As it turns out, the movie is quite violent in the last third portion of it. And I agree that for those who are not knowledgeable about the original experiment, it portrays a negative image of psychology. To go further, I think it gives another negative image of the German people. Some scenes seemed to make parallels to the Nazi system. But then again, this may just be my own bias (saw too many movies perhaps?)
This being said, it also triggered a lot of thinking. After all, the experiment (Zimbardo's) had to be stopped. What would have happened? In the movie, it keeps going. The end result is quite hypothetical, but quite realistic as well. The one thing that bugged me was that only one member of the guardian force protested. I would have expected more to do so. But then again, isn't this what Ash had expected as well?
It is violent, but I recommend it nonetheless. It's good food for thought. And since we'll never be able to conduct such research anyhow, we'll never really know how it really would end!
Jean-Marc
Christopher D. Green wrote:
I just saw a movie that I think many of you going to want to have a look at. It is called "The Experiment" -- in German with subtitles -- and is a fictionalized account of the Zimbardo Prison Experiment. It came out in Germany in 2000 (I think) but the Englsh subtitled DVD and VHS didn't hit Canada until a few weeks ago. (I don't know when it came out in the US, but I notice that it is available at Amazon.com.)
It is set in Germany. For the first hour or so it stays relatively close to the main outlines of the real study, but in the last 45 minutes or so it gets a fair bit more violent and spectacular than were the actual events. In any case, it is always interesting to see what the popular media do with psychological research.
Regards, -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3
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