This piece by Cinema Blend’s Mack Rawden is quite wonderful. I would disagree with his initial premise, that Annie Hall won the battle but Star Wars won the war: both films forever changed the future of cinema. Both had tremendous impact. Both were films I myself have seen countless times and can recite them line for line. Both of them. If American films had a museum, Annie Hall would be in it. So would Star Wars. The difference for me between them is that Annie Hall has aged along with me. I loved it when I was a teenager, as a young woman and now, as a woman and human being aging. Woody Allen’s profound insight lends itself to me on almost a daily basis. I can’t really say the same about Star Wars, though you couldn’t find a more devoted fan when it came out. I can watch it now but it isn’t like Annie Hall. It doesn’t cut through my soul the way Allen’s film does. At any rate, and be that as it may, I appreciate this article and absolutely agree – why? Because Sorkin’s brilliant script IS like this:
That, in a wall post, is why The Social Network is the Annie Hall of the nominees, but it’s also the Star Wars. The comparison may seem ludicrous on the outset, but let’s delve a little deeper. That’s what both The Social Network and Star Wars are about anyway. Each is a reasonably simple to understand story. Each has a ton of very good acting performances but few with the outward dazzle to win Best Actor or Actress. More importantly, each is a product of exactly what you put in. You can watch The Social Network paying half attention and understand the general ins and outs. Mark Zuckerberg latched onto an idea that may or may not have been his. He turned it into an empire, pissed a lot of people off and became the youngest billionaire in the world. That’s the story. It doesn’t take brains to follow it, but to accurately understand the complexities of how it happened and why, you must pay careful attention, listen to the side characters and pour over the algorithms. Every little formula here adds up, it’s just a question of whether you take the time to notice. The Social Network caters to both the casual fans and the obsessives, exactly like Star Wars and in doing so, creates a final product that can be cherished by both.
Check it out – it is well worth the read.