A fictionalised German account of what might have happened had the Stanford Prison Experiment got completely out of hand, this manages to be a serious-minded and telling rebuke to the advocates of reality television and one of the year’s most extreme and intensely thrilling pieces of cinema to boot. MM
Tarek (Moritz Bleibtreu), a slacking writer who now mans a taxi cab, signs up for an Army-backed social experiment in which twenty ordinary members of the public, some... more >
Tarek (Moritz Bleibtreu), a slacking writer who now mans a taxi cab, signs up for an Army-backed social experiment in which twenty ordinary members of the public, some
designated as guards, others prisoners, will be locked in a mock prison for two weeks and observed by scientists keen to work out the dynamics of any such situation.
Our hero already has some problems with authority: his claustrophobia stems from having once been locked in a darkroom by his photographer father, and he has a
typically maverick journo relationship with his editor. Still, there’s a story in it, and - assigned to play a prisoner rather than a guard - he can do a Randall P.
McMurphy, and help stir up a little unrest within the institution. But the film takes its tone from an early shot of the inmates’ open-toed sandals marching alongside their masters’ heavy jackboots, and it’s soon worryingly clear that more than a few feet are going to get stamped on before the cell doors are opened once more.
After Series 7: The Contenders and Battle Royale, this is the third film in twelve months based around the type of more-than-suspicious endeavour the Dutch company
Endemol would have no qualms in peddling to television stations across the world as entertainment. Its model is the Stanford University Experiment of 1971, which was
stopped before events got too far out of hand, but director Oliver Hirschbiegel plays his chaos out to its terrifying and logical conclusion, as schisms open up not just between prisoners and guards, but also amongst the scientists who are supposed to be watching over the group.
Closer to the apocalyptic Battle Royale than to the light-hearted Series 7, The Experiment is a German film which suggests this type of experiment is the world’s latest form of oppressive fascism, an attempt to pass off unacceptable levels of deprivation and humiliation without even the spurious excuse of political efficiency. Turning on - after Michael Moore’s Roger And Me - the second greatest
use of The Beach Boys’ Wouldn’t It Be Nice? in the movies to soundtrack the moment at which the rules of the game change out of all recognition, it’s very good on the
phoney aspiration engendered by these projects: one of the prisoners, a kiosk sad sack with no real friends to speak of, dreams of owning a Ferrari he will never get to buy, much as one suspects the contestants in Big Brother dream of a lasting and substantial fame that will almost certainly never come. At least Tarek can hold dear
to something a little less materialistic - the memory of the woman he loves - even as the story he’s supposed to be researching gets out of his bound and bloody hands.
One advantage the film has over televisual experiments such as these is that Hirschbiegel can and does use all of the advantages the budget and form grant him: a greater scope, terrific sound design (full of squeaks, drips and groans) and people
who are a great deal more interesting in front of a camera. But for all its
technical skill, what’s perhaps most thrilling about The Experiment is that - even as reality-TV phenomena sweep their way over a Europe that’s becoming increasingly
insular in its thinking and closed off to outside influences - here’s a film which dares to go against the tide of popular opinion and make a forceful common-sense
argument that cannot be made enough, particularly as the ratings for these shows continue to climb and climb: that to deprive people of their basic civil rights, for
whatever reason - for politics, science, entertainment or simply for money - is just plain wrong. And if the way Hirschbiegel uses this Experiment for his own entertainment purposes troubles you (as it should), just remember this: you’re the lucky one. You can always walk away.
