Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8767 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-03-27
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: German
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 114 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Inspired by a famous 1971 psychological experiment, Oliver Hirschbiegel's German-language movie Das Experiment finds a group of 20 volunteers randomly divided into 12 prisoners and eight guards and asked to play out their roles for a fortnight while scientists study their reactions. A conflict arises between undercover reporter Fahd (Moritz Bleibtreu), a con with a hidden agenda and the apparently mild-mannered Berus (Justus von Dohnanyi), a guard with a megalomaniac streak. The film begins as a psychological drama as ordinary people settle into the game, with joking displays of resistance by the "prisoners" greeted with increasing brutality from the "guards", but detours into suspense and horror as Fahd, who needs the experiment to get out of hand in order to make his story more saleable, deliberately ratchets up the tension between the factions only to see the situation spiral nightmarishly out of control as various test subjects in both camps edge closer to snapping.

With a terrific display of ensemble acting and unforced use of the currently popular claustrophobic semi-documentary look, Hirschbiegel's movie takes its time to get underway, with apparently irrelevant cutaways to Fahd's outside girlfriend (Maren Eggert), but works up to a powerful second half that delivers a sustained symphony of psychological and physical anguish.

On the DVD: Das Experiment on disc has an excellent-looking anamorphic widescreen transfer with English subtitles. The only extra feature is the trailer. --Kim Newman

Special Features
German
Region 2
English

Synopsis
DAS EXPERIMENT, a German film about a group of 20 men who are asked to participate in a psychological test with the promise of a monetary award, centres on Tarek (Moritz Bleibtreu) a reporter who wants to write about the event and so volunteers. When he is locked in a strange prison, not to emerge for 14 days, he worries that he made a bad choice.

Customer Reviews

Big Brother Meets Guantanamo Bay!
This thrilling, edge of seat film, cannot be recommended highly enough. A simple idea, based on a real life experiment, sees 20 men volunteer to live in a prison environment for 14 days, 8 as guards, 12 as prisoners. The men come from all walks of life - an Elvis impersonater, a flight steward, a journalist who moon-lights as a taxi driver, the owner of a newspaper kiosk. They are lured by the generous pay and agree to abide by the rules. Given numbers instead of names and shapeless hospital type gowns to wear, the de-huminisation of the prisoners begins on day 1.

But journalist no 77 has a hidden camera of his own, and in the early days whilst there is good natured banter and jokes between prisoners and guards, he is keen to cause conflict to get a better story. But as the guards are pushed further and futher the mood turns ugly. No physical punishment is allowed - but that leaves room for other, darker tortures.

The experiment is quickly out of control as the guards start drinking and even fighting amongst themselves. When they overthrow the staff of the University who are monitoring the project and put them in the cells, it is up to no 77's new girlfriend and the Professor in overall charge to try and storm the "prison" before it is too late...

A thought provoking, chilling film, this is a rollercoaster ride for the viewer and moves at such a pace that the subtitles are soon forgotten as the viewer is drawn into the dangerous prison life.

do NOT try this at home!
I once read a book about obedience test based upon Milgram experiment. When I read more about the film after viewing it, I realised that there was a connection between them. The film is inspired from a social experiment called Stanford Prison experiment conducted in 1971. In Stanford University psychologist Philip Zimbardo conducted this experiment by distributing guardian and prisoner roles on his students. However students speedily assumed their roles so realistically that they started exhibiting sadistic intents. The experiment was discontinued after 6 days due to mental and physical damages on the participants.

The film at first carefully distances itself from the Stanford experience but it clearly depicts it. Wonderful acting and realistic insight screening of the human mind under pressure. The most striking aspect is that once in hardship conditions a leader emerges in the groups dragging along the rest with them. One guardian and one prisoner clearly arise from the rest.I recall the film Lord of the Flies which I dare not see.

The scientists try to dig deep into the unknown darknesses of the human being but their created atmosphere and guided experiments do not yield a scientific result. The subject is generally associated with Abu Ghraib abuses, Nazi concentration camps or people living under Nazi regime. Their general idea is that the individual is not guilty but the system and environment turn normal human beings into evil demons. I can not agree! The torturers of leftists who opposed the fascists in Germany were well aware of their ill-doings. The "normal" American GI voluntarily join the army in search of a better life after serving his country defeating the infidels. What better way to avoid Iraqi snipers and bombs than to stay in prison and make himself useful. People are raised in an environment and yes,the environment affect them. But it is up to the individual to behave good or bad in a given situation and he must be responsible for his acts! At least this is what I am trying to do, one has to act in a certain way in life and recommend others to follow suit...

What men can do
A truly scary reflection of the way a small amount of power, in this case being made a Prison Guard, can change normal people into monsters - or so it would seem. However what I gathered from the film was that the experimenters knew that the two leading protaganists would end up at each others throats. Perhaps not literally but they were chosen with that in mind.

Obviously there has been quite a bit of spicing up of the original Stanford case and the addition/distraction of the gorgeous girlfriend seemed a little out of place as well. However the film is very well directed and equally well acted. After the initial setup the tension is gradually racked up until in the second half of the movie you realise that things are spiralling out of control.

So its a riveting watch, but not a film I will want to see again quickly as it is a sad reflection on our humanity (or lack of it).