So – an excellent cast, and some fascinating (and dark) real-life material to call upon. For all its flawed methodology, it’s a fascinating insight into the human condition – even Zimbardo himself said the whole thing is perhaps better viewed as a demonstration rather than a pure experiment. The whole experiment was called off after six days after the prisoners endured psychological torture at the hands of the guards, including stripping them naked, removing their mattress, refusing to let them empty their toilet buckets, spraying them with fire extinguishers and placing them in dark cupboards for extended periods as solitary confinement. The original experiment, run by Professor Philip Zimbardo, took place in 1971 and divided test subjects into the roles of either prisoner or warder to study the impact of authority and how people would react to this power dynamic and the roles they were given.
This one always stayed with me from my days studying psychology at A-level and into degree level. Then again, I still need to revisit Requiem for a Dream at some point too… *shudder*Īnyway, I’ve always been a fan of Adrien Brody’s work, and thematically this one certainly hits our brief, being a fictionalised retelling of the events of the Stanford Prison Experiment.
Without wanting to sound like I’m going ‘all Hollywood’, this 2010 movie has a stellar cast, headed by Adrien Brody and Forest Whitaker, and is about as mainstream an offering as we’ve ever tackled.
Often we delve into independent films, foreign offerings or cult classics, so to find something like The Experiment feels like a mighty departure. Now, regular readers will be aware than an awful lot of our Film Gutter movies are pretty out there.
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