The Stanford Prison Experiment (film)
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''The Stanford Prison Experiment'' is a 2015 American
docudrama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television and film, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of documentary and drama and "a fact-based representation of real event". Docudramas typic ...
thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...
directed by
Kyle Patrick Alvarez Kyle Patrick Alvarez (born 1983) is an American film director and screenwriter. Early life and education Alvarez was born in Miami, and attended the University of Miami. Career His first film, ''Easier with Practice'', was based on a ''GQ'' arti ...
, written by Tim Talbott, and starring
Billy Crudup William Gaither Crudup (; born July 8, 1968) is an American actor. He is a four-time Tony Award nominee, winning once for his performance in Tom Stoppard's play ''The Coast of Utopia'' in 2007. He has starred in numerous high-profile films, inc ...
,
Michael Angarano Michael Anthony Angarano (born December 3, 1987) is an American actor. He became known for his roles in the film ''Music of the Heart'' (1999) and the television series '' Cover Me'' (2000–2001), as well as for playing a recurring role as Elli ...
,
Ezra Miller Ezra Matthew Miller (born September 30, 1992) is an American actor. Their feature film debut was in ''Afterschool'' (2008), which they followed by starring in the drama ''We Need to Talk About Kevin (film), We Need to Talk About Kevin'' (2011) ...
,
Tye Sheridan Tye Kayle Sheridan (born November 11, 1996) is an American actor and producer. He is best known for playing the young Scott Summers / Cyclops in the reboot ''X-Men'' film series (2016–2019), as well as Wade Watts in ''Ready Player One'' (2 ...
,
Keir Gilchrist Keir David Peters Gilchrist (; born 28 September 1992) is a Canadian actor and musician. On television, he portrayed Marshall Gregson on the Showtime comedy-drama ''United States of Tara'' (2009–2011) and headlined the Netflix comedy-drama ' ...
,
Olivia Thirlby Olivia Jo Thirlby (born October 6, 1986) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Leah in the comedy-drama film ''Juno'' (2007),Louie, Rebecca (June 28, 2008).Olivia Thirlby is smoking in 'The Wackness'". '' Daily News, location ...
, and
Nelsan Ellis Nelsan Ellis (November 30, 1977 – July 8, 2017) was an American actor and playwright. He achieved critical acclaim for his portrayal of Lafayette Reynolds in the HBO television series ''True Blood'' (2008–2014), for which he won a Satel ...
. The plot concerns the 1971
Stanford prison experiment The Stanford prison experiment (SPE) was a psychological experiment conducted in the summer of 1971. It was a two-week simulation A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulati ...
, conducted at
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
under the supervision of psychology professor
Philip Zimbardo Philip George Zimbardo (; born March 23, 1933) is an American psychologist and a professor emeritus at Stanford University. He became known for his 1971 Stanford prison experiment, which was later severely criticized for both ethical and scient ...
, in which students played the role of either a prisoner or correctional officer. The project was announced in 2002 and remained in development for twelve years, with filming beginning on August 19, 2014, in
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
. The film was financed and produced by Sandbar Pictures and Abandon Pictures, and premiered at the
2015 Sundance Film Festival The 2015 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 22 to February 1, 2015. ''What Happened, Miss Simone?'', a biographical documentary film about American singer Nina Simone, opened the festival. Comedy-drama film ''Grandma'', directed by Pa ...
on January 26, before beginning a
limited theatrical release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...
on July 17, 2015. The film received mostly positive reviews from critics.


Plot

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
psychology professor
Philip Zimbardo Philip George Zimbardo (; born March 23, 1933) is an American psychologist and a professor emeritus at Stanford University. He became known for his 1971 Stanford prison experiment, which was later severely criticized for both ethical and scient ...
conducts a
psychological experiment Experimental psychology refers to work done by those who apply Experiment, experimental methods to psychological study and the underlying processes. Experimental psychologists employ Research participant, human participants and Animal testing, a ...
to investigate the hypothesis that roles in social situations, rather than individual personality traits, cause participants' behavior. In the experiment, Zimbardo selects eighteen male students to participate in a 14-day prison simulation to take roles as prisoners or guards. They receive $15 per day. The experiment is conducted in a mock prison located in the basement of Jordan Hall, the university's psychology department building. The students who are guards become abusive, as does Zimbardo himself, as they immerse themselves in their assigned roles. Two students who play the role of prisoners quit the experiment early due to psychological meltdowns. After being chastised and roughly brought back to reality by his girlfriend
Christina Maslach Christina Maslach (born January 21, 1946) is an American social psychologist and professor emerita of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, known for her research on occupational burnout. She is a co-author of the Maslach Burnout I ...
, Zimbardo abruptly stops the entire experiment after only six days.


