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What amazes me about the coverage of this film is that David Fincher is getting totally overshadowed by his subject. Case in point, Techcrunch doesn't even ment

What amazes me about the coverage of this film is that David Fincher is getting totally overshadowed by his subject. Case in point, Techcrunch doesn't even mention that Fincher is the director, even crediting the film to Aaron Sorkin who just worked on the script. Why is this an oversight? Fincher is one of the smartest directors in contemporary American film. Seven was a brilliant critique of how visual media feeds social violence. Fight Club turned a stylish but shallow nihilist novella into a meta-recursive critique of nihilism itself. Zodiac was a narrative masterpiece created out of nothing. The Game was an ambitious attempt to turn The Magus into a film that succeeded so well no-one seemed to notice. And even his lesser works, Panic Room and Benjamin Button, were still films that tried for something and are worth watching. Yet not a single mention. Amazing.

dmix 16y ago
Keep in mind this is Techcrunch not Roger Ebert.
jakarta 16y ago
AND Trent Reznor is working on the score.
- Perceval 16y ago
  Here's a link: http://www.theninhotline.net/news/permalink/1278030873 http://www.theninhotline.net/news/permalink/1278030873
- karlzt 16y ago
  Trent Reznor with Atticus Ross are working on the score.
macrael 16y ago
Wikipedia doesn't mention The Magus in it's description of The Game. Was it an influence? It is a fantastic novel.
- trevelyan 16y ago
  It is a fantastic book! And the setting of the film is different, but the story is surely the same: an emotionally immature protagonist gets swept up in an ever-expanding and quasi-supernatural game. The emotional crimes he plays out on others are played back on himself through this game, causing him to eventually achieve self-realization through a sort of emotional catharsis and resurrection (metaphorically in the book, quite visually in the film with the white suit and the graveyard and all). Replace Greece with San Francisco and the sexual crimes in the novel with the film's emphasis on corporate greed. Still not convinced? The icing on the cake for me is the fact that both film and book end identically, hanging on a moment of choice in a situation which leaves it ambiguous if "the Game" is still ongoing. I don't think Fincher really nailed the movie the way he did with Seven and Fight Club, but the connection to the Magus seems obvious for another reason as well: the weak points of the film start making sense if you think about it as an adaptation. The major point of the Fowles novel is in its Eliot quote that, "the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time." I don't think the film is as convincing as the book in part because the romantic relationship it uses to do this is incidental to its preoccupation with corporate greed and is not very believable. But the intended structure helps explain some of its weaker dramatic moments, the biggest of which for me was seeing Michael Douglas running around a corporate cafeteria with a gun shouting about the need to protect his employees and their pensions.
  - michael_dorfman 16y ago
    The fact that it was not credited as an adaptation pretty much ruined the movie for me-- as I was watching it, I kept thinking "This is just a rip-off of The Magus". As an adaptation, the film was quite good. As an (alleged) original work, it was a total failure.
jkincaid 16y ago
I agree with you, I should have mentioned him. Added to the post.
- trevelyan 16y ago
  That was fast.... I wasn't singling out Techcrunch incidentally. I've noticed this in most of the articles about the film I've stumbled on, that's all. I suppose it's the power of Facebook.
kylelibra 16y ago
Coverage from mainstream film sites are quick to mention the involvement of Fincher and Sorkin. I wouldn't really expect TechCrunch to mention it.
Keyframe 16y ago
You see. This is a producer's movie, not directorial. Screenwriter is important here, more so than director which is here to do technical stuff, and do it good. Producer calls the shots anyways in this case, screenwriter executes them and director makes it into a product. Sorkin is a wizard though, especially in dialog construction. However, I've read through this blag post http://scriptshadow.blogspot.com/2009/07/social-network-facebook-movie.html http://scriptshadow.blogspot.com/2009/07/social-network-face... and it really seems good enough. That blog is truly great for screenwriters btw, lots of great tips and stuff.
macca321 16y ago
Benjamin Button tried for something, but is definately not worth watching.
- snprbob86 16y ago
  I enjoyed Benjamin Button, but even if you didn't, most would agree that Se7en and Fight Club more than make up for it: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000399/ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000399/
megablast 16y ago
Who would have though all those great movies came from the same guy responsibly for Alien 3?
- rumpelstiltskin 16y ago
  From wikipedia - David Fincher was brought into the project very late in its development, after a proposed version written by Vincent Ward (What Dreams May Come) at the helm fell through. Fincher had little time to prepare, and the experience making the film proved agonizing for him, as he had to endure incessant creative interference from the studio. The film was Fincher's debut in big budget film making, and at the relatively young age of 27 he had to shoot the film without having a definite script. The added weight was also to create a film worthy of the work of the two revered directors that had gone before him, James Cameron and Ridley Scott.

dmix 16y ago

Keep in mind this is Techcrunch not Roger Ebert.

jakarta 16y ago

AND Trent Reznor is working on the score.

