<p>Has anyone seen this movie? Any Harvard students think its an accurate portrayal of the school?</p>
<p>Just got home from the movie… I grew up around Harvard / MIT. Parts of the movie were so well done that it made me homesick. Lord how I mass smart Women that speak their mind… The bar was just like bars I frequented, The bus full of Women was true at least into the 80’s.</p>
<p>Like anyplace that brings together folks smart enough that they expect to be the smartest person in the room, you get unique personalities on parade. </p>
<p>Harvard students are just as insecure as any other college freshmen and it’s often harder for them to fit in at first. MIT kids were the most fun because they were engaged in school 24/7 and by their Jr year they hand not read a newspaper for 3 years and couldn’t say anything even remotely intelligent about current affairs… True myopic intelligence often looks just plain stupid…</p>
<p>What I understand, coming from individuals who knew these people and were attending Harvard at the time, the movie is based off a fictional book based off of the story of facebook. Certain parts of the movie are true but much has been changed to appeal to movie goers and make money. Some inaccuracies are supposed to relate to Zuckerberg’s personality and the portrayal of women and minorities at Harvard. I have actually not seen the movie nor do I plan to. Facebook is what it is and why would I find this movie appealing. D is seeing it tomorrow with her House. There have been a number of arranged viewings going on on campus. I am curious what she will have to say afterwards. (maybe I’ll post again) S, a non-Harvard software engineer, may chose to not see the movie (yet TBD). His reason is that he will not go to the movie if it glorifies Zuckerberg, who he considers to be a software thief.</p>
<p>Below is a link. I read it days ago and don’t remember the content.
[The</a> Social Network, Where Women Never Have Ideas](<a href=“The Social Network, Where Women Never Have Ideas”>The Social Network, Where Women Never Have Ideas)</p>
<p>I’ve seen it, and I thought it was a pretty good movie so long as you regard it as the work of fiction that it is. The thing they got right about Harvard was the red brick look of the place (although most of the “Harvard” campus scenes were not filmed at the real Harvard). The thing they got wrong was the portrayal of Harvard students. Here’s what Harvard professor Gregory Mankiw said about that:</p>
<p>[Mankiw</a> Defends Against Harvard Stereotypes | FlyByBlog | Harvard Life. To Go. | The Harvard Crimson](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/10/5/harvard-social-network-stereotypes/]Mankiw”>The Harvard Crimson)</p>
<p>Excerpt:</p>
<p>“Cue Harvard Professor of Economics and EC10 guru, N. Gregory Mankiw, who wrote in his blog yesterday that although he enjoyed “The Social Network”, he was irked by the fact that “Every Harvard undergrad portrayed in the film was a pompous snob, an annoying social climber, or an antisocial nerd (or some combination of the three).” Those of you who felt misrepresented by “The Social Network” may find a shred of solace in Professor Mankiw’s contention that “Most Harvard undergrads are in fact quite likable. If they were as unpleasant as the film made out, I would have left here long ago.” With 25 years of experience teaching real live Harvard students, Professor Mankiw makes a good argument.”</p>
<p>Of course maybe Mankiw is so much more snobbish than Harvard students, for him, he thinks they are misrepresented.</p>
<p>I saw the movie and thought it was good, but not as great as I expected based on reviews (“Oscar” material, etc). Since I am somewhat familiar with the Harvard campus as a parent visitor, the setting (was it Johns-Hopkins?? idk) didn’t feel as “magical” as I think Harvard does when I am there (sorry to sound corny). I thought the characters were likable enough - some of them were supposed to be jerks, and for smoda1, tell your son that Zuckerberg looks pretty bad in this movie so it is safe to go! :)</p>
<p>^ too funny! I’ll let him know.</p>
<p>Come on Guys - No one is saying this is what all Harvard students are like, anymore that the show “Jersey Shore” is representative of what people from New Jersey are really like… </p>
<p>It’s entertainment and they follow about 10 personalities into their individual quirks and disorders… These stereotypical personalities exist wherever greedy, entitled, self centered people exist, and thats just about anyplace…</p>
<p>^ smoda61
“S Will not go to the movie if it glorifies Zuckerberg, who he considers to be a software thief.” — Wow thats not what I saw… In my mind Zuckerberg came off as an immature a–hole who could not help from screwing even his friend… Your S might enjoy the movie…</p>
