"Experiment" (The Experiment) - 2010 film, thriller. The film is directed by Paul Scheuring, based on the true events of the Stanford prison experiment of a social psychologist from the United States, Philip Zimbardo.
About the Stanford Prison Experiment
The study was sponsored by the U.S. Navy, which attempted to explain conflicts in its system and in the U.S. Marine Corps. Zimbardo and his team tried to test the hypothesis that the prison guards and prisoners were dependent on each other and often committed illegal actions in prisons.
A group of 24 young people was randomly divided into two halves: “prisoners” and “guards”. An imitation prison was located in the basement of Stanford University.
The day before the experiment, the guards attended a brief introductory meeting, but they were not provided with other explicit rules other than a ban on physical abuse. They were told that they were responsible for managing the prison, what they could do as they considered most appropriate.
The experiment already on the second day went beyond the rules. The prisoners suffered a sadistic and humiliating attitude from the guards. After that, many showed serious psychological deviations.
In psychology, it is often said that the result of an experiment confirms the theory of situational attribution of behavior to the detriment of dispositional attribution. In other words, it is assumed that it was the situation that caused the behavior of the participants, and not their individual personalities.
Tie
The plot of the film "Experiment" in 2010 begins with the arrival of volunteers for a psychological study conducted by Dr. Archalet, in which the participants will be divided into groups acting as prison guards and prisoners. Among them are Travis, a proud pacifist, and Michael Barris, a 42-year-old man who still lives with his domineering mother. After conducting interviews to measure the response to various scenes of violence, 26 selected were taken to an isolated building created as a prison and divided into 6 guards and 20 prisoners. Travis is a prisoner, Barris is a security guard. The basic rules are as follows:
- Prisoners should eat fully provided food 3 times a day. They will be given 30 minutes to rest daily.
- Prisoners must remain in designated areas.
- They can only speak when addressing them.
- The guards, in turn, must ensure that prisoners abide by the rules and proportionately take action within 30 minutes.
- Prisoners cannot touch the guards under any circumstances.
Archaleta stresses that the experiment will end immediately at the first sign of violence. If they manage to follow the rules within two weeks, each test subject will be paid $ 14,000.
Action development
Travis shares his camera with Benji, a graphic novelist, and Nyx, a member of the Aryan Brotherhood. Barris, worried that some of the guards, in particular Chase, may be capable of violence, is trying to dissuade them from aggressive behavior. Instead, the guards become more aggressive in order to force prisoners to follow the rules. Barris is gaining more and more sadistic features. Despite the growing violence from the guards, Travis remains defiant. Realizing that Travis influences the dissent of the prisoners, Barris decides to humiliate him, as physical exposure is prohibited. Under the leadership of Barris, Travis was abducted, shaved, and "omitted." The red light, indicating that the rules are violated, does not light up, and Barris perceives this as a sign that his actions were legitimate. He assures the guards that they behave according to the behavior of the prisoners.
When guard Bosch expresses his disagreement, Barris puts pressure on him, recalling that premature exit from the experiment deprives a person of money. Travis discovers that Benji, who became ill, hid his diabetes, thinking that he could cope with this disease on his own. Then Travis begs Bosch to intervene, Bosch tries to help by finding insulin for Benji, but he is caught by other guards. Barris, to Travis's surprise, gives Benji his insulin, but later takes revenge by persuading all the other guards to brutally beat Bosch, who then remains among the prisoners. Barris also orders Travis to clean the prison toilets as a punishment for his inappropriate behavior and his attempt to help Benji.
Climax
Travis teases Barris by saying that he should use his $ 14,000 for psychological treatment. The guards respond by putting Travis's head in the toilet, nearly drowning him. One morning, humiliated during a roll call, Travis takes off his prison shirt as a sign that the experiment is about to end, followed by other inmates. Travis bounces to one of the cells and demands that the group be released, but the guards knock him to the floor and beat him with their batons. When Benji tries to protect Travis, Barris hits Benji on the head with a club, leaving him twitching on the floor. The guards throw Travis into the old boiler room pipe for the night, attack the remaining prisoners.
