into an exclusive club,  or “a billion dollars” (the scene where Zuckerberg shows the most energy,  where he is saying “Yes,  that’s it”  to Sean Parker’s each point in the first meeting).  The closest we get to that kind of energy is where Zuck jumps up and runs over to his room to add the “Relationship Status” indicator to the profile.   The movie needed quite a few more of those “aha” moments and excitement about what “The Facebook” was all about at its core. 

I wonder who would be a director and writer who would be able to accurately capture the passion of the geek-entrepreneur-creator.  I’m pretty sure they’re out there.