Movie Review: The Social Network

I suddenly had an urge to watch this 3 year-old film. I always have sudden urges to watch things, and it has to be fulfilled lest I become a whining and angry baby. I've watched this film multiple times, and I honestly don't know why I love it so much. Discard the great cinematography and all the technical details about the film because this isn't your typical movie review. This is a life lesson review; lessons learned and points taken from this film. The Social Network will make you think, or maybe that's just me. It'll also make your lady loins tremble because Andrew Garfield is an extremely delicious cookie. 

Let's get to it:

The opening scene between Mark and Erica basically set up Mark as a person. That two-minute sequence made up his character; complacent, callous, selfish and incredibly intelligent. Mark Zuckerberg is a Harvard dropout, and this act is often brought up in discussions regarding university education. "The youngest billionaire in the world is a dropout." Yes, but he is a Harvard dropout. See how that has a ring to it? He isn't a Florida Atlantic University dropout. It's the emphasis on the Harvard, which is arguably the most prestigious university in the world. Meaning that he was extremely smart to begin with.

Watching these Harvard kids at parties, drinking, hacking computers, dancing on tabletops, all I could think was, "wow they're in Harvard. They must be fucking geniuses, each of them. Even that half naked girl grinding a guy. Even her." They all had a 4.0 average back in high school plus a ton of extracurricular activities to get into this school. The Winklevoss twins obtained a 3.9 average at Harvard whilst winning awards for rowing. Which was a feat considering that both of them had the same GPA, which meant both had to have the exact same grades in every class in every semester. A little creepy but I'll let that one go.

We put such an emphasis on intelligence that we look up to those in Harvard or Stanford or CalTech, or anyone studying biochemistry or engineering or medicine. We look up to people who we deem as extremely intelligent, because we don't see that in ourselves. No matter if they are a complete douchebag, or if they're a terrible person. We all will (secretly) look up to them because we see intelligence as an extremely rare gift. Like how people who score above a 140 on their IQ are in the 99.6th percentile.

Now it's as if being incredibly smart is the only way to be successful. Being mediocre or just 'smart' isn't enough. Mark had 22,000 hits for his first site 'facemash.com', that's unheard of for a university sophomore. You see how even at an early age, he was able to do that. Most people can't, so most people have to live life working twice as hard because their puny little brains can't do half the things that effortlessly brilliant people can. It puts so much pressure on mediocre people to be something they just...can't. 

We look up to students with difficult majors and people with complicated jobs because we want to be like them. We all want to have the capability to hack into a secure server or create an algorithm for a website or create a working liver from stem cells or do a heart transplant. Everyone has their own reasons, whether it be to please their parents or to make a name for themselves. Everyone wants to be smart, or at least thought of as smart by people around them. 

Of course, hard work comes into the equation. But I'm a strong believer that we were born with what we have. Intelligence, I think, is innate. It explains why some people work their glutes off and receive mediocre grades whilst some students chuck their textbooks in the trash but still receive straight A's. 

Intelligence is a gift, and it is something that I admire very much. I wonder if anyone sees that trait in me.