Review of The Experiment (2010) by Harry W — 23 Feb 2013

The Experiment is better than people seem to believe, probably because I haven't seen the 2001 German film Das Experiment.

As a recreation of the events of the Stanford Prison Experiment.

It's led in a good performance by Adrien Brody, who despite sub-par line delivery managed to provide good physical lead, especially in the final sequence.

Forest Whitaker was also a good lead with great line delivery and a good physical performance, and is again very intimidating in the role, especially this time because we witness his character develop from a man trying to help his mother to a power-hungry prison warden.

As a recreation of The Stanford Prison Experiment, The Experiment really displays how horrible the events actually would have been to the prisoners, and the fact that it was based on real events makes it all the more shocking, despite being more savage then depicted in Zimbardo's notes. But the drama depicted just builds up until an intense climax, despite going through a lot of cliches and things we expect until the final event.

The Experiment's only other flaw is the fact that the screenplay very unimpressive and doesn't produce any new ideas for the audience to consider.

But aside from that, I enjoyed The Experiment especially because I studied the original Stanford Prison Experiment in psychology class, so an intense recreation of the events was good to witness, even with the cliches, crap screenplay and sub-par line delivery from Adrien Brody.