It doesn’t take long for the Stanford Prison Experiment to
stop feeling like an experiment and start feeling like a real, unpleasant
prison situation. It doesn’t take long for the eighteen year old boys who’ve
been selected to play mock prison guards to become too drunk with power and the
boys who’ve been selected to play mock prisoners to be abused and degraded and
thinking they’re actually prisoners. However, Stanford Psychology professor Dr.
Phillip Zimbardo (Billy Crudup) keeps the study going.
Kyle Patrick Alverez’s alarming, uncomfortable “The Stanford
Prison Experiment” is about the psychology behind the abuse of power; what
kinds of situations make seemingly normal people turn cruel? It’s also a
fascinating portrait of an obsessed, egotistical professor who’s determined to
see his experiment through until the end. Additionally, the movie forces you to
step into the shoes of the characters and think about what you would do in
their situation
The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted from August 14,
1971 to August 20, in the cramped, windowless basement of the Stanford
University Psychology building. The goal of the study was to test the effects of
prison on an individual. It took less than forty-eight hours for test subjects to
assimilate into their dominant or submissive roles. The mock guards began
inflicting psychological torture and humiliation—making them do continuous
push-ups and jumping jacks, making them recite their prison number again and
again, taking their beds away, making them go to the bathroom in metal buckets,
tying them up, etc.
It’s disturbing how much a brown uniform, a pair of
sunglasses and a nightstick can empower someone. It’s even more disturbing to
see the pleasure and glee some of the “guards” take in humiliating their
prisoners. In the movie, the meanest one (Michael Angarano) adopts a phony
southern accent, imitating the sadistic prison captain Strother Martin from
“Cool Hand Luke.” On the other side of
the coin we witness mock prisoner Daniel (Ezra Miller) have a complete mental
breakdown. Within two days, he goes from cocky and loud-mouthed, not taking the
experiment very seriously, to a hysterical and frightened wreck.
“The Stanford Prison Experiment” is intense and unsettling;
I went from nervously clutching my shoulders to violently biting my nails.
Through a minimal, unassuming docudrama style, Alverez establishes an unnerving
sense of heightened realism. He makes good use of the cramped “prison” setting,
making an already stressful watching experience more stressful and
claustrophobic. Cinematographer Jas Shelton often employs tracking shots taking
us up and down the hallway, imitating the action of one frantically pacing back
and forth. While watching, the picture hits you on a visceral level; you feel
angry at the actions taking place on screen. How can these guys be so cruel?
And yet, when the credits role, the movie forces you to
think logically about the situation. Your initial gut instinct is to pass
judgment on the boys but it’s easy to do that from a position of spectatorship.
It’s easy to say, “I would never do this” but if you were actually in their
shoes, would that be the case? Similar to “Compliance” and “The Hunt,” “The
Stanford Prison Experiment” evokes such a strong initial reaction out of you
but then forces you to go back and examine it more closely. In the end you may
be firm in your stance that you would never do such cruel things but hopefully
you will have also considered multiple sides. We may all be capable of inflicting
psychological torture.
A bevy of talented young actors mostly seen in independent
projects portray the test subjects--Miller, Tye Sheridan, Johnny Simmons and
Thomas Mann, among others--who all give authentic performances, even if their
characters remain somewhat underdeveloped. However, Crudup is the standout--
delivering an obsessive, unsympathetic, slightly sociopathic performance that
really digs deep into the character’s psyche. The study ends up taking Zimbardo
some dark places, places I’m sure he never thought he’d go. Near the middle he
says to the other Psychologists assisting him, “I had no idea it would turn out
this way, but this is important to me.” He’s become so intertwined in the
experiment that he demonstrates a disregard for his subjects. Things get iffy
early but he pushes on because of a selfish determination. He even becomes so
obsessed that he alienates himself from his girlfriend and fellow
psychologists. By the end of the film it’s just him, watching the action unfold
on a video monitor from another room.
“The Stanford Prison” is an engrossing psychological drama;
one that affects you on a gut level as well as a cerebral one. A movie capable
of conjuring up that kind of duel response is nothing short of successful.
B+
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