December 31, 2015 -- Although I was aware of this very famous 1971 psychological experiment, this historical drama recreating the experiment was an eye opener in some respects. I was unaware of some of the events depicted, such as a rebellion among the prisoners.

Philip Zimbardo (played by Billy Crudup of “Watchmen”) designs the experiment to see what happens in a prison role playing experiment when a group of student volunteers is arbitrarily divided into guards and prisoners. Even when the guards begin to display sadistic tendencies and prisoners try to escape and rebel, Zimbardo becomes so caught up in the experiment he can't see the big picture.

One of the more interesting characters on the team of experimenters is Jesse Fletcher (played by Nelsan Ellis of “The Help”) an ex-convict who is a consultant to Zimbardo. At one point, he confronts a prisoner in the experiment who is having emotional problems. When the boy tells Fletcher he doesn't know what it is like in this situation, Fletcher gets right in the boy's face. He tells the prisoner he knows just what it is like because he too, was a prisoner. Fletcher says, “San Quentin, boy, 17 years of hard time. Do you really think you can tell me what it's like on the inside?”

Later on, Fletcher becomes disturbed by the effect the experiment is having on him. He tells Zimbardo, “It was an experiment. I went along with it, but I really hate myself right now ... Back in that room I became everything I've hated for so long and I let it happen. And I enjoyed it. You can't possibly understand how it makes me feel.”

Zimbardo himself falls victim to his own experiment because he is not only running the experiment, he has become the warden of his own prison. It falls to his girlfriend, and future wife, Christina Maslach (Olivia Thirlby of “Dredd”) who is also a psychologist, to tell Zimbardo the obvious, that this experiment has already gone way too far. He ends the experiment after only six days. It was supposed to last two weeks.

Probably the most interesting guard, dubbed “John Wayne” for his ability to control others, is Christopher Archer (Michael Angarano of “Red State”). He takes on the persona of a guard from the film “Cool Hand Luke” and plays a role within a role in this film. One prisoner goes on a hunger strike. Another prisoner attacks a guard, and is struck by the guard. Two prisoners escape from their cell. Other prisoners barricade themselves in their cell. The experiment gets ugly fast.

Some of this, the way people treat each other, is hard to watch. Comparing this to Stanley Milgram's compliance experiment 10 years earlier (as seen in the film “Experimenter”) this is far more disturbing in terms of psychological torture. While Milgram's experiment was criticized for psychological pain, it was nothing compared to the prison experiment. Both the Zimbardo and Milgram experiments, and related experiments are very revealing and relevant to real life events such as the prisoner torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Zimbardo himself was involved in the making of this film, and it follows the facts closely. Anyone who wants to see how this experiment worked can find out a lot by watching this film. While this, and “Experimenter” are both good films, they pale in comparison to the power of another film on a similar subject, “Compliance” (2012). “The Stanford Prison Experiment” rates a B.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2015 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

Robert Roten can be reached via e-mail at .