There’s only one interesting conversation I like having with people who like Aaron Sorkin scripts and that’s this: The guy was ON FIRE from A Few Good Men, The American President, through Sports Night and into 3 seasons of The West Wing, which he wrote almost exclusively by his lonesome. Thing is, the guy was freebasing cocaine and doing loads of pot. The interesting question after watching Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip burn out right quick is: does Aaron Sorkin do his best work on drugs?
But, since that has little to do with this script review (unless someone can attest to Sorkin’s habits these days), I apologize for the digression.
A blog called ScriptShadow has read The Social Network, Sorkin’s first draft of the Facebook movie and actually seems to have enjoyed it:
Part of my love for this 162 page script is that Sorkin doesn’t use any discernible structure. I was constantly looking for a base, an obvious story or goal. And there isn’t any. 99% of the time when this happens, the script’s a disaster (don’t try it. just, don’t) But Sorkin uses some crazy unknown voodoo screenwriting tricks to keep us riveted. In the end, our curiosity is what drives the story as we’re wondering if Sean – who’s already sacrificed his personal life – will end up getting sacrificed out of a business as well. Did he indeed steal this idea from Cameron and Tyler? Or are these two spoiled brats lashing out because they can’t handle the one time things didn’t go their way?
The Social Network is a either a modern tragedy or a modern success story depending on how you look at it. Imagine going from nothing to a billionaire in less than a year. How do you even grasp that kind of success? How do you live a normal life? How do you address the constant lawsuits that eat into your everyday existence? And how do you do this at 22 years old? When I was 22, just scraping together enough money to buy a case of Busch Light Draft was a victory. Either way it’s fun to put yourself in Mark’s shoes and picture how you’d handle the situation.
You can read the whole post HERE.
The plot synopsis that preceded this except runs pretty close to the numerous articles about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, so I think we’re looking at an almost-bio-pic film, driven by technology, even if we don’t spend a lot of time with code monkeys in front of a screen.
Sorkin does snappy work, and when he finds the rhythm of a plot and character he’s capable of delivering some of the best writing out there.
Someone rush him a dime bag for draft two.