Perceval 16y ago
Here's a link: http://www.theninhotline.net/news/permalink/1278030873 http://www.theninhotline.net/news/permalink/1278030873
karlzt 16y ago
Trent Reznor with Atticus Ross are working on the score.

macrael 16y ago

Wikipedia doesn't mention The Magus in it's description of The Game. Was it an influence? It is a fantastic novel.

trevelyan 16y ago
It is a fantastic book! And the setting of the film is different, but the story is surely the same: an emotionally immature protagonist gets swept up in an ever-expanding and quasi-supernatural game. The emotional crimes he plays out on others are played back on himself through this game, causing him to eventually achieve self-realization through a sort of emotional catharsis and resurrection (metaphorically in the book, quite visually in the film with the white suit and the graveyard and all). Replace Greece with San Francisco and the sexual crimes in the novel with the film's emphasis on corporate greed. Still not convinced? The icing on the cake for me is the fact that both film and book end identically, hanging on a moment of choice in a situation which leaves it ambiguous if "the Game" is still ongoing. I don't think Fincher really nailed the movie the way he did with Seven and Fight Club, but the connection to the Magus seems obvious for another reason as well: the weak points of the film start making sense if you think about it as an adaptation. The major point of the Fowles novel is in its Eliot quote that, "the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time." I don't think the film is as convincing as the book in part because the romantic relationship it uses to do this is incidental to its preoccupation with corporate greed and is not very believable. But the intended structure helps explain some of its weaker dramatic moments, the biggest of which for me was seeing Michael Douglas running around a corporate cafeteria with a gun shouting about the need to protect his employees and their pensions.
- michael_dorfman 16y ago
  The fact that it was not credited as an adaptation pretty much ruined the movie for me-- as I was watching it, I kept thinking "This is just a rip-off of The Magus". As an adaptation, the film was quite good. As an (alleged) original work, it was a total failure.

jkincaid 16y ago

I agree with you, I should have mentioned him. Added to the post.

trevelyan 16y ago
That was fast.... I wasn't singling out Techcrunch incidentally. I've noticed this in most of the articles about the film I've stumbled on, that's all. I suppose it's the power of Facebook.

kylelibra 16y ago

Coverage from mainstream film sites are quick to mention the involvement of Fincher and Sorkin. I wouldn't really expect TechCrunch to mention it.

Keyframe 16y ago

You see. This is a producer's movie, not directorial. Screenwriter is important here, more so than director which is here to do technical stuff, and do it good. Producer calls the shots anyways in this case, screenwriter executes them and director makes it into a product. Sorkin is a wizard though, especially in dialog construction. However, I've read through this blag post http://scriptshadow.blogspot.com/2009/07/social-network-facebook-movie.html http://scriptshadow.blogspot.com/2009/07/social-network-face... and it really seems good enough. That blog is truly great for screenwriters btw, lots of great tips and stuff.

macca321 16y ago

Benjamin Button tried for something, but is definately not worth watching.

snprbob86 16y ago
I enjoyed Benjamin Button, but even if you didn't, most would agree that Se7en and Fight Club more than make up for it: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000399/ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000399/

megablast 16y ago

Who would have though all those great movies came from the same guy responsibly for Alien 3?

rumpelstiltskin 16y ago
From wikipedia - David Fincher was brought into the project very late in its development, after a proposed version written by Vincent Ward (What Dreams May Come) at the helm fell through. Fincher had little time to prepare, and the experience making the film proved agonizing for him, as he had to endure incessant creative interference from the studio. The film was Fincher's debut in big budget film making, and at the relatively young age of 27 he had to shoot the film without having a definite script. The added weight was also to create a film worthy of the work of the two revered directors that had gone before him, James Cameron and Ridley Scott.