The Stanford Prison Experiment

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Ola G Stanford University psychology professor Philip Zimbardo (Billy Crudup) conducts a psychological experiment to investigate the hypothesis that roles in social situations, rather than individual personality traits, cause participants' behavior. In the experiment, Zimbardo selects eighteen male students to participate in a 14-day prison simulation to take roles as prisoners or guards. They receive $15 per day. The experiment is conducted in a mock prison located in the basement of Jordan Hall, the university's psychology department building. The students who are guards become abusive, as does Zimbardo himself, as they immerse themselves in their assigned roles... Upon its premiere at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, The Stanford Prison Experiment received a positive response from critics. Rotten Tomatoes consensus states: "As chillingly thought-provoking as it is absorbing and well-acted, The Stanford Prison Experiment offers historical drama that packs a timelessly relevant punch." Leslie Felperin of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review, writing: "For all its flaws it's a rich, thought-provoking film which, while challenging, is not without humor and visual pleasures." Jordan Hoffman of The Guardian gave the film four out of five stars and judged that "Director Kyle Patrick Alvarez deserves all the praise in the world for the way he cranks up this pressure cooker script." Edward Douglas in his review for ComingSoon praised the film, remarking: "While this is going to be a polarizing and divisive film, it's one that people will talk about after seeing it, almost as if it was made as an experiment itself." However, Justin Chang of Variety criticized the film, saying "The combination of relentless forward drive and gruesomely fastidious detail, while audacious and admirable in theory, begins to pay dwindling returns in a picture that feels rather longer than its 122-minute running time." (Via Wikipedia) The plot concerns the real 1971 Stanford prison experiment, conducted at Stanford University under the supervision of psychology professor Philip Zimbardo, in which students played the role of either a prisoner or correctional officer. Looking at the it must have been clear already then that this was by far a truly controversial psychological experiment and it did end after just six days. The real storyline sets up a thought provoking film that has some intense scenes, but it also suffers from a mixed bag of performances with a bit too many fake wigs and moustaches that doesn´t convince you that it's 1971. This is yet another film based on real events and you never know what liberties Hollywood has taken with the story which I always my critique with these sort of films. "The Stanford Prison Experiment" is ok, but I rather see a proper documentary over this psychological experiment. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 04/05/25 Full Review Apple S Good film. I was familiar with the experiment, and I think this movie does a good job of capturing the strange psychological feeling of wrongness that seemed to occur. The way the participants adopted their roles so quickly, and how everyone fell into this weird hypnotic new norm, including the experimenters, to the point that they lost themselves and couldn't see that it had gone too far. It's a very challening movie to watch. It makes you wonder and question what you might do in that situation. It's scary and profound and I think everybody should watch this film and familiarise themselves with the experiment. It teaches us a lot about human nature. I also liked how the filmmakers didn't let the experimenters off the hook either. They're dragged into the charade too and you can see how they were culpable and guilty of letting it go on too long too. I'll bump my 3.5 up to a 4, given how profound the subject matter it, but there was something left wanting with this film. Questions that weren't quite answered. Scenes that went on too long. I'm not sure. Not a 5 star movie, but definitely worth watching. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 08/19/24 Full Review Sharon T The movie never once mentioned how this study has been severely criticized for being both unethical and unscientific. It is BECAUSE of this study that stricter regulations were put into place with human subjects experimentation. Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 02/12/24 Full Review KB B This was a very interesting experiment based on true events. One never knows how they'd react in this situation either as a guard or a prisoner. It's worth the watch. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/20/24 Full Review Cedric G Awesome, thought provoking movie. Superb acting & you almost feel as if the Dr. Zimbardo is evil & demented up until the final act. Michael Angarano's acting is so superb you almost feel as if he were born to be a prison guard! The 2 hour runtime flys by as you become engulfed in this movie. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 11/19/23 Full Review Nim T I liked how the director was trying to keep the story as original as possible regarding this experiment. Although this is a movie, I liked how all the actors were trying to portray the exact situation that happened with the "prisoners." There were moments of uncomfortableness throughout the movie, because it brought back topics worth noting when doing psychology experiments, such as ethics and when to know to stop the experiment. The behaviors of people can change depend on the environment that they are at, so with the guards getting progressively violent, and the prisoners getting more and more depressed, it was note worthy of how prisons affect oneself significantly. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 10/25/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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