Das Experiment.
¶ by Rob Friesel
File under the “Currently Viewing” category… Allow me to recommend the German film Das Experiment, a pleasantly(!?) disturbing drama based (very) loosely on Stanford Prison Experiment.
Starring Moritz Bleibtreu (whom you may recognize from 1998’s Lola Rennt), this Oliver Hirschbiegel film takes the true story of Zimbardo’s 1971 experiment and follows its premise through to more gruesome ends that may remind the viewer of certain, more recent atrocities. What Hirschbiegel adds to an already horrifying situation is a nice foil (re: spontaneity and redemption) and a grim allegory for not only the rise of Nazism in the Weimar Republic but any time, place, or circumstance where the role takes over.
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