The Movie
I could hardly believe that the great David Fincher, the man behind such radical works of cinematic fiction as Se7en and Fight Club, was going to commit himself to a fact-based drama about the recent creation of Facebook. The director never ceases to impress though, now with The Social Network, wherein he has crafted a thrilling film that stays with the viewer long after the end credits.
We can tell from the rapid-fire, almost-too-clever dialogue in the very first scene that the script was written by Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing), based largely upon Ben Mezrich's book The Accidental Millionaires. It begins at Harvard in the Fall of 2003, as young Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) blogs in a drunken ire about his breakup moments earlier. He then throws a quick website up onto the school network, to rate Harvard girls based on their photos, and it becomes so popular that it soon crashes the entire system.
He's onto something, but the resulting Facebook community he and his partners ultimately create is built on ingenuity, ego, betrayal and alleged theft, which is everything we need for a gripping drama. Told at a breakneck pace with Fincher's unique stylistic panache, The Social Network is a timeless story that just so happens to be about an online revolution.
While you're here, check out the status of Karen Dahlstrom's review of The Social Network.
The Picture
The Social Network was shot on the RED digital camera system and, like pretty much every David Fincher movie I've watched on Blu-ray, this one is a stunner, with some of the absolute best blacks and shadows I have ever seen, rife with natural detail. There's also a subtle beauty to the color that is simply extraordinary. After poring over the extras, I was surprised to learn of a major special effect that is utilized throughout the entire movie (I won't spoil it for you), integrated utterly seamlessly. How does Fincher do it, time after time?
The Sound
Music is clearly the star of this DTS-HD Master Audio track, with Trent Reznor and Atticus Rose's sometimes tentative, often brilliant score driving the narrative forward in its many moods, freely exploiting the rear channels in its quest. Most of the movie is not especially complicated, it's mostly dialogue, but blended with the myriad sounds of college: parties, nightclubs and restaurants, mixed very aggressively in 5.1 but never distractingly so.
The Extras
The movie is supplemented by a pair of audio commentaries, one from Fincher and the other from screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and cast members Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Armie Hammer and Josh Pence. Disc One is also BD-Live-enabled.
Disc Two begins with David Prior's four-part documentary, "How Did they Ever Make a Movie of Facebook?" (93 minutes total), followed by a series of interactive and traditional featurettes. Fincher modestly states that Social Network "was really a movie about kids' faces" in the eight-minute "Jeff Cronenweith and David Fincher on the Visuals." "Angus Wall, Kirk Baxter and Ren Klyce on Post" (17-and-a-half minutes) is particularly fascinating, and "Trent Reznor, Atticus Rose and David Fincher on the Score" (19 minutes) is no slouch, either. "Swarmatron" shows Reznor at work on an unusual instrument (four-and-a-half minutes).
"In the Hall of the Mountain King: Music Exploration" reveals more about the tune, an interactive study of Grieg's famous composition, reworked for the Henley Regatta sequence. We're given the first version and final version, isolated or fully mixed, two-and-a-half minutes each pass, synched with the movie. And "Ruby Skye VIP Room: Multi-Angle Scene Breakdown" serves up five available views of the four angles (including a composite of all): the technical scout on location in Los Angeles, principal photography, rehearsal with the actors, and interviews with technical personnel. These run 19-and-a-half minutes each, with selectable audio.
All of the Disc Two extras are presented in high-bitrate MPEG-2 video.
Final Thoughts
And if you still don't appreciate the accomplishment here, consider that Fincher has even managed to pull an effective, fully realized performance out of Justin Timberlake, deftly utilizing the pop star's penchant for smarminess to his advantage. Exquisitely conceived, staged, performed and finished, The Social Network is without a doubt one of the best movies of the year, and it makes for an exceptional Blu-ray experience.
Product Details
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