Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network




            Mark Zuckerberg was one of the most talked about people of 2010; he was Time magazine’s person of the year. What made everyone start talking and wondering about the 26 year-old billionaire who created the social networking site Facebook, was because of the compelling portrayal they saw of Mark Zuckerberg played by Jesse Eisenberg in the movie The Social Network. On Tuesday, January 25th, 2011, the Academy Award nominations were announced and Jesse Eisenberg received his first Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his depiction of Zuckerberg.
The Social Network tells the story of how Zuckerberg created Facebook with his closest friend and co-founder Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) and how their friendship unraveled in the process; as well as the legal battles of ownership over the website that followed. The actual Mark Zuckerberg has seen the film and he suggests it is mostly a dramatization of what actually happened. Zuckerberg states, “They frame it as if the whole reason for making Facebook and building something was because I wanted to get girls. They (the filmmakers) just can't wrap their head around the idea that someone might build something because they like building things."” Zuckerberg goes on to state what the film actually got right, “It's interesting what stuff they focused on getting right, like, every single shirt and fleece that I had in that movie is actually a shirt or fleece that I own.” Overall Zuckerberg’s thoughts on the movie are, “It's a movie, it's fun [...] I can promise you, this is my life so I know it's not that dramatic. The last six years have been a lot of coding and focus and hard work, but maybe it would be fun to remember it as partying and all this crazy drama." (link)
A lot of people and critics have perceived the film’s portrayal of Mark as unflattering saying that he’s portrayed as a “borderline-autistic conniver” and that he’s hampered by sexual insecurity. Others have described Eisenberg’s Zuckerberg as “an anti-hero for our times.” The different interpretations and perceptions people have of the character of Mark Zuckerberg are due to Jesse Eisenberg’s complex and layered performance.
Most of the time when an actor is portraying a real live person they can meet the actual person and study their mannerisms and ask the person questions about their life experiences. An actor can then use this real-person as a tool to help them learn how to mimic them or as a way to help shape or guide their performance. Jesse Eisenberg didn't meet Mark Zuckerberg until after the movie was released; Zuckerberg refused to participate in the film because he didn’t approve of the script. Eisenberg did study whatever material he could get his hands on, but there wasn’t a lot.
“I got every audio clip, picture and video I could find and it helped me in the preparation process. But the script was so wonderful, the characterization by Aaron was so wonderful that there was enough to use,” Eisenberg stated.
David Fincher, the director of The Social Network, is known somewhat as perfectionist director who likes do a lot of takes. The opening 5-minute scene between Mark Zuckerberg and his girlfriend was a 10-page long script scene, and Fincher did 99 takes of the scene. Fincher said he did so many takes in order to ease the actors into the language of Aaron Sorkin's script, so the dialogue would flow naturally out of the actors. This was indeed true inJesse Eisenberg's case who was able to take all the character's fast talking ramblings and verbal quips/comebacks and make them his own. While the character of Mark may at times seem ruthless and appear to have a lot of pent up aggression in him, there are moments during these bouts of anger that you see the sadness of the character in Eisenberg's performance.
“It was immediately clear to me how things should be played and what his loneliness was and how sad he was even though his behavior appears angry,” Jesse Eisenberg says. (link)
The greatest quality about the character of Mark Zuckerberg in the film is his drive to do something great, and during the scenes where Zuckerberg is shown coding and actually creating Facebook, Eisenberg conveys the incredible drive and passion of the character. Eisenberg said he viewed these scenes of Mark coding as the equivalent of Michelangelo creating the Sistine Chapel, which he feels was how Mark felt creating Facebook. One of the most poignant scenes of the movie is when Mark first launches the facebook site. During this moment Mark goes into a trance-like state and closes his eyes, Eduardo asks Mark if he is praying, and we feel, through Eisenberg’s performance, how much the site has meant to him.
Throughout the majority of the movie, Mark Zuckerberg is seen mostly as an emotionless guy. We see him getting angry in the deposition scenes (a few times in the film) but Mark, for the most part, is a one-note character. If an actor didn’t embody this character as fully as Jesse Eisenberg did, we wouldn’t care or be as invested as we are in the movie. We see, through Eisenberg’s performance, that Mark is a guy that feels most comfortable coding. When he’s not coding, like when he’s at a party, Mark is out of his element and doesn’t know how to act socially. (In the opening scene of the movie, where Mark goes on a verbal rant about getting into a Harvard finals club and insults his girlfriend, she breaks up and calls him an “asshole”. There’s a small moment after this, where we see how hurt Mark is by these remarks.) He truly doesn’t mean to act like an asshole, that’s just how he acts in uncomfortable social situations.
In the most heartbreaking and pivotal scene of the movie, where Eduardo confronts Mark about the liquidation of his shares in the company of Facebook, we see how empathetic Mark is about what he did to his friend. Mark did what he thought was best for his company and wouldn’t allow his friendship to get in the way of running his company the way he wanted it. This is Eduardo’s most pivotal scene and actor Andrew Garfield’s highlight acting moment in the movie. Eisenberg is able to steal this scene from him as Mark, because when he does finally show some of his bottled up emotions, it’s touching to watch.
The character of Mark Zuckerberg in the movie The Social Network was quite possibly the most compelling film character to come out of 2010. Whether it’s very close to the truth of who the actual Mark Zuckerberg was or not at all, does not really matter. Jesse Eisenberg created a character that could be viewed in a variety of different ways. One person might see his performance as being a manipulative, conniving jerk who possibly planted false stories about his friend because he was jealous that he didn’t get into a Harvard club. While another person could see the same performance and see a character that was incredibly smart and passionate, who had as many strengths as he did faults.
The Mark Zuckerberg that was presented in the movie The Social Network was a fully developed three-dimensional character that one cannot classify easily. I’m hoping that on February 27th, Jesse Eisenberg can upset the favorite, Colin Firth, and win an Oscar for his performance. To some people, Jesse Eisenberg used to be known as “the other Michael Cera” because they both look alike and play similar kinds of nervous awkward characters. Now, Jesse Eisenberg has given a performance that will be the defining role of his career and Michael Cera has become the other less talented Jesse Eisenberg.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver


