Das Experiment

Before Downfall, there was Das Experiment, Oliver Hirschbiegel's 2001 study of claustrophobia and the misuse of the power.

Based on a true story, the notorious Standford Prison