The Experiment
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Movie Reviews of The Experiment
Movie Review: Good flick though a stretch in places...
Summary: 4 Stars
Rented this at the suggestion of a friend of mine (who's European and had pretty similar views on the film), and I wasn't disappointed. I also wasn't blown away. Would have given it 3.5 stars if the rating system had let me, so I rounded up. The plot has already been summarized enough, so I'll skip that and get to what I think didn't work in the movie and what did. Suffice it to say, similar territory has been explored in other movies, the two obvious ones coming to mind being "Lord of the Flies" and "The Wave," a made for TV movie from the early 80's. Both took an interesting look at people's tendencies to define (or even change) themselves in relation to the rules and expectations laid out (or removed) for them.Character development in this movie seemed uneven. We learn quite a bit about the main character (Bleibtreu), and some as well about his fellow prisoners. Concerning the guards we learn very little, except their occupations and that some of them are fathers. What might have been factors contributing to their behavior and the escalation that occurs? This examination of how human character can go astray would have played out better if we understood something more about how the human character developed in a few more of the key roles. It didn't seem realistic that the man who adapted to his "guard role" the most enthusiastically (and violently) was so meek and mild when his character is first introduced. We might be able to buy off on the transformation had we a little more background on the guy (ex. he was abused as a kid, victim of a bully, dominant wife at home, etc). And why would the head doctor, who so totally believes in this experiment, just take off for some business meeting. He comes across like this experiment is the most important thing in his career/life, he has only 14 days to thoroughly study this case, and he decides to take off for business? Puh-leeez. And what about Bleibtreu's girlfriend? Say what? Plot device is the only thing that comes to mind. In a nutshell, the escalation of emotion and tension seemed artificial and to happen too quickly. I've been through military training that puts people in similar roles (though not to this extreme), and I just had a hard time believing that everything could decay that rapidly with a bunch of average Joes (or "Kerle" as the Germans would say).
BUT, I still enjoyed the movie. What could have been a REALLY good movie was just decent given the holes in the character development and a more "hollywood-ish" ending. Pretty strong performances from a lot of people whose acting credits mostly consist of German television shows (Bleibtreu being the main exception). I also expect this topic might resonate a little more in Germany, a nation that seems to sometimes struggle with the issues of personal role definition and citizen responsibility. Can a good person who follows the rules still be good even when the rules are bad??
Addendum to my review: since I wrote the above review, I've done some reseach on the '71 Stanford Prison Experiment (which the movie was based on), and I have to admit, the movie did give a more accurate interpretation of reality than I would have thought. Minus the heavy violence and the deaths that occurred in the movie, a lot of the plot did closely follow what happened in the actual experiment. Based on the newer info, I'd recommend the flick even more so.
Movie Review: Some reservations, but interesting...
Summary: 4 Stars
Oliver Hirschbiegel's film 'Das Experiment' is loosely inspired by the famous (infamous?) Stanford Experiment of 30 years ago. In that experiment, students at the university were housed for a few weeks in a make-shift prison, to see what happens to the mentality of the inmates and guards as they adjust to their new roles. The experiment itself had many flaws, and is hardly representative of prison life in general (or boot camps, or other such environments), but did serve to highlight some of the problems that are possible, and argues for some of the safeguards that are necessary.Hirschbiegel's film departs from that experiment in key ways, but perhaps the primary way is by having an undercover journalist Tarek/Prisoner 77 (played by Moritz Bleibtreu) purposely trying to instigate problems to enable his story to have more substance. The primary protagonist to Tarek is the guard Berus (played by Justus von Dohnanyi), whose oppressive nature takes over.
The last half of this film is very violent, far more so than the Stanford Experiment ever became. The cinematography is a bit lacking - perhaps the German art-house intention was to make this a mock-documentary, at least at first, to draw the audience in before letting the situation get out of control, and by then it is too late (for the audience and for the characters). One does have to have a willing suspension of disbelief here, as the allowance for violence becomes almost a parody (after all, this is supposed to be a in Germany sensitive to post-Holocaust issues such as letting guards have free and absolute reign over the subjects) - but perhaps that was part of the intention of Hirschbiegel, to let it serve as a reminder about how easily humanity can slip back into such roles.
The film suffers from lack of character development, as the plot and substance of the film is event-driven rather than personality driven; the undercurrents are lacking, and occasional subplots are introduced that do not really help the film along. Some judicious editing and perhaps a few character development scenes, at least of the major characters, would be helpful in getting the audience to understanding the underlying motivations. Again, perhaps the intention of Hirschbiegel was to argue that this could happen to any group of men, regardless of background or personality, but that is a bit lost here.