             Travis Bickle is a character in movies that has endured for over 30 years and who will never be forgotten. This is not only because of the unfortunate repercussions the performance is now linked to, but also because of Robert De Niro's terrifying realistic performance of this unsettling character.
Taxi Driver was released in 1976 and was directed by the legendary director Martin Scorsese. The film was well reviewed at the time and it received four Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress Jodie Foster, Best Screenplay by Paul Schrader, Best Picture, and Best Actor for Robert De Niro. The film has not only stood the test of time but is now regarded as a classic American film of the 1970s and was ranked #47 on AFI's list of the 100 Greatest American Films.
The story of Taxi Driver follows Travis Bickle who is a lonely Vietnam veteran and is a looking for a job in New York City. Travis gets a job as a cab driver and through his job he becomes disgusted with the city of New York. Travis sees the worst the city has to offer: teenage prostitution, unsavory neighborhoods, and the general filth of the city. Travis later remarks to a Presidential Candidate that, "I think someone should just take this city and just... just flush it down the fuckin' toilet."
The central theme of Taxi Driver is loneliness and what loneliness can do a to an unhinged man doing a job where he sees the worst of human life. Travis remarks to himself that, "Loneliness has followed me my whole life, everywhere. In bars, in cars, sidewalks, stores, everywhere. There's no escape. I'm God's lonely man." Travis tries to get himself out of his despair in a couple different ways. First, Travis becomes obsessed with a woman named Betsy (Cybill Shepard) who works at the same Presidential candidate's campaign office. Travis asks Betsy out on a date and she accepts, but in a hilariously awkward scene Travis chooses the worst date location possible and takes Betsy on a date to see a pornographic movie. Betsy is offended by this and decides she never wants to see Travis again.
Travis then decides he needs to do something great with his life and believes he should go assassinate the Presidential candidate that Betsy is working for. When that plan fails Travis decides to put his energy into saving a 13-year-old prostitute named Iris (Jodie Foster) from her domineering pimp.

Iris (Jodie Foster) with Travis Bickle (Deniro)
 This is not a performance where you ever really see Robert De Niro acting, he simply is Travis Bickle. To get into character De Niro actually drove around cabs in New York City for 12 hours a day for months. He also studied various kinds of mental illness that pertained to Travis's condition.
Even though, Travis Bickle is a showy character who does a lot of questionable acts, De Niro's performance is never theatrical. De Niro conveys Travis's anguish and feelings mainly through his body language which is usually contorted, or through glances with his eyes. He also speaks in a very monotone voice to express Travis's apathy and depression. The character of Travis goes through a rapid transition a little over halfway through the film when Travis decides he needs to get in shape and he cuts his hair into a Mohawk in order to prepare himself to assassinate the Presidential candidate. During these scenes where we watch Travis training and getting into shape, we also see a mental transition in De Niro's performance. De Niro's body posture and eyes become much more straight and direct, as we witness Travis becoming a much more focused and confident man, who now has a definite mission in his life. It’s absolutely frightening to watch De Niro's performance from a lonely pathetic though relatively harmless Travis becoming a driven lunatic. This is because through De Niro's performance we truly get to know and may even sympathize with the lonely Travis, but once Travis truly becomes the loner lunatic assassin we suddenly get a new perspective on how a real life person like John Hinkley or the recent Tucson shooter Jeremy Loughner could get to this state of mind.
John Hinkley Jr.
In fact, in the years leading up to John Hinkley Jr.'s attempted assassination attempt on Ronald Reegan he was obsessed with the movie Taxi Driver. Hinkley had seen the movie over 15 times and became infatuated with the actress Jodie Foster, who in the movie plays the 13-year-old prostitute Travis is trying to save. Hinkley thought that Jodie Foster might appreciate him if he assassinated President Ronald Reegan because Foster was not very supportive of Reegan's conservative policies.
Jeremy Loughner
I firmly do not believe we can condemn the movie Taxi Driver for Hinkley's action. Hinkley was probably always going to become a disturbed loner mad man who turned violent. What we can see in Taxi Driver is why John Hinkley identified so strongly with Travis Bickle through De Niro's extraordinary performance. While we may not want to ever identify with a person like John Hinkley or Jeremy Loughner it is helpful to understand the human condition that could possibly drive a man to do something so awful. And through De Niro's performance we see the process firsthand and its incredibly believable.
The most famous scene of Taxi Driver and one of the most famous movie lines in all of cinema,
"You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me?"
was actually an improvisation from Robert De Niro. Scorsese had De Niro stand in front of a mirror with a gun and say the first things that came to his mind, and because De Niro was so invested in his character he was able to come up with one of the greatest and most memorable lines in all of movies. 

While many actors since have portrayed mad-men loners who want to assassinate a political or important social figures; no actor has ever done it so startling and convincingly as Robert De Niro. De Niro's performance as Travis Bickle is one of the most powerful performances of all time, never have I witnessed an actor explore such an unsavory character with so much depth and understanding. Now, whenever I see reports of a loner gun man on the news I think of Travis Bickle.
To learn more about the connection between John Hinkley Jr. and Taxi Driver click here.
To learn more about the movie Taxi Driver click here.