“It’s a one-sided love”: Andrew Garfield Reveals What ‘The Social Network’ Was Really About After 14 Years and I’m Mad It Didn’t Win the Oscar

Every once in a while, Hollywood collectively puts all of their brainpower into making a film that changes the definition of cinema. The Social Network was exactly that, in my opinion. I’m not denying that this film didn’t have its flaws. Mark Zuckerberg himself called it inaccurate. However, inaccuracy doesn’t make it lose all its currency.

The Academy seems to have put this thought aside when they were figuring out the victor of the 83rd Academy Awards. The film was nominated for eight awards and only won three, losing out in the major categories and losing the Best Picture award to The King’s Speech.

I believe that it deserved to win, regardless of how good The King’s Speech was, and I have the facts to prove it.

The Social Network—A work-life imbalance

At first glance, I thought The Social Network to be a two-dimensional film. A biopic following the story of Mark Zuckerberg and dealing with people being manipulated out of money. However, the deeper I explored, the more it became about human connection, creating something for the wrong reasons, and turning into a heartbreaking tale about friendship.

Andrew Garfield showcased a similar perspective about the project fourteen years after its release during an interview with GQ. By his interpretation, he focused on the relationship between Mark and Eduardo, rather than the business aspect of it all. From the very first introduction of Garfield’s character, we are told evident things about who Eduardo is as a person; he cares.

I didn’t realize it was going to be so heartbreaking. You know, because on the page you could think ‘Oh well this is just a guy that’s been f-cked out of a bunch of money.’ But I think what makes it meaningful and impactful is that it’s a one-sided love, brotherhood relationship. It’s a guy that’s holding space for his friend to show up in the way he believes he can.

He was just deluded all along, it turns out, and I think the majority of human beings have been in that situation, where they believe in someone’s capacity and ‘I see beauty in you and I know that you are in there. And other people just can’t see it but I’m going to hang in there and tease it out of you.’

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Repeatedly asking Mark if he was okay. Looking out for him and opening as many doors as he possibly could. Not for an ulterior motive but because he cares. Despite this, we see him lose it all, not just material things but also a friendship he deeply cared about.

The amount of thought and effort that was put into one part of a story covering so many aspects of one person’s life is ridiculously good. With this in mind, I simply do not understand how it could have lost the Best Picture Oscar.

The Social Network deserved to win Best Picture

Best Picture is one of the most esteemed awards of all time. Everything needs to be perfect for a film to win in this category. With this in mind, I cannot agree with the decision of The King’s Speech winning the award over The Social Network. This is not to say that the film does not have flaws. In fact, it took quite a lot of liberties with Mark Zuckerberg’s story (via YouTube), specifically in the early years of Facebook.

They went out of their way in the movie to try to get some interesting details correct like the design of the office, but on the overarching plot … they just kind of made up a bunch of stuff that I found kind of hurtful.

Mark Zuckerberg

While it is important to check the accuracy of a biopic, The Social Network proved itself to be so much more than just a film, especially considering this is the only criticism that anyone had towards it. At its core, it is a fictional courtroom drama, and flaws don’t seem to exist within the two-hour runtime of David Fincher’s masterpiece.

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Zuckerberg’s perspective is specifically interesting to talk about. Even though he is seen as quite a controversial figure in the world, the film managed to force me to empathize with him, even though he was shown in all of his flaws. Acting wasn’t the only thing that helped in this, as Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay is what shaped the movie into a masterpiece, something he did win an Oscar for.

Additionally, the ratings of the movies also speak for themselves, with Andrew Garfield’s film having a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and The King’s Speech having a 94%. When the Oscars trade awards based on the critics and reviews, I don’t understand why a film that is more critically acclaimed would lose, even if Tom Hooper’s project was almost as good.

The Social Network is available for streaming on AppleTV.

This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire