Introducing Bill O’Byrne — With All the Stuff That You Don’t Get in the Movie

Great scene, great dialogue and 99 separate takes -- nothing in it ever actually happened

The Social Network may not be a great film, but it is a compelling one. And it’s got as much cleverness packed into it to make most clever things look very dull indeed.

It mainly tells the story of the founding of Facebook by Mark Zuckerberg via flashbacks arising from deposition hearings as the marvellous moneyed Winklevoss twins try to lawyer out more money from Zuckerberg based on their claim they came up with the idea, and from hearings into a lawsuit by Zuckerberg’s former friend, and Facebook’s first financial officer, Eduardo Saverin.

Saverin was the main source of inside information for the book The Accidental Billionaires on which The Social Network was based, so it may be no surprise he is one of the few sympathetic characters but he does seem more sinned against.

Zuckerberg comes across as an immature genius, possibly with a touch of Aspergers, and pretty much everybody else is a very solid shade of greedy douche. But hey, when chasing billions of dollars, sticks-and-stones is probably a good motto.

It has firecracker scripting by Alan Sorkin and great pacing from director David Fincher and the artistry brought to making the movie is evident all through the special features on the Blu-ray.

The film comes with two commentaries: Fincher on one, and Sorkin and the cast on the other.

Reinforcing the smarts are the bits on the seocnd disc, which has a 90-minute making-of doco and smaller pieces focusing on the visuals, the soundtrack, the development of a scene and my favourite, post production.

Post shows just what goes into modern digital editing and sound design, and is an insight as to how much extra dicking around can be generated when a director such as Fincher has his finger in every part of a film.

Editors Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter talk about how they got the 268 hours of digital footage down to about two hours, going through the many, many, many takes Fincher habitually does in every scene, to get just the nuance he wanted.

Fincher uses multi camera set-ups, such as the opening sequence in the bar when Zuckerberg, who is brilliantly played by Jesse Eisenberg, is allegedly dumped by his girlfriend played by Rooney Mara. (Interesting sports fan fact: Mara is the great-granddaughter of Pittsburgh Steelers founder Art Rooney, Sr and New York Giants founder Tim Mara.)

The making-of doco is as good as any behind-the-scenes thing I’ve seen.

Actors will enjoy the process it shows of going through the script, often with Sorkin and Fincher at the table culling lines and changing tone while anyone should be impressed by the attention to detail.

Sometimes it’s nuts, but there you go.

For instance, both the Winklevoss twins were played by Armie Hammer. Well, Fincher took his face off him when he played Tyler Winklevoss, and overlayed it on the face of Josh Pence who played Cameron Winklevoss. Or vice versa. They’re identical twins, who can tell. The important thing is it is so damn seamless.

And if I didn’t tell you, you’d be none the wiser. And it wouldn’t have matter except to David Fincher, probably.

Problem: A niggling thing. About a movie which is a biography of a contemporary person and doesn’t give much of a crap about truth. Sorkin doesn’t, he’s happy to admit it. He likes a good drama and is not one to let facts get in the way of a good story, as the saying goes.

Remember, he is the guy who came up The West Wing, the liberal wet dream that kept Democrats believing they were really in charge, at least in tellyworldland where their honesty and morals showed forth as if a glowing stream of bat’s piss. Or something.

So the opening brilliant scene of the break-up where Zuckerberg is so pissed off he slags his ex- on his blog, and creates Facemash in an outburst of vindictive male-evolency. Never happened. Zuckerberg’s had the same girlfriend since 2003.

So if that’s crap, and much of the plot is predicated on this, what else is less than real?

Watching the behind-the-scenes discussions with Sorkin and Fincher, there’s the stated theme that the story is about a guy with no friends and a chip on his shoulder about being on the outer at Harvard, who ironically creates this thing which is all about linking people up. (Well, technically Facebook’s purpose first and foremost is to help people get laid, but that’s by the by.)

But, that’s crap, too. Zuckerberg was captain of his fencing team and belonged to a fraternity.

And that is why this is a clever movie, but not a great one. They’ve shoehorned the tale of a clever, very lucky sonofabitch into a morality tale about wealth and power and the power of wealth to douchify everyone. Well, maybe.

But at least this bunch of moving picture people take their work very seriously and that shows in the extras in this package.

I’ll give it a like. Screw it, I’ll give it three likes for artistry.

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Why You Should Google Bill O’Byrne

Bill O’Byrne is a Wellington journalist — and a big, fat geek whose specialty is watching every extra on a release so he can pontificate loudly about all aspects of production. Remarkably, he is often found alone at parties. While he enjoys an inordinate amount of crappy movies from most genres, he scares easily so is unlikely to review anything with “Chainsaw”, “Slasher” or “Scrotum-Biting Zombies” in the title. (And, yes, he’s on Facebook.)

LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS: THE OWLS OF GA’HOOLE

The cinematic animation is breathtakingly detailed but still can’t transcend a muddled, semi-mystical screenplay that will have adults and older children cringing at its anthropomorphic awfulness. Still, the startling high definition will have you wide-eyed while the kid-driven extras include an in-depth, picture-in-picture commentary and a new Road Runner cartoon that’s even wilier in HD. Director Zack Snyder. Cast Jim Sturgess, Sam Neill, Helen Mirren.

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DESPICABLE ME

This ingenious ‘toon, about a dastardly criminal mastermind who must fend off an upstart challenger to his world domination plans while resisting the angelic overtures of three orphans, is impeccably presented on Blu-ray. The fabulous animation has a retro-futuristic Euro feel while the storyline nails what it’s like to be an adult no longer in control. It’s also out on Blu-ray 3D. Directors Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin. Cast Steve Carrel, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Julie Andrews, Will Arnett, Jemaine Clement.

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SHREK FOREVER AFTER: THE FINAL CHAPTER

The “far away” franchise comes to a hilariously happy end when Shrek fall in love with Princess Fiona all over again after Rumpelstiltskin tricks him into signing a contract to stop the ogre from feeling like a “jolly green joke”. The animation’s richer while the storytelling tweaks its fairy tale legacy with such wit and imagination that everyone will want to “do the roar” — of approval. Director Mike Mitchell. Cast Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, Walt Dohrn, Jon Hamm, Julie Andrews, John Cleese.

Movie 4/5 Image 5/5 Extras 4/5

Cast: Michael J Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, Mary Steenburgen.
Director: Robert Zemeckis.
Screenplay: Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale.
Score: Alan Silvestri.
Cinematography: Dean Cundey.

It’s back to the franchise vault for the time-travelling trilogy that’s been dusted off and polished up on Blu-ray like a shiny new DeLorean. To paraphrase Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), now that this baby’s hit 25, “you’re going to see some serious shit”. The original trip around the time-warp block was a Hollywood milestone bursting with wit, romance, adventure, fantasy, even a touch of the Oepidals. Moreover, the back-to-back sequels verged on being just as much fun. But instead of merely having Marty McFly (Michael J Fox) and Doc travel back and forth to the future, BTTF2 teased our powers of logic (and theirs) with a parallel time frame which lets cast members plays their characters in different generations (and genders). The trilogy ended with Marty conquering his chicken persecution complex, Doc solving the greatest mystery of the Universe — women — and director Robert Zemeckis wrapping up the narrative with almost the same ingenuity and panache that started it. The movies haven’t looked or sounded this good since their theatrical release and there’s a swag of new high-definition extras to complement those ported over from the 20^th anniversary DVD. Among the highlights: a six-part documentary with footage of a miscast Eric Stolz as a pre-Fox Marty McFly; an entertaining take on the “science” behind BTTF; commentaries by Zemeckis and co-writer Bob Gale; deleted scenes in HD; production archives; storyboards (including how the original was meant to end but didn’t because of budget); and three interactive tracks on each movie.

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Cast: Shane Jacobson, Eve Von Bibra, Ronald Jacobson, Ian Dryden, Chris Davis.
Director: Clayton Jacobson.
Screenplay: Clayton Jacobson, Shane Jacobson.
Score: Richard Pleasance.
Cinematography: Sean Lander, Clayton Jacobson.

This month more than 1000 Australians voted The Castle’s Darryl Kerrigan as the Aussie battler that most represents them as a nation. But giving him a run(s) for his money would have to be portaloo installer Kenny Smyth, who plumbs even greater depths of fair-dinkumness — not to mention humility and hilarity — in this award-winning mockumentary that was partly inspired by the director and star’s uncle. As Variety said of the 2006 release, which spawned a short-lived TV spin-off, Kenny’s World,  “funny enough to give scatology a good name”. Its Blu-ray roll-out is to be applauded, for not only the superior presentation but also being flushed with new extras, including a film-makers’ commentary (in addition to the original in-character commentary by Shane Jacobson, whose latest vehicle is co-hosting Top Gear Australia).

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Cast: Matthew Morrison, Jane Lynch, Lea Michele, Cory Monteith, Dianna Agron, Mark Salling.
Creators: Ian Brennan, Brad Falchuk, Ryan Murphy.
Score: James S Levine.
Cinematography: Christopher Baffa.

It’s tempting to dub Glee a quirky High School Musical spin on Freaks and Geeks. But the series has its own, unique voice that’s fresh, funny and moving. Co-creator Ryan Murphy calls it a “reinvention” of the musical but in its witty depiction of teenage mores, Glee’s also a throwback to Popular, the series he created before Nip/Tuck. Surprisingly, Glee isn’t as exuberant looking on Blu-ray as you’d expect, improving only marginally on TV3’s HD broadcasts (which resume 7.30pm Friday from November 5). There’s also only one Blu-ray exclusive: a cast and crew screening of the extended pilot. Otherwise, the pick of the extras, some of which are carried over from Volume 1: Road to the Sectionals, a DVD-only compilation of the first 13 episodes, are the Glee Music Jukebox, in which each episode’s musical numbers can be viewed in isolation, and Murphy’s snappy deconstruction of the show.

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Cast: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, John Gavin, Vera Miles, Martin Balsam, John McIntire.
Director: Alfred Hitchcock.
Screenplay: Joseph Stefano.
Score: Bernard Hermann.
Cinematography: John L Russell.

The clarity of the 50-year-old, black-and-white footage in this Blu-ray edition of the slasher-trash prototype, starring ‘80s scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis’ mum, Janet Leigh, is more startling than the shower scene for which Psycho is infamous. In the extras, you can also view this sequence how director Alfred Hitchcock originally intended — without music – and see how it was storyboarded. All of the extras are in standard definition and appear to be lifted from special edition DVDs that weren’t released here, including a 1997 90-minute documentary and a commentary by Stephen Rebello, who wrote Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho. Compared to this revelatory high-definition transfer, all other home video releases of Psycho are for the birds. (Until December 1, Psycho is available exclusively from only JB Hi-Fi stores; the DVD of Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Season Four goes on sale everywhere on November 11.)

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Cast: Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Will Patton, Lili Taylor, Ellen Barkin.
Director: Antoine Fuqua.
Screenplay: Michael C Martin.
Score: Marcelo Zarvos.
Cinematography: Patrick Murgia.

From the director of Training Day comes a dense, suspenseful, atmospheric police drama about three NYPD veterans struggling with the demands of duty: one’s been in too deep undercover for too long, another’s a good cop on the cusp of turning bad because of circumstance, and the third risks everything on the eve of retiring after 22 years of playing it safe. Both a riveting thriller and a trenchant human-interest drama, the Blu-ray of Brooklyn’s Finest is let down only by the absence of the director’s commentary on the US release. Among the extras that have been retained are a handful of making-of shorts (including an interview with ex-toll booth operator-cum-first-time screenwriter Michael C Martin) and half-an-hour of deleted scenes.

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Cast: Alexander Skarsgard, James Rasone, Lee Tregesen, Jon Huertas.
Directors: Susanna White, Simon Cellan Jones.
Screenplay: Ed Burns, David Simon, Evan Wright.
Cinematography: Ivan Strasburg.

This shockingly raw, seven-part drama was co-written by The Wire’s David Simon, stars True Blood’s Alexander Skarsgard, and is the alpha male, anti-hero flipside of its HBO stablemates, Band of Brothers and The Pacific. About the first Iraq War, as seen through the eyes of an embedded Rolling Stone journalist, it encapsulates the contradictions, ironies and tragedies of the conflict within a we-had-to-destroy-the-country-to-save-it narrative. Initially confusing and haphazard, it escalates into compelling, vivid, provocative viewing with language often as obscene as the politics. The Blu-ray should have been out in February but TVNZ’s last-minute decision to screen the miniseries in SD delayed its release. If you found the broadcast confusing, the Blu-ray will be a godsend because the extras include a who’s-who guide that also demystifies military jargon and the conflict’s geopolitics. As well as a commentary for every episode, there are making-of docos that are AWOL on the DVD.

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