THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT (2015) - Movie Review

Director: Kyle Patrick Alvarez
Starring: Ezra Miller, Tye Sheridan, Billy Crudup, Olivia Thirlby, Michael Angarano, Thomas Mann, Logan Miller, Nicholas Braun, Keir Gilchrist
Genre: Biography, Drama, History, Thriller
Writer: Tim Talbott
Runtime: 122 min
Rated: R for language including abusive behavior and some sexual references
Buy This Movie: Blu-ray (Amazon), DVD (Amazon), Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV

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Synopsis:

What happens when a college psych study goes shockingly wrong? Based on the notorious true story, THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT stars Billy Crudup (Watchmen) as Stanford University professor Dr. Philip Zimbardo, who, in 1971, cast 24 student volunteers as prisoners and guards in a simulated jail to examine the source of abusive behavior in the prison system. The results astonished the world, as participants went from middle-class undergrads to drunk-with-power sadists and submissive victims in just a few days. Featuring an extraordinary cast including Ezra Miller, Olivia Thirlby, Tye Sheridan, Keir Gilchrist, Michael Angarano, and Thomas Mann, and created with the close participation of Dr. Zimbardo himself, THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT is a chilling, edge-of-your-seat thriller about the dark side of power and the effects of imprisonment.

Review:

"The Stanford Prison Experiment" is one of the most chilling and terrifying movies I have ever seen. And it's not even a horror film. In theory it's a thriller, but I don't think that's and accurate description. It's fair to say that the film pretty much defies genre classification.

Based on psychology professor Philip Zimbardo's 2007 non-fiction book "The Lucifer Effect", the film focuses on the controversial 1971 Stanford prison experiment, which was conducted by Zimbardo and a small research team. The experiment involved a group of 24 male students, who would take on the roles of prisoners or guards in a 14-day simulation of life in prison. The prison itself was actually the basement of Jordan Hall, the university's psychology department building.

As the experiment begins, the students begin to ease into their roles, and at first it just looks like kids having fun. Of course, it doesn't take long before abusive behavior sets in, and the experiment soon devolves into violent conflicts between the "prisoners" and the "guards", while the abuses become increasingly vile and unhinged. While it wasn't the initial purpose of the experiment, what it did manage to uncover is a pretty disturbing truth: power corrupts and even the nicest person is capable of the most profound atrocities and darkness. Basically, ordinary men and women can easily become monsters.

The movie doesn't mention it, but the real life experiment was funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research and was meant to reveal the dynamics between military guards and prisoners. The experiment was supposedly of great interest to both the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, but the disastrous results and unethical conduct actually ended up changing how these kinds of experiments are conducted in American universities, making it impossible for something like this to ever happen again.

Alternating between the claustrophobic faux prison and the "control room" where the researchers sit, observe and discuss, the film is surprisingly never dull, mostly thanks to electrifying performances from the ensemble cast. While everyone is exceptional, I have to single out Billy Crudup as Dr. Zimbardo, as well as Tye Sheridan and a pre-controversy Ezra Miller as two of the students playing prisoners who end up the most psychologically scarred.

Directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez ("Homecoming", "C.O.G.", "Easier With Practice"), "The Stanford Prison Experiment" is not an easy watch and it will not be for everyone. It actually makes "Lord of the Flies" seem tame by comparison. But it's worth it for the deep meanings and the subtle insight into the inner workings of human behavior.

SCORE: 8/10