You probably recognize the quote “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. This is more a story of the former but the latter may apply to the puppetmaster himself. Anyway, if you’ve ever taken an intro to psych class, you’ve probably ran into some mention of the Stanford Prison Experiment. If you don’t know what that is, it was a psychology experiment delving into the relationship between prisoner and prison guard. It was based in a mock prison with twenty four male students assigned to either role. Believe it or not, that experiment was abruptly stopped after merely six days; a short amount of time for anyone outside the actual experiment but had been hell for the volunteers. This is the trailer for The Stanford Prison Experiment.
This terrible look at the dark side of inner human impulse is directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez. It stars Ezra Miller and Tye Sheridan. As described on IMDb, twenty-four young men are randomly assigned roles as prisoners and guards in a mock prison. This is an experiment conducted in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. Initially, the experiment starts off civil but then the guards eventually get more and more aggressive. The man behind the experiment, Philip Zimbardo, permits the experiment to continue despite the growing animosity. If you’re curious about the prisoners, the original experiment had them passively accepting the abuse. It is most likely the same or similar for the film.
The scenes here are intense. One scene has the prisoners at a table insulting the guards around them. Suddenly, one of the guards slams the baton onto the table and establishes his superiority. Then there’s the turning point of the story where another guard uses his baton to assault a prisoner who was choking him. Everything gets more chaotic and the place undergoes an unauthorized lock down. Admittedly, things here are probably more dramatic than the actual experiment itself but still contained within suspension of disbelief. The prisoners then start getting tortured through means of solitary confinement and further harassment by the guards. In fact, they won’t let the prisoners leave when they request it.
It gets crazier when the guards put on their sunglasses and start bossing people around. Like many stories you hear, having the uniform sets the personality of the guards. They model the seventies guards uniforms in some shots and it makes them gang-like. Gang-like in that they seem empowered by their peers’ interpretations of how much power they think they have. It’s as if the uniform somehow grants permission to smash some guy’s head. Without it, you are the guy getting your head smashed. It’s insane where the human mind will go if you believe in a certain sense of authority.
From the trailer itself, you are able to assume good pacing. It builds up from beginning to end, highlighting important points in the story as mentioned above. While it could be argued that the trailer delivers the entire plot without leaving any mystery, the narrative has already been spoiled by real life. Anyone who knows about the original experiment knows what’s going to happen in the film. Its draw is going to be the actors’ portrayals and the curiosity of whether this behavior exists in you.
The Stanford Prison Experiment comes out July 17th 2015 in the U.S. There are currently no other release dates.
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(top image source: IFC Films)
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