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<p>You’re right, they didn’t say that. They didn’t have to, because they strongly implied it by showing us nothing but.</p>
<p>Think of all the negative stereotypes of Harvard students that worried high school kids come on this board and ask about year after year. Are Harvard students mostly wealthy snobs? Are Harvard students all cut-throat? Are they all jerks? Are they all nerds? Do the exclusive Final clubs dominate the Harvard social scene?</p>
<p>The actual answers are no, no, no, no, and no. So what did the movie show us? It showed us Harvard students who nothing but wealthy, snobish, cut-throat, jerks who were obsessed with the Final clubs. And all across the country those kids are now saying “Ha! I knew it! Everything my cousin’s friend who went to Princeton said about Harvard is true!”</p>
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<p>According to the production credits it appears that the school scenes were filmed at Johns Hopkins, Andover, and Wheelock College.</p>
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<p>One negative stereotype that was obliterated by this film, is that there are no good parties at Harvard.</p>
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Gee, that’s a bit of an indirect blow on Princeton students, is it not? Plus it’s not as if Princeton gets the greatest portrayal in mainstream media.</p>
<p>And of course much of this film is fictional and plays off certain bloated stereotypes. This has been done with all sorts of elite schools in various films for decades. Why the assumption that millions across America are taking these depictions to heart?</p>
<p>If you want a Zuckerberg as a software thief, this isn’t it. The movie pretty clearly takes the position that the software was 100% his. It is much more ambiguous whether he was a concept thief, or whether he just indulged in some strategic lying.</p>
<p>They overestimated the social importance of Final Clubs; they were about five decades late in their portrayal. I don’t think they really made an effort to portray the average Harvard student because the average Harvard student won’t become a billionaire, won’t become an Olympic rower and doesn’t make $300,000 from oil futures in their sophomore year. Some do, to be sure, but most don’t. This movie focused on a group of very unique students.</p>
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Well consider we “steal” ideas every day from anyone. We take people’s quote without reference (<em>cough</em> that’s me, putting that on facebook profile).</p>
<p>Only Zuckerberg and his idea friend knew the whole story whether the idea was stolen or not. What I can say is that Zuckerberg implemented the idea, and he worked on it. He deserved to be the called the “creator of Facebook”. Now the legal issue can goes into a novel (although it was settle already), which I think is lame.</p>
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<p>Sorry. I don’t mean to pick on Princeton. In fact I quite like the school. I just chose it as a handy stand-in for any and all of Harvard’s rival schools. The point being that the negative stereotypes of Harvard students are almost always promoted and repeated by people who never went there and have no direct knowledge of the place. And here on CC at least it is often the boosters of rival schools who keep pushing the negative Harvard myths.</p>
<p>I personally loved the movie for entertainment purposes. </p>
<p>As stated before, this movie is mostly a work of fiction. It obviously does pull things from Zuckerbergs life facebooks foundtion but not everything is true. </p>
<p>It’s a great movie for entertainment and it did portray him as a jerk to his best friend. I actually felt sad for him.</p>
<p>The use of Hopkins was trippy. Zuckerberg’s dorm was actually in a building full of offices and classrooms. The CS class was being taught in the library. I believe the president’s office was in Gilman, where there is actually a large reading room. A large number of the shots were of the Keyser quad.</p>
<p>If there was something I found profoundly interesting about the movie it was the genuine beauty of the females that walked the campus. Wouldn’t know if it’s a true depiction of the real Harvard though.</p>
<p>^^There are plenty of attractive women at Harvard, but actors and actresses are almost always better looking than the real people they portray. Being good looking is probably one reason why most of them were urged to go into show-biz in the first place. Ever watch one of those crime dramas on television? Ever see a group of cops in real life that are half so attractive as the men and women playing detectives on those shows?</p>