Locked in a dark cauldron, Travis realizes that a hidden infrared camera is watching him even here, and when his gloom turns to anger, he manages to get out. He interrupts the rape of the prisoner by Chase, knocks him out and releases the other prisoners. Finding Benji chained and left to die, Travis attacks the guards, chasing them. Even when the rest of the guards try to open the doors to escape, Barris tries to hold them back. Money is no longer his main concern; instead, he does not want to part with his power. This is followed by a fierce fight with prisoners, who for the most part suppress the guards.
Denouement
Barris, accusing Travis of causing unrest, tries to stab him with a knife, but the latter catches the blade with his hand. Barris pulls away sharply, shocked by his actions. Travis continues to brutally beat Barris when the red light finally lights up. Doors open, which signals the end of the experiment. The group appears in the bright sun and sits in silence on the grass, waiting for the bus to arrive. We are shown how they were taken home by bus: laundered, dressed and paid for participating in the experiment. Travis and Barris silently look at their checks for $ 14,000. Nyx asks Travis if he believes that humans in the chain of evolution are higher than monkeys. Travis responds positively because people have the ability to change. Audio snippets of news show that Archaleta is being tried for manslaughter.
Travis meets his friend in India. She notes that his knuckles are broken, in contrast to the beginning of the film, when they were intact, which indicates that at that time he was not capable of violence.
Reviews for the movie "Experiment"
Reviewers rate the American remake worse than the German original, which was more detailed. Critics believe that the director did not understand the experiment at Stanford Prison. Reviews for the movie Experiment read as follows:
- A very disturbing film, because it is intended to show the true nature of people. The scientist collects a bunch of people, all the strangers involved in the experiment for $ 1,000 per day. All these people had to spend two weeks in prison, otherwise they would not be paid.
- The protagonists were well represented by leading actors who received the Academy Award. In the film Experiment, whose actors will be presented later, Adrian Brody plays the most outspoken prisoner, Travis, truly true. Forrest Whitaker plays the shy and lonely Barris, who discovers within himself the depressed Idi Amin. The other actors also played well, but mostly played cartoons.
- Forest Whitaker in the movie Experiment is a genius. The film is an intense thriller that shows you two sides of human nature: how people respect authority and react to it, and people with authority tend to abuse it.
- Most viewers did not find it possible to give a good review of the film "Experiment". No matter how much you like the concept and no matter how interesting it may be, the film may simply not be liked. The picture shows things that many seem completely unnecessary and abstract.
- This film is an image of the human instinct to dominate and control. But he is too superficial, there are many actions, but few opportunities for character development. Even the presence of two Oscar winners, Brody and Whitaker, cannot save this film from mediocrity.
- The way Forest Whitaker and Adrien Brody played in the movie Experiment brings drama to the action and conflict, which is present to the very end.
Movie Facts
- Experiment is a remake of the 2001 German film Das Experiment.
- On the Rotten Tomatoes site, only half the reviews of the movie Experiment are positive.
- The film was shot in the US state of Iowa and in India. The scenes that appear in India were filmed in Mumbai, New Delhi, Varanasi and Vindyachal.
- Paul Scheuring, director of the film Experiment, is none other than the creator of the Prison Break series, which also tells about prison life.
- Actor Elijah Wood could take part in the filming of the film, but after several days of filming, he refused further cooperation.
Actors and roles of the film "Experiment"
- Adrien Brody - Travis.
- Forest Whitaker - Barris.
- Cam Gigandet - Chase.
- Fisher Stevens - Dr. Archaleta.
- Travis Fimmel is the jailer Helvig.
- Clifton Collins - Knicks
- Maggie Grace - Bay.
Afterword
The “experiment” proves that barriers are breaking down and reality is beginning to overshadow the illusion. The Experiment aims to prove that its adaptation and acceptance of a certain level of expected behavior is based on isolation and on circumstances. Days pass, and in this modeled reality, which becomes real for all experimental subjects, opinions about authority and about what is right and what is wrong are blurred. The 2010 Experiment film is a smart, emotionally charged drama that ignites the screen.