In 1961, social psychologist Stanley Milgram conducts controversial experiments designed to measure conformity, conscience and free will. Experimenter is based on the true story of famed social psychologist Stanley Milgram, who in 1961 conducted a series of radical behavior experiments that tested ordinary humans willingness to obey by using electric shock. We follow Milgram, from meeting his wife Sasha through his controversial experiments that sparked public outcry.
Experimenter is not only an inventive exploration of the life and personality of an offbeat and perhaps misunderstood intellectual; it is also an exposition of his relentlessly probing mind and jarring revelations.
There are a few feints at considerations of human nature, and a word is spoken in defense of obedience, but the film serves better to start a conversation than to draw a conclusion.
"Experimenter's" most striking quality is the way it encourages us to think deeply, from the first frame to the last, even if it's just to consider what on Earth an elephant is doing on screen.
