http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2010/10/14/anti-social-the-classic-aesthetic-of-the-social-network/ Responses to Media and Culture Fri, 12 Feb 2016 19:35:04 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.5 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/2010/10/14/anti-social-the-classic-aesthetic-of-the-social-network/comment-page-1/#comment-33405 Sat, 16 Oct 2010 11:22:14 +0000 http://blog.commarts.wisc.edu/?p=6731#comment-33405 I concur with your assessment of the film. The current media discourse seems to define THE SOCIAL NETWORK as merely another element in the mythology of FACEBOOK. However, the undiscriminating fixation upon the film’s historical accuracy, a narrow form of film criticism, relegates the film to the status of a document, thereby discounting both its artistry and the tradition it situates itself in.
I agree with your evaluation that THE SOCIAL NETWORK is primarily a great film which is not at all reliant on the external socio-cultural context it examines. It may be read as a reaction to FACEBOOK as a cultural phenomenon, but certainly not as a replica. In spite of the obvious links to the new media, the film adheres to classicist cinematic techniques, a well-defined story with a poignant conflict and compelling characters embedded in an elaborate narrative structure and a set of traditional rhetorical devices, i.e. pointed use of shallow and deep focus, crosscutting, shot-reverse shot and two-plane compositions. THE SOCIAL NETWORK needs to be viewed as an excellent exercise in cinematic storytelling. It should not (at least exclusively) be discussed as a commentary on FACEBOOK. Neither the old nor the new media will benefit from this reductive approach.

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