Experimenter and The Stanford Prison Experiment Review

I am going to talk about two films today, not just because they have very similar subject matter, but they also came out around the same time. And both need more recognition. Experimenter and The Stanford Prison Experiment tell the stories of two of the most controversial social experiments ever performed, and the impact they had on the participants and their creators. The Stanford Prison Experiment is about a simulated prison set-up at Stanford University in the 1970s by Philip Zimbardo. Students acted as guards and prisoners to study how the prison environment affects the behavior of both guards and prisoners. Experimenter is about a series of experiments, performed by Stanley Milgram, where subjects were told to give people an electric shock as part of the experiment. However, no one was actually being electrocuted and the experiment was actually to see peoples willingness to follow authority.

While these films have similar subject matter, they are actually pretty different in terms of style and tone. The Stanford Prison Experiment is just a straight forward telling of the experiment, and is portrayed in a gritty and realistic way. It takes an unapologetic look at what the students went through, both physically and mentally, as well as the professor running it. This helps bring to life the reality of the experiment and how real it was becoming itself.

Experimenter on the other hand is a more light hearted, comedic and surreal movie. It focussed on the professor who conducted the experiments, his personal life and his reputation following the experiment. It's also told in a more artsy way and has many moments where he breaks the fourth wall and talks to the audience. It even has moments where characters are acting in front of a flat background. While they might be structurally different, they both focus more on the professors and how much they learned and were affected by their own experiments.

I wanted to compare these two movies not just because they are similar, but also because the experiments were very similar. They both took a deep look into human behavior, and made people question the perception of good and evil. Both movies bring out the same questions and make the audience the observers. So if you want a dark realistic film than The Stanford Prison Experiment is for you, but if you want something more light hearted and comedic than watch Experimenter. Both are well made, and have great acting to bring these these experimenters to life.