Watched Das Experiment (2001)

What is a person capable of if their freedom is restricted? Or, more precisely, what will a person do with unlimited power?

The film is based on a real-life experiment that took place at Stanford in 1971. The purpose of the experiment was to determine how people who were restricted in their freedom (imprisonment) would behave and what would happen if other people (guardians) were given power. The experiment was to take place over a period of two weeks and without the use of any violence.

However, experiments exist to get results that are difficult to predict in advance, because the human psyche is an individual thing, and when it comes to the fact that the participants in the experiment are several dozen people, the situation can completely get out of control. But… let’s get back to the film.

I’m interested in watching stories whose outcome I didn’t know. That is, when they tell about some maniacs or someone else, and I don’t know what happened, what he did, how he was caught, and in general. So this film was unexpected for me in terms of plot and I didn’t really understand where it was supposed to go in the end. That’s why this story didn’t seem like some kind of fiction to me, but on the contrary – watching it was quite difficult, which was very unusual, since I’m not used to films causing some kind of double feelings.

It was even harder to watch the film, given my own life experience, which took place not so long ago, and… you could say that I myself was also a part of the “experiment”, when a person is placed in artificial conditions against their will. I compared what they showed me with what I felt myself.

How, in general, can a person feel in such an experiment? I was often asked why I did this or that. Was I really doing something because I thought I should, or was I “faking it”. After all, for others my behavior was atypical. However, I simply did as I felt at one moment or another. Just as I was asked, some people believe that the experiment itself, which took place in 1971, was fabricated, but I think that those events could well have happened in reality, even outside the plot of the film. Simply because it is difficult to somehow “fabricate” the things that the human brain is capable of, when placed in conditions that are not typical for it.

The film is scary. Not in the sense of a horror film, but rather in its reality and how people can become harsh towards those who are just like you because of power. The film is more about psychology and human nature, which is why it is difficult to watch. Would I recommend it to watch? If…you like difficult films, then yes. Worth watching.