In order to measure people's behavior as an ordinary ones in society, and their behavior as a responsible ones, a group of researchers under the leadership of Philip Zimbardo, who uses 24 collage student of Stanford university for that purpose, as in a the building of the university, they design a fake prison, where some of those students act as guards and the others act as prisoners, but the result was a shocked one, as after one day, the guards begin to use violence with the prisoners.
This is not an uplifting movie, and its progress can be grueling. But it has a lot to say about how we let roles define us, how fragile personalities are and how context shapes reality.
Cranking up the tension by gradually moving his camera in closer and closer to his actors, Alvarez smartly shrinks the distance between them and us in order to intensify the what-would-you-do? discomfort the experiment was designed to explore.
The Stanford Prison Experiment is the kind of movie that raises as many questions as it answers. It's also the kind of film where you want to budget some time for discussion afterward. You won't be able to shake this one off easily.
Rich Cline
Contactmusic.com
June 17, 2016
Based on real events, this sharply well-made film shifts from a rather light-hearted comedy into a horrific thriller. And it feels unnervingly natural as it does so.
The film works hard to keep up the suspense: how far will the guards go? How much can the prisoners take? At what point, if any, will Zimbardo and his team intervene? And is his experiment scientific? Objective? Humane? Worthwhile?
Watching these young men brutalize each other is troubling enough, but perhaps the film's most interesting angle is how the experiment changes more than its subjects.