Cast


Production

A film about the
Stanford prison experiment The Stanford prison experiment (SPE) was a psychological experiment conducted in the summer of 1971. It was a two-week simulation A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulati ...
was first announced in 2002, when producer Brent Emery signed Tim Talbott to write the script for the film. Problems beset and delayed the project for twelve years, including financing and the 2007 writers' strike. In 2006, two competing films about the experiment were in development, one at
Maverick Films Maverick Films is a Philippine film production company owned by Jinggoy Estrada. History 1999-2001: Millennium Cinema The film company was established in 1999 by actor-politician Jinggoy Estrada and producer Eric Cuatico as Millennium Cinema, ...
and the other Inferno's ''
The Experiment ''The Experiment'' is a 2002 BBC documentary series in which 15 men are randomly selected to be either "prisoner" or guard, contained in a simulated prison over an eight-day period. Produced by Steve Reicher and Alex Haslam, it presents the fi ...
'', which was a
remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same ...
of the German film ''
Das Experiment ''Das Experiment'' (English: ''The Experiment'') is a 2001 German drama thriller film directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel. It is based on Mario Giordano's novel ''Black Box'' and deals with a social experiment which resembles Philip Zimbardo's Sta ...
'' from 2001. Maverick Films, having an ownership break up in August 2008, continued on as
Imprint Entertainment Imprint Entertainment is an American film, TV and media production company founded by former talent agent and talent manager Michael Becker, alongside Mark Morgan, former CEO of Maverick Entertainment in 2008. In 2011, Becker became sole owner a ...
Imprint was expected to start filming in January 2009 under producer Christopher McQuarrie. On August 19, 2014, Sandbar Pictures and Abandon Pictures came on board to finance the film. Kyle Patrick Alvarez was set to direct, and producers were Brent Emery, Lizzie Friedman, Greg Little, Lauren Bratman and
Brian Geraghty Brian Timothy Geraghty (born May 13, 1975) is an American actor, known for his roles in the 2005 film '' Jarhead'', the 2008 film ''The Hurt Locker'', and in the 2012 film ''Flight'', along with his recurring role in the HBO drama series '' Board ...
.


Casting

On August 19, 2014, it was announced that
Billy Crudup William Gaither Crudup (; born July 8, 1968) is an American actor. He is a four-time Tony Award nominee, winning once for his performance in Tom Stoppard's play ''The Coast of Utopia'' in 2007. He has starred in numerous high-profile films, inc ...
,
Ezra Miller Ezra Matthew Miller (born September 30, 1992) is an American actor. Their feature film debut was in ''Afterschool'' (2008), which they followed by starring in the drama ''We Need to Talk About Kevin (film), We Need to Talk About Kevin'' (2011) ...
and
Michael Angarano Michael Anthony Angarano (born December 3, 1987) is an American actor. He became known for his roles in the film ''Music of the Heart'' (1999) and the television series '' Cover Me'' (2000–2001), as well as for playing a recurring role as Elli ...
would play lead roles. On August 26,
Jack Kilmer John Wallace Kilmer (born June 6, 1995) is an American actor. He is known for starring in the 2013 film ''Palo Alto'', for playing Pelle "Dead" Ohlin in the 2018 Norwegian black metal biopic '' Lords of Chaos'', and for playing Ozzy Osbourne in ...
joined the cast to play Jim Randall, one of the student prisoners whose personality makes him a perfect subject to comply. On August 28,
Nicholas Braun Nicholas Joseph Braun (born May 1, 1988) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Greg Hirsch in the HBO series ''Succession'' (2018–present), for which he has received two nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supp ...
joined the film to play Karl Vandy, an abusive and sadistic guard. On September 4,
Brett Davern Brett Davern is an American actor known for his role as Jake Rosati on the MTV series ''Awkward''. Early life Davern was born and raised in Edmonds, Washington in 1983. His love of theater and acting started at Madrona Elementary School in Edmo ...
was added to the cast, playing Hubbie Whitlow, an affable young participant whose failed escape attempt leads to grueling humiliation at the hands of sadistic guards. On September 9,
Jesse Carere Jesse Carere (born June 6, 1993) is a Canadian actor. He is best known for playing Ofe, a recurring character in the MTV series '' Finding Carter''. He is also known for his role as Adam Jones in the Netflix / City series '' Between''. Carere a ...
joined the cast to play Paul Beattie, Prisoner 5704, a gangly man who counts smoking as his only vice. On October 10, more of the ensemble cast was announced, including
Olivia Thirlby Olivia Jo Thirlby (born October 6, 1986) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Leah in the comedy-drama film ''Juno'' (2007),Louie, Rebecca (June 28, 2008).Olivia Thirlby is smoking in 'The Wackness'". '' Daily News, location ...
as Dr. Christina Maslach, professor Zimbardo's future wife and fellow academic,
Nelsan Ellis Nelsan Ellis (November 30, 1977 – July 8, 2017) was an American actor and playwright. He achieved critical acclaim for his portrayal of Lafayette Reynolds in the HBO television series ''True Blood'' (2008–2014), for which he won a Satel ...
as Jesse Fletcher,
Tye Sheridan Tye Kayle Sheridan (born November 11, 1996) is an American actor and producer. He is best known for playing the young Scott Summers / Cyclops in the reboot ''X-Men'' film series (2016–2019), as well as Wade Watts in ''Ready Player One'' (2 ...
as prisoner Peter Mitchell,
James Frecheville James Aitken Frecheville (; born 14 April 1991) is an Australian actor known for his lead role in the Australian film '' Animal Kingdom'' as Joshua "J" Cody, a confused teenager and youngest member of a criminal family in Melbourne's underworld. ...
as guard Matthew Townshend,
Johnny Simmons Johnny Simmons (born November 28, 1986) is an American former actor. He is known for his roles as Dylan Baxter in '' Evan Almighty'' (2007), Chip Dove in ''Jennifer's Body'' (2009), "Young Neil" Nordegraf in '' Scott Pilgrim vs. the World'' (2010 ...
as prisoner Jeff Jansen, and
Ki Hong Lee Ki Hong Lee (born September 30, 1986) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Minho in the ''Maze Runner'' film series and Dong Nguyen in the Netflix sitcom ''Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt''. Early life and education Lee was born i ...
as prisoner Gavin Lee.


Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...
began on August 19, 2014, in
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, and lasted 21 days.


Release

The film premiered at the
Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
on January 26, 2015. By coincidence, '' Experimenter'', a film about another notorious psychological experiment, the
Milgram experiment The Milgram experiment(s) on obedience to authority figures were a series of social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram. They measured the willingness of study participants, 40 men in the age range ...
, had premiered at Sundance the day before.
IFC Films IFC Films is an American film production and distribution company based in New York. It is an offshoot of IFC owned by AMC Networks. It distributes mainly independent films under its own name, select foreign films and documentaries under its S ...
acquired the US rights to the film on March 5, 2015. The film was theatrically released on July 17, 2015, by IFC Films, and on Blu-Ray and iTunes on November 17, 2015.


Reception

Upon its premiere at the
2015 Sundance Film Festival The 2015 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 22 to February 1, 2015. ''What Happened, Miss Simone?'', a biographical documentary film about American singer Nina Simone, opened the festival. Comedy-drama film ''Grandma'', directed by Pa ...
, ''The Stanford Prison Experiment'' received a positive response from critics. Review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
indicates an 84% approval rating, based on reviews from 98 critics, with an average score of 6.97/10. The site's consensus states: "As chillingly thought-provoking as it is absorbing and well-acted, ''The Stanford Prison Experiment'' offers historical drama that packs a timelessly relevant punch." On the review site
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the film has a score of 67 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Leslie Felperin of ''
The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' gave the film a positive review, writing: "For all its flaws it's a rich, thought-provoking film which, while challenging, is not without humor and visual pleasures." Kyle Smith of the ''
New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...
'' felt that "Tim Talbott's dense script provides much to discuss and argue about, providing both left and right with talking points." Jordan Hoffman of ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' gave the film four out of five stars and judged that "Director Kyle Patrick Alvarez deserves all the praise in the world for the way he cranks up this pressure cooker script." Edward Douglas in his review for ComingSoon praised the film, remarking: "While this is going to be a polarizing and divisive film, it's one that people will talk about after seeing it, almost as if it was made as an experiment itself." However, Justin Chang of ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' criticized the film, saying "The combination of relentless forward drive and gruesomely fastidious detail, while audacious and admirable in theory, begins to pay dwindling returns in a picture that feels rather longer than its 122-minute running time."


Accolades


References


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stanford Prison Experiment, The (film) 2015 psychological thriller films 2015 films Alfred P. Sloan Prize winners American psychological thriller films American thriller films Films about school violence Films directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez Films set in 1971 Films set in California Films set in Palo Alto, California Films set in prison Films set in the San Francisco Bay Area Films set in universities and colleges Films shot in Los Angeles 2010s prison films Sundance Film Festival award winners 2015 independent films Thriller films based on actual events 2010s high school films Films scored by Andrew Hewitt 2010s English-language films 2010s American films