Editorial - Is the Social Network this Generation's Wall Street?

Please Note: The Following Editorial contains spoilers for both The Social Network and Wall Street so if you haven't seen either or both of these movies, read on at your own risk.

Having recently seen the new David Fincher/Aaron Sorkin film The Social Network, which details Mark Zuckerburg and the origins of the hit networking site Facebook, I couldn't help but be reminded of the first Wall Street film director Oliver Stone in 1987, not his recent 2010 sequel Money Never Sleeps, the reason I was reminded of that film so much was how this movie concluded its proceedings, even as I type this I can't help but compare the two so I decided to ask this simple question:

Is the Social Network this Generation's Wall Street?

Well, the answer to that question may not be so clear-cut depending on how you read it but I'm going to tell my own personal opinion as to why I feel that it is, let's begin shall we:

First off, we have the naive dreamer who becomes motivated for his own selfish reasons to be something more than his working class compatriots, in Wall Street it was Bud Fox played by Charlie Sheen, a naive stockbroker working for Jackson Steiner, one of the finance firms on Wall Street who wants to rise above his working class father played by Martin Sheen and become a player, like his financial idol Gordon Gekko played by Michael Douglas, Bud wants to do this for his own reasons, to become more successful than his father, who he sees at one point in the film as a "jealous old man who can't stand the fact that his son's become more successful than he has" but as Martin Sheen is quick to fire back "What you see, is a guy who never measured success by the size of his WALLET"

In Social Network you also have the naive dreamer in Mark Zuckerburg, incidentally a real life character played brilliantly by young actor Jessie Eisenberg, here instead of being a young trader, Zuckerburg is a computer genius who after being dumped goes on a bender and furiously comes up with what's called Face mash, ranking the women of Harvard against each other, from here he is hired by two Harvard sporting champions to come up with a Harvard social network, but from here Zuckerburg shows his dark side, taking their idea and building on it for his own purposes.

And from there we come to the link in the centre, the one character that ties it all together and also serves as the catalyst for these events, in Wall Street that character is none other than Gordon Gekko himself, played brilliantly by Michael Douglas, who also went on to (quite rightly I might add) win an Oscar for his effort.

This leads us to the second archetype from both films, the slick businessman with dark intentions, in Wall Street it's Gekko that show us this side in the scenes where Gordon takes Bud under his wing, showing him how to work the system in terms of getting inside information as well as showing him the high life of wealth, power, luxury and women but also subtly manipulating him at the same time in the means of driving a wedge between him and his one real link to the real world therefore leaving the naive dreamer ripe for the taking, as shown in the scenes where Gordon wants to take over the airline where Martin Sheen works and his manipulation of Bud shows us that he wants to drive a wedge between the two.

In the Social Network, this archetype actually cuts both ways, for these reasons: in Zuckerburg himself there are actually traces of Gordon Gekko in the beginning despite sharing a comparison with Bud at the same time, completely willing to manipulate anyone and anything around him for his own selfish reasons, Zuckerburg in the movie keenly studies everyone and everything around him and is not afraid to use it for his own purposes of power but even though we can see his own intentions, the characters he interacts with don't, and that leads to unfortunate consequences for them.

Not only do we have traces of Gekko in the film's lead, we also have a literal incarnation of those themes, this time with the character of Sean Parker played surprisingly well by pop star Justin Timberlake, Parker in a lot of ways is like Gekko, he's played in the same market (he co-founded Napster) and has a slightly more luxurious lifestyle with a nice California house with its own pool, house parties, girls, drugs, the works.

And just like Gordon with Bud in Wall Street, Parker promises all of this to Zuckerburg by asking for a stake in his company, something his friend Eduardo Saverin played by Andrew Garfield (who is to become to become the next Spider-Man) can't believe that his friend would fall into.

Which brings us to our final archetype that ties both films together, the working class man who has his head on his shoulders and is distrusting of shady success, in Wall Street this is embodied by Bud's father Carl played by Charlie Sheen's real life dad Martin Sheen, Carl sees right through Gekko and knows all too well that he stands for nothing more than Greed, out for a quick buck and taking no prisoners while he does so.

In the Social Network, this character is Eduardo, who I mentioned earlier, Eduardo works hard to help Mark set up Facebook but is distrustful of Parker in the same way Bud's father distrusts Gordon, Sean is successful but also shady, as evidenced with his Napster dealings, something Eduardo doesn't like and tries to call Mark's attention to it before being dismissed in the same Bud dismissed his father as a jealous old man, but Eduardo's retribution is more swift than Carl's.

But lastly, we have the generation factor, Wall Street defined the "me, me, me" yuppie culture of the 1980's as well as the corporate greed that ran like wildfire back then and still has drastic ramifications today, The Social Network defines the social world we currently inhabit, people use Facebook for many reasons, to find friends, keep in contact with family members even play games like Farmville, not only do you have that but you also have the discussions regarding copyright and intellectual property law that help to frame the film's narrative structure, a debate raging strong today.

So there you have it folks, a little long but I wanted to explain not only the Wall Street comparison in my main review of The Social Network but also the question posed above as to why I feel that Social Network is this generation's Wall Street, now you may disagree and think I'm full of it, but this is purely my own opinion and as always, interpret what I say the way you choose to, not how I feel you should.