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If you locked a group of 24 men up with very little to amuse themselves you would probably be asking for trouble. Now, if you take said group of men and gave a small section of that group all the power you would almost definitely be getting some serious mischief. That is the basic premise of The Experiment, a film that is based on a German movie and a novel which were both loosely based on an experiment conducted in Stanford University in the Seventies.
Travis (Adrien Brody) and Barris (Forrest Whitaker), amongst others, reply to an advertisement in a newspaper which is looking for volunteers to participate in a research project. They know little of what the project involves aside from the fact that it pays reasonably well and will last for two weeks. After going through intensive screenings and interviews, conducted by Archaleta (Fisher Stevens), the 24 participants are chosen.
They participants are then driven out to a remote prison where they are segregated into two groups; one being a small group which will play the prison guards with the larger group playing the inmates. Nothing is said to the inmates about what they are to do, however the guards are given a strict list of rules of which they are to adhere to.
Things start of innocently enough with neither side taking things all that seriously. As time wears on though things get a lot more intense with Barris seemingly relishing his role as guard and Travis trying to keep things in perspective as an inmate.
Now, the path that this experiment takes is a slightly predictable one, especially seeing as how the guards are chosen; basically pick the six most likely to be assholes and you would be on the right path. However, thanks to strong lead performances from Brody and Whitaker, it does manage to keep the atmosphere dark and intense. Now I have not seen the German movie, nor have I read the novel on which it was also based, so whether it follows either religiously is a moot point for me. So in that respect I really had nothing to compare it to and as such was entertained by The Experiment. It’s nasty in places without going to far, although there are one or two scenes which weren’t particularly pleasant to watch.
The movie is shot with flashbacks inserted here and there which fill in a little more back story on some of the characters and their interviews, and as such fleshes out the plot a little more. Saying that it is not a perfect movie with some of the characters being incredibly flimsy cliches (on both sides) and the ending was a little weak in my eyes.
Overall though I was entertained, thanks mainly to the two leads, and found it a worthwhile way to spend a couple of hours.
