'Das Experiment' is loosely based on the Stanford Experiment of 1971. During the original experiment, after intensive psychological profiling, background checks and health tests, 18 volunteers who were mostly students from the Stanford area, were brought to an undisclosed location and split into two groups on the flip of a coin. Nine became prisoners and nine became guards. All were perfectly normal, healthy, middle-class students in their early 20s. The experiment was supposed to last 2 weeks. It lasted 6 days, before being forcibly cancelled due to concerns over the prisoners' safety. In the movie, the same experiment is reapplied in a contemporary setting. A similar thing occurs, only the experiment is never cancelled.
'Das Experiment' is superbly directed; you find yourself feeling angry and frustrated alongside the prisoners, and you even feel yourself routing for them. It's refreshing to watch a film that not only has gravitas, but also an unrelenting emotional charge. There certainly aren't many films that can claim to be as emotionally taxing. The acting is also superb. Every character involved in the experiment, including the psychologists monitoring it, are interesting. They have depth, morals, scruples, fears, anxieties, passions; they have depth.
The film gives an interesting insight into the human psyche, and how we are all intrinsically and irrevocably linked to our primal urges to dominate those weaker than us. 'Das Experiment' is an excellent and uncompromising movie, which is well worth a watch.
'Das Experiment' is superbly directed; you find yourself feeling angry and frustrated alongside the prisoners, and you even feel yourself routing for them. It's refreshing to watch a film that not only has gravitas, but also an unrelenting emotional charge. There certainly aren't many films that can claim to be as emotionally taxing. The acting is also superb. Every character involved in the experiment, including the psychologists monitoring it, are interesting. They have depth, morals, scruples, fears, anxieties, passions; they have depth.
The film gives an interesting insight into the human psyche, and how we are all intrinsically and irrevocably linked to our primal urges to dominate those weaker than us. 'Das Experiment' is an excellent and uncompromising movie, which is well worth a watch.