The Stanford Prison Experiment

Movie, 2015, R

Premise - A cinematic depiction of the true story of the Stanford Prison Experiment from the 1970s. Dr. Philip Zimbardo randomly assigns a group of 18 young men to either be a guard, or a prisoner, with a simple flip of a coin. Perhaps one of the most controversial social psychology experiments in history, the two week experiment was shortened to six days when humanity starts to unravel in the simulated prison.

Review - I come from a psychology background, and am planning to pursue a doctorate degree in psychology. Of course, that means I have taken a social psychology class, and learned about the basics of this particular experiment. But one of the characters in the movie says it right - I wouldn't call this an experiment. It's a demonstration, and an inhumane one at that. Of course, this is a fictional depiction, and we can never know exactly what was going on in Zimbardo's head. We have real video footage from within the simulated prison, and interviews after, that line up with this film. But did Zimbardo really consciously allow all that abuse to happen? Was he really only motivated to stop the experiment because of a fear of lawyers, and his angry girlfriend? I'm not sure.

Put me in whatever costume you want, there is no way I could possibly understand intentionally harming another human being, especially an innocent one at that. Calling them names, forcing them to do push-ups, sometimes even hitting them as they beg for you to stop... I can't fathom it. Of course, I can follow the logic. These are people put in a position of power, with absolutely no one stopping them. It feels satisfying to utilize that power, and watch people bend to your will, I suppose. It's like I cognitively understand it, but can't relate on a human level. It wasn't every guard who was abusive, but the guards who weren't were bystanders. Nobody stepped in. On a deeper level, Zimbardo himself was demonstrating the effects of this experiment, perhaps unintentionally. He abused his position of power. He allowed innocent human beings to be harmed too. I do hope that anybody watching this film knows how profoundly illegal this is now.

As far as accuracy is concerned, I cannot know. I do know that one detail I was always taught was how multiple prisoners started starving themselves in solidarity, which was a large factor in terminating the experiment. That was not included in this film. The scene that made Zimbardo change his mind was largely the one where a man who refused to use profane language finally gave in and said the word bastard. I don't know if that occurred, but the group starvation detail would have been more powerful.

From a filmic perspective, I thought it was fantastic. The sound design and music were tense in all of the right ways, the cinematography was brilliantly suffocating, and the cast was phenomenal. I give my props to the filmmakers (86/100)

Quote - "I think you guys are both missing the point. Here's the point - the only thing that separates those two was a coin flip."

What to watch for - As a young adult female growing up in the 90's and early 2000's, there were so many recognizable young adult male faces in this film. The cast was absolutely phenomenal. There's Ezra Miller (The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Fantastic Beasts, Justice League, Trainwreck), Thomas Mann (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl),  Johnny Simmons (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, The Perks of Being a Wallflower), Ki Hong Lee (The Maze Runner), Moises Arias (Hannah Montana), Nicholas Braun (Minute Men, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, "10 Things I Hate About You"), Matt Bennett (Victorious), and Miles Heizer (13 Reasons Why).

If you liked this film, I'd recommend reading about the original experiment! Or, read about the Milgram Experiment and watch footage from that.

Director: Kyle Patrick Alvarez
Distribution Company: IFC Films
Based on the real experiment by Philip Zimbardo