The Social Network (Soundtrack) by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross - Review

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Review by Christopher Coleman

The story of Facebook, or rather the story of the man behind Facebook, certainly wasn't a tale that one might expect to be made into a feature film as early as 2010. The social site itself is only a few years old and there likely remains a lot of story left to be told about both it and it's founder, Mark Zuckerberg. Made-for-tv not withstanding, a feature film about IT titans Steve Jobs or Bill Gates hasn't even been exploi...err made yet. Now, if a feature film of about one or both of these icons was to be done, I could see the likes of director David Fincher taking the reigns. Instead, Fincher chose to adapt the book, THE ACCIDENTAL BILLIONAIRES (Ben Mezrich), which tells the tale of the young Mark Zuckerberg and the inception of the global phenomenon, Facebook. THE SOCIAL NETWORK provides us with a measure of insight into what took place in those formative years; deep within the academic bowels of the Harvard campus. Fincher's film paints Zuckerberg as a driven, yet slyly vindictive young man, who also happens to be brilliant. The drive to develop something that will truly set himself apart leads him down a digitally dark path; a path which also happens to lead to great financial gains and pains. As one might expect, THE SOCIAL NETWORK became one of the most talked about films on the internet. No small part of that conversation has been the somewhat surprising inclusion of Nine Inch Nail leader, TRENT REZNOR, and composer ATTICUS ROSS' as creators of the film's original score.

Coming off of the languishing and melancholy score from THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, aptly provided by Alexander Desplat, it was initially no small surprise when it was announced that Reznor and Ross would be composing the film's score. Reznor's band, NINE INCH NAILS, was hardly known for being melancholy and ATTICUS ROSS' most recent effort THE BOOK OF ELI was anything but languishing. If nothing else, it was a clever bit of marketing to attach the name of "Trent Reznor" to the project, but the most natural question to ask would be "What sort of original score were we in for?"

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