Thomas Sheridan joins us to talk about the 2010 film The Social Network, which tells the story of the origins of facebook. We discuss the class struggle portrayed in the story, the mechanism by which the film could have been influenced by the CIA, the archetypes in the finely-produced melodrama that plays out, the CIA’s silicon valley network which is conspicuous by its absence from the narrative, and the meaning of the movie’s dark and brooding tone. We also get into some unusual areas, including the mystery of the sub sandwich.
Download The CIA and Hollywood ep. 5
Show Notes:
The Social Network (2010)
How team of geeks cracked the spy trade
How a ‘deviant’ philosopher built Palantir, A CIA funded data-mining juggernaut
Palantir, the War on Terror’s secret weapon
Porkins Policy Review 
Comments
You guys are definitely in your element here with this discussion.
You all agreed that the score and the cinematography were top notch. I wish you had name-dropped Trent Reznor and David Fincher (the composer, with Atticus Ross, and director), especially because this was Reznor’s debut film score.
An important point omitted in your discussion — this film was release just a few months before Facebook’s IPO. At the time, I had understood this movie as PR for a public stock valuation campaign — “hey, we’re not *that* shady… maybe just a little bit…” Of course, those investors set to make the most from this PR nugget were featured least prominently in the movie.
As for the mystery of sandwich — I’d like to add that it was no ordinary sandwich. It was, in fact, a *submarine*. A submarine that Zuckerberg is awkwardly unable to conceal.