Overall, I tentatively recommend this film, but give strong warning for both the psychological and physical violence portrayed as sometimes being beyond the necessary.
Movie Review: "You don't know psychiatry! I do!"
Summary: 4 Stars
"Everyone should know he will be giving up his civil rights for two weeks." This should have been a big red flag to the participants, though I suppose 4,000 dollars (or euros, marks or whatever currency they were promised) for two weeks could be easy money. By now everyone knows this film is based on some experiments at Stanford University in 1971. Thanks to such experiments, it is now also common knowledge people will behave in ways they normally would not in situations such as this, especially with the fear of reprisal removed. The methods are similar to the Ludovico treatment in "A Clockwork Orange," in which an attempt is made to inure the participant by forcing him to watch sex and violence. He is then less apt to feel sympathy or remorse and a "prisoner" is compelled to conform by his inability to act or react. Most of the prisoners know the situation is contrived and therefore initially take it with a modicum of seriousness. Much the way a military trains its personnel in a contrived setting with its own set of rules, it is imperative in a controlled experiment such as this that participants buy into the set guidelines. Problems occur when individuals begin to test the limits. Control of the experiment is lost once Professor Thon zealously decides to break new ground, which requires relaxing the rule boundaries. (Given a choice, however, I'm certain he'd rather have his name in textbooks for something more positive than a debacle like this.) He expected a conflict between Berus and Fahd, though the extent to which he ignores and distorts rules contributes substantially to the loss of control. It is doubtless he had planned this. If nothing else, this film serves to underscore the importance of making certain that untrained people are not put into situations such as this, contrived or otherwise. (btw - extra points if you attributed the quote in the title to Tom Cruise)Movie Review: Great German Cinema
Summary: 4 Stars
This was the directorial debut of Olivier Hirschbiegel who has gone on to do some excellent cinema, most notably 'Downfall' Downfall (1 Disc Edition) [DVD] [2004]. For a first time out this is an accomplished piece of cinema and once again shows that Germany can make excellent films without pandering to the US market which sadly is too often the case with British efforts. Starring Moiritz Bleibtrau (Run Lola Run and The Baader Meinhoff Complex) and Christian Berkel (Downfall and Flame and Citron) they also collaborated with Olivier again in 'European Mavericks, which alas I have yet to see.
The plot is simple but effective in that some Psychologists place an advert for volunteers to take part in an experiment in behavioural attitudes of the incarcerated and those that are entrusted to guard them. It is for a fixed fee and a fixed period and after a few mind tests they are allocated their designated roles. They are then told that violence is not allowed, but the guards figure that means only the physical sort and so start to push the boundaries.
This is a compelling fast paced film which keeps up the momentum almost all the way through. There is one bizarre moment where the 'love interest' enters the life of the main character and the music goes all jazz night club sax solo in a totally unnecessary way to denote rumpy pumpy will be in the offing in the not too distant future - pointless. Still cliché errors aside this is still ein corker of a film and has been remade in Hollywood with an excellent cast including Forest Whitaker, but I am reliably informed that this is oodles better and it is a lot cheaper in amazon market place. For lovers of European cinema I can highly recommend you will not be disappointed.
Movie Review: Wonderful.
Summary: 4 Stars
Das Experiment (Oliver Hirshbiegel, 2001)
Hirschbiegel, who stunned the world a few years back with Der Untergang, always had the chops to make tense, scary movies, and Das Experiment proves it. Also based on a true story, this is a film about a psychological experiment gone horribly wrong, as twenty volunteers are put into a prison situation, with eight "guards" and twelve "prisoners," for two weeks. By the second day, the guards are acting like guards, and the prisoners are acting like prisoners, with the exception of Tarek Fahd (Munich's Moritz Bleibtreu), ostensibly a cab driver, but actually an undercover reporter (while the revelation of this in the film is wonderfully done, the DVD box spoils this little surprise, so I have no qualms about mentioning it here) who's covering the experiment for his paper. Things go horribly wrong in an astonishingly short amount of time, and while one of the doctors, Jutta Grimm (Andrea Sawatzki) begins to question the ethics of continuing the experiment, project leader Thon (Edgar Selge) is enthusiastic about the speed with which everything's going to pot. Needless to say, things get out of control, and everyone involved, including the viewer, quickly becomes aware that no matter what happens, there is no way this is going to end well.
Hirschbiegel is a fantastic director, and here as in Der Untergang he's got a solid stable of actors and a terrific script to back up his native talent. If you've seen Der Untergang (and even if you haven't), check this out. It's well worth your time. ****