A terrific post, as always. Thanks so much for these analyses/breakdowns. I love the point about there being multiple themes. The main theme about the inventor of the Social Network being disconnected himself ironically was the least effective for me, partly because it was the least true to life. I found the theme on class (amplified by Fincher's brilliant staging of the scenes at Harvard and of the Winkelvii) most powerful. One could say it's the multiplicity of themes and the complexity of the characters that makes the Sorkin script so brilliant--it gives each viewer their own way into the story. A friend of mine posted an essay I wrote for class this fall on TSN at http://www.litkicks.com/WritingTheAntihero where I tried to talk about the complexity of this unsympathetic character a bit. But I think your point about Sorkin's multiply themed approach really nails it for me in re: how complexity of theme and character work together to make this an uniquely powerful script.

@ DAF the theme of class resonated with me more than any other as well. It's funny that meyers did the post on theme today as I got in an argument on ew.com about it today and decided to post it on my blog.

http://escarondito.blogspot.com/2011/02/social-network-one-of-my-readings.html

I definitely saw it as overwhelmingly dealing with friendship.

In the end of the movie, I wanted Eduardo and Mark to be friends. Mark obviously wants to be friends with the girl he could never have. The whole Facebook social networking site is a very transparent metaphor for friendship that this socially awkward guy couldn't attain in his own right. (I don't mean transparent as in bad. Sorkin uses it well).

I also think it's the place where the script and book took the largest liberties with the source material.

There's a lot of emails and IMs from Mark Zuckerberg stating that he wanted Eduardo out of the company because he was doing nothing. That he would rather seize control of the company and deal with legal repercussions and settlements after the fact than be slowed down by Eduardo's lack of action any longer. Mark was specifically responsible for the dilution of Eduardo's shares. It was his tactic that he wanted to use to take control of the company.

While I do think there are elements of power and corruption within the story, I think if those were the themes that Sorkin wanted to play up, it would have been the source material Sorkin more heavily leaned on. You know, Oliver Stone would have -- and not even subtly either.

What Sorkin leaned on was the social aspect of the site itself and this misunderstood genius who was an outcast and loner that was in a lot of cases misunderstood due to his social awkwardness.

I'm not sure how true either is to reality. But that doesn't matter. I only point it out as evidence towards what I think Sorkin was most drawn to about the source material in the first place.

There's a lot there. I think a different writer may have taken the same material and written something akin to a medieval rise of a conquering king.

It's all about the story the writer wanted to tell.

Excellent comments. And thanks for the links. That's one of the beauties of story and perhaps movies in particular -- multiple themes, if handled well, provide each viewer their own points of emotional and intellectual access to the story. And of course, each of our own individual life-histories impacts how and what we see and hear in a movie. So what we end up with is (hopefully) terrific and enlightening conversations like this one.

This is also one of the reasons why I resist the idea, which get espoused often, that the theme of a movie is its moral ala, "Don't judge a book by its cover." Yes, there can be a central theme, but more often than not, movies have multiple themes. Just like orchestral music. It's one of the ways that movies are such rich narrative forms.

BTW I agree about the theme of class in TSN. And given the great divide that continues to grow in our country between the super-rich and the have-nots, I would fully expect we will see lots of stories about class issues for the foreseeable future.

Totally agree with the notion that multiple themes can be present in a movie. STAR WARS definitely has a slew of themes running through it.

I actually think this book http://www.amazon.com/Art-Dramatic-Writing-Creative-Interpretation/dp/0671213326 The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri is largely to blame for Hollywood's one dimensional view of theme.

Mainly because I think there is something lost in translation. What Egri describes as "theme" is what we commonly refer to as premise. To that extent, I agree that dramatic content should only have one. To use William Goldman Field vernacular, it's the spine of the story.

The book is a great tool and incredibly insightful. Which is where I think the problem stems from.

What we commonly refer to as theme is something larger and broader than premise. In fact, we tend to call it "universal theme" when in films and television. Those things we all deal with on a daily basis that seem to resonate within a story even if it's about Space Chimps dirtying up Charlton Heston.

William Goldman Field is a typo.

But I think it's kinda funny. Blake Field Goldman McKee. I should just talk about them all as if they were one person.