Christopher D. Green wrote:

Well, he's simply wrong about this (not to mention overly-touchy). There is no
pretense to being a documentary. It does say it was "inspired" by the prison
experiment at the beginning (in the non-US version -- Stanford had the words
removed from the US release), but that's hardly a claim to strong
verisimilitude.


You are right on this Christopher. And in the next section, you mention a book of the same name. But then again, what is the purpose of the producers to write on the opening scene that this movie is inspired by the prison experiment? I agree with you that people at large should be more critical about what is true and what is not... But the truth is, many aren't. And how much of the movie is true, and how much is not? You and I know, as most if not all people on this list. But when a movie is "inspired" by real events, there is no way for the general audience to gage the amount that is based in reality, and the amount that is "creative".

Again, I thought the movie was a good one. I really enjoyed it. But I also think it would have been good of the producers to perhaps try and "educate" the audience by mentioning where the line was drawn in real life... Especially since they seem to follow quite well until it starts to slip into abuse... It would even have been great to interview Zimbardo after the movie... Such a vast audience, such a reach... Why not use it for more than profit making?

Anyhow, just my 2 cents!

JM




No doubt, some people will assume that it is true in every
detail, but they are simply foolish and should be educated about the
difference between documentaries and fictional films loosely based on real
events. Are we supposed to suppress everything that takes some artistic
license in order to explore a broader issue ("Camelot," say?)? It might have
been nice if there had been a disclaimer at the end saying that no one was
actually killed or injured in the real experiment, but I hardly think that is
decisive. In any case, apparently unbeknownst to Zimbardo, the movie is based
on the plot of a novel of the same name.

Regards,
--
Christopher D. Green
Department of Psychology
York University
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M3J 1P3

e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
phone:  416-736-5115 ext. 66164
fax:    416-736-5814
http://www.yorku.ca/christo/



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