I feel obligated to mention this article shall be a little more serious than the previous, though to be fair there are few things less serious than Don't Tell the Bride. Michigan J.Frog is more austere than Don't Tell the Bride.
Have you ever saw a film, not particularly enjoyed it, would never see it again yet not regret watching it? I'm talking about films that would be considered "disturbing"; Boy's Don't Cry, Mysterious Skin, Downloading Nancy, Wolf Creek are a few off the top of my head that have stayed with me despite only watching them once. Apart from Wolf Creek (which is rich with torture scenes) they depict the sexual abuse of particularly vulnerable people. I, like many others, also struggle with scenes of torture, rape, extreme violence and holocaust portrayals. I was a snivelling mess at the end of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.
The Experiment was not a great film. A remake of the German, Das Experiment, an imdb user critiques the American version for missing key elements that make the original so gripping. He says: "Although brutal the film was brilliant in the way it explored human nature, human instincts, and one's moral compass." Though I haven't seen the original myself (I had trouble finding a version with English subtitles a couple years ago and subsequently forgot about it) I can confirm The Experiment is lacking these aspects, failing to explore the psyche of the participants and leaving the viewer to make their own assertions of the effects of the test. But nor was it a bad film. The reason why it had such a profound effect on me despite its cinematic lackings, is that is a fictionalised account of the real life undertaking; the Stanford prison experiment.
I have no idea how familiar the Stanford prison experiment is to most people, having only come across it myself when I studied psychology at college. It took place in 1971 at Stanford university. The goal, taken from http://www.prisonexp.org/faq.htm : "The purpose was to understand the development of norms and the effects of roles, labels, and social expectations in a simulated prison environment." 24 undergraduates selected from a potential 75 were chosen for their mental stability. Philip Zimbardo lead the team conducting the experiment which was due to last two weeks. However he never predicted how quickly or the extent of the deprivation the experiment descended into. It was cancelled after only six days. "I ended the study prematurely for two reasons. First, we had learned through videotapes that the guards were escalating their abuse of prisoners in the middle of the night when they thought no researchers were watching and the experiment was "off." Their boredom had driven them to ever more pornographic and degrading abuse of the prisoners. Second, Christina Maslach, a recent Stanford Ph.D. brought in to conduct interviews with the guards and prisoners, strongly objected when she saw our prisoners being marched on a toilet run, bags over their heads, legs chained together, hands on each other's shoulders. Filled with outrage, she said, "It's terrible what you are doing to these boys!" Out of 50 or more outsiders who had seen our prison, she was the only one who ever questioned its morality. Once she countered the power of the situation, however, it became clear that the study should be ended."
Zimbardo doesn't detail what happened at night and I shudder to think what did. Over the six days all the men, guard and prisoner alike, became completely engrossed in their role. Pretty damn scary. Even Zimbardo himself internalised his role as "prison superintendent". The first day was pretty uneventful though upon the prisoner's arrival they were deloused naked in public view and were given ID numbers. They were not allowed to use names thus starting the dehumanisation process. The second day yielded a minor prisoner riot. They took off their ID numbers, blocked their cells with beds and mocked the guards. The guards reacted by spraying them with a fire extinguisher, stripping the prisoners naked and sending ringleaders to "solitary confinement" (a cupboard) From then on they implemented a cruel regime of divide and conquer and control and the situation escalated until the eventual stop on day six. All the men were free to leave at any time yet only half of the prisoners did (gradually) and not one guard quit. One guard was even disappointed at the experiment's premature end.
The film pretty accurately follows the real life events, apart from a pre requisite Hollywood ending of course, complete with two deaths. Adrian Broody features as the ringleader of the prisoners with
Forrest Whitaker as the most sadistic guard, spurring the others on. A motivation is given in the film (one thousand dollars a day for each participant. This amount was only 15 dollars a day in the real one) and there are no scientists in the "prison", only cameras. For many scenes I adopted the typical Kerry method of dealing with disturbing things by hiding behind my hands. At the end of the film both my boyfriend and I sat shocked into silence. Surely this is a greatly dramatized account we agreed and went online to check it out. I knew of the experiment, as I said we covered it in psychology class, but I wasn't aware of the extent of the cruelty. We musta got the watered down version! After reading what went on I felt genuinely troubled. How is it possible an average, educated man could commit such acts? How do we know what we are truly capable of? Of course we can sit here and say absolutely no way, I am not capable of torturing another human being. But surely those men who acted as guards would have said the same thing?
Overnight my views on human rights changed. I have always described myself as liberal but having little sympathy for criminals. One of the "prison is too good for them" brigade. Now I understand why we need to have and enforce the concept of human rights and apply them to everybody( research the Abu Ghraib tortures for a real life recent example). I would rather someone be too comfortable in prison than be treated as something unhuman, denied the simplest of rights like the prisoners in the experiment (for example they weren't allowed to go to the bathroom after 10pm, having to use a bucket in their cell instead). Some argue murderers, pedophiles don't deserve anything and should be treated like worthless animals but I say we deserve not to treat them like that.
Because of the Stanford prison experiment and the Milgram experiment, all research needs to adhere to a strict code of ethics. If an experiment is deemed unethical it will not be allowed to go ahead. This is the reason people need to remember these experiments, why this film should be seen, why we should know the details of the Holocaust. There is something dark lurking in humans that needs to be curbed in order not to harm others. Everybody needs human rights, even the worst criminals in society who breach the rights of others.
for more details : http://www.prisonexp.org/
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