The Stanford Prison Experiment is an amazing story. The experiment itself was a real thing that took place at the titular college back in 1971. It was run by a man named Phillip Zimbardo and the fact that any of it ever happened is fairly incredible to think about. The human brain is a very complex tool. When given nothing to do, it often seems to wander out of one's head. However, when given nothing but control, it takes full advantage of this newfound power like a moth to light. The new film from director Kyle Patrick Alvarez and writer Tim Talbott is a completely electrifying and visceral experience. It is a perfectly enclosed little indie film, with a great sense of just why this experiment went so, so wrong.
For those not familiar with this experiment, it is the summer of 1971 at Stanford University. Twenty-four male students who all have spite toward the people in power are picked for an experiment. The idea--twelve will be shoved into prison (which is just a hallway in an empty campus building,) complete with a real police officer coming to their house and arresting them. The other twelve will be given the role of guards. However, Professor Phillip Zimbardo (Billy Crudup) will be closely observing these guards to assure that nothing gets crazy. Oh boy, do things get crazy.
The guards eat up the power they were against just a few days ago. One guard, Christopher (Michael Angarano) even gets so caught up that he puts on a Cool Hand Luke-style southern accent and immediately grabs the respect (or at least reluctant faking of respect) every time he even breathes near them. Naturally, other guards follow his lead, especially one seemingly harmless guy (Nicholas Braun) who figures if he can get the prisoners to do whatever he wants, why not make them? This sets off a chain of unbelievably creepy events that even lead to extreme breakdowns by some of the prisoners.
One thing that Alvarez and Talbott do exceptionally well is show that who became who was just in the flip of a coin. If the prisoners and guards were the other way around, it is more likely than not that the exact same thing would have happened. It's easy for the prisoners to say they would never do what the guards are doing but until you get that power, how do you truly know your full potential?
Alvarez and Talbott also do a wonderful job of giving all perspectives. We see how reasonably disturbed the prisoners are but we also see why Zimbardo doesn't want to stop, even when he sees the chaos, why Zimbardo's girlfriend, Christina (Olivia Thirbly) thinks he should and why the guards can't help but become this way. One particular aspect is showing the guard's true colors. We see that Christopher is not really a bad guy at all. He's a nice guy who just has trouble holding back from using his power. This is also due to the performance of Angarano. While everyone is great in here (the cast is filled to the brim with up and coming actors such as Tye Sheridan, Ezra Miller, Kier Gilchrist, Johnny Simmons, Moises Arias, Jack Kilmer and Thomas Mann,) Angarano takes the cake.
He is fascinating to watch from start to finish. From the first scene he appears in which he is being interviewed for a position in the experiment, he brings both humanity and an uneasy feeling that he may unexpectedly snap to the character. I haven't seen such a rich and complex performance in quite some time. However, everyone is wonderful. One of the biggest compliments I can give the actors is that despite knowing almost all of them extremely well, not once did I see the actor come out in any of them. I not only completely bought their characters but didn't even recognize them within the performance.
The ending is also totally profound. I understand that the ending is the one part Alvarez and Talbott had to take some creative licensing on. Knowing a lot about the real experiment (it's such a fascinating thing to read and hear about,) I can say what they did is not completely farfetched. While the real experiment does not exactly conclude the way the film portrays it, the idea of the real ending is still pretty much there. They did, however, also manage to write in a fascinating ending that says a lot about human beings and who we are.
The Stanford Prison Experiment is a completely worthwhile thriller (yes, it's in that genre simply because of how damn creepy the events are) that demands to be seen at least once. The complete sense of realism created by Alvarez, Talbott and their crew of phenomenal young actors is unlike anything I've ever seen. If there's ever such a thing as time traveling back to a certain event, this is it. Whether or not you know about this story, see this film as soon as you can!
(5 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated R for language including abusive behavior and some sexual references)
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