Something went wrong
Try again later.
The Stanford Prison Experiment
Based on the real-life research of Dr. Zimbardo, The Stanford Prison Experiment is a dramatic period piece that remains relevant over 40 years later. Twenty-four male students out of seventy-five were selected to take on randomly assigned roles of prisoners and guards in a mock prison situated in the basement of the Stanford psychology building.
27 September 1991, Portland, Oregon, USA
18 February 1992, Colorado, USA
2 May 1983, New York City, New York, USA
8 June 1995, Los Angeles, California, USA
16 May 1994, Greenville, Kentucky, USA
28 November 1986, Montgomery, Alabama, USA
13 April 1954, Connecticut, USA
11 November 1996, Elkhart, Texas, USA
13 November 1991, Massapequa, New York, USA
3 December 1987, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
August 09, 2016
Crudup's Zimbardo shifts from ruthlessness to panic, but that shift isn't nearly as marked as what we observe among his subjects.
June 17, 2016
Based on real events, this sharply well-made film shifts from a rather light-hearted comedy into a horrific thriller. And it feels unnervingly natural as it does so.
July 30, 2015
Watching these young men brutalize each other is troubling enough, but perhaps the film's most interesting angle is how the experiment changes more than its subjects.
June 10, 2016
The film runs out of steam by about the half way mark, where matters of unequivocally passed through the gates of Hell.
December 27, 2016
Authentically tense and sweatily claustrophobic.
June 12, 2016
Cranking up the tension by gradually moving his camera in closer and closer to his actors, Alvarez smartly shrinks the distance between them and us in order to intensify the what-would-you-do? discomfort the experiment was designed to explore.
August 14, 2015
The Stanford Prison Experiment is the kind of movie that raises as many questions as it answers. It's also the kind of film where you want to budget some time for discussion afterward. You won't be able to shake this one off easily.
July 14, 2016
Crudup excels as Zimbardo, casually sliding into the role of evil prison boss so subtly that we almost don't realize what's happening.
July 30, 2015
Billy Crudup gives a fine performance as Dr. Philip Zimbardo, who engineered the whole thing and was then pulled into his own power trip.
August 07, 2015
This is not an uplifting movie, and its progress can be grueling. But it has a lot to say about how we let roles define us, how fragile personalities are and how context shapes reality.
September 25, 2015
The acting is uniformly strong and the camera work is winningly claustrophobic, but the film is one note: scene after scene of bullying.
July 31, 2015
The film works hard to keep up the suspense: how far will the guards go? How much can the prisoners take? At what point, if any, will Zimbardo and his team intervene? And is his experiment scientific? Objective? Humane? Worthwhile?