Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 10:58 pm
Adrian Brody and Forest Whitaker join an experiment where a group of men are divided into two groups with one group being guards and the other being inmates.
This movie was ok, I guess, in terms of capturing my attention for 90 minutes, but they really, really stretch reality. Within six days of the famous experiment some crazy shit has already taken place that didn't happen in the real life versions.
I mean CRAZY over the line shit that ANYONE with a sense of decency or the awareness to stop and say "Uhm, this is an experiment and nothing is real" would have immediately stood up and put a stop to it. This extends to the researchers who do nothing as MAJOR crimes occur in front of their eyes. (This gets even dumber when the experiment is inevitably ended a LOT too late.)
Worse yet is that the movie is so predictable. You know who will be guards, who will be prisoners, and what is going to happen before it happens.
There's also a strong hint of confusion or hatred about the military, I honestly don't know which. You know how bigotry is essentially bred from ignorance? I'm starting to really believe most folks in Hollywood need to spend some time with military folks, and they'd be stunned. They simply don't understand the psyche of someone who joins the service. In this film, two people are shown to have served. One immediately is shown lashing out with violence, although in the filmmaker's defense it was done for foreshadowing. The other was the only guy in the experiment who had actually served time, which was against the rules and I didn't pay attention close enough to hear how he got around that (thank you Fallout 3). What was more disturbing about him though was how used to being institutionalized he was...not sure if that was supposed to be about his jail time or his military time. He was the one who "played along" the most though, so again, I'm confused by the message being sent.
The Experiment is worth a Netflix viewing just for the good acting, but I wouldn't waste money renting it.
Oh, the scene with Whitaker in the bathroom after the first confrontation was bullshit. Such a thing would immediately invalidate the experiment's results.
FYI: In real life, many scientists say the real experiments were complete rubbish. Too many variables, and reactions not being real due to everyone involved knowing it was all fake.
4 out of 10.
This movie was ok, I guess, in terms of capturing my attention for 90 minutes, but they really, really stretch reality. Within six days of the famous experiment some crazy shit has already taken place that didn't happen in the real life versions.
I mean CRAZY over the line shit that ANYONE with a sense of decency or the awareness to stop and say "Uhm, this is an experiment and nothing is real" would have immediately stood up and put a stop to it. This extends to the researchers who do nothing as MAJOR crimes occur in front of their eyes. (This gets even dumber when the experiment is inevitably ended a LOT too late.)
Worse yet is that the movie is so predictable. You know who will be guards, who will be prisoners, and what is going to happen before it happens.
There's also a strong hint of confusion or hatred about the military, I honestly don't know which. You know how bigotry is essentially bred from ignorance? I'm starting to really believe most folks in Hollywood need to spend some time with military folks, and they'd be stunned. They simply don't understand the psyche of someone who joins the service. In this film, two people are shown to have served. One immediately is shown lashing out with violence, although in the filmmaker's defense it was done for foreshadowing. The other was the only guy in the experiment who had actually served time, which was against the rules and I didn't pay attention close enough to hear how he got around that (thank you Fallout 3). What was more disturbing about him though was how used to being institutionalized he was...not sure if that was supposed to be about his jail time or his military time. He was the one who "played along" the most though, so again, I'm confused by the message being sent.
The Experiment is worth a Netflix viewing just for the good acting, but I wouldn't waste money renting it.
Oh, the scene with Whitaker in the bathroom after the first confrontation was bullshit. Such a thing would immediately invalidate the experiment's results.
FYI: In real life, many scientists say the real experiments were complete rubbish. Too many variables, and reactions not being real due to everyone involved knowing it was all fake.
4 out of 10.