Cert 15
119 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong language, threat, sex references
Ever wondered how people who initially appear perfectly sane can become shrouded in evil given the chance?
For example, when I lived in Germany in the 1980s, I couldn’t reconcile how my friends’ very “normal” parents had fought for Hitler a few decades previously.
In 1971, academics at Stanford University in America wanted to know how regular students would react in a experimental jail.
They paid candidates 15 dollars a day to either play inmates or guards in a “prison” which was created on campus during term holidays.
Kyle Patrick Alvarez’s film is a faithful re-enactment of the real-life experiment.
Billy Crudup plays Philip Zimbardo, the psychologist who devised the prison and gathered a team to select the experiment’s participants and then monitor them during what was intended to be a two-week period.
What materialised was beyond his limited expectations in that students who appeared to be well-adjusted very quickly began to portray extreme behaviour.
The Stanford Prison Experiment is an unsettling, compelling and thought-provoking movie.
In particular, it will prompt audiences to consider how far they would go should they be given power over someone and be told to use it.
Reasons to watch: a fascinating glimpse as to how fast behaviour changes in extreme situations
Reasons to avoid: because it is surprisingly unsettling
Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 8/10
Star tweet
Kyle Patrick Alvarez Almost everyone is in a wig and some fake facial hair. It took hours and was really painful/uncomfortable for all involved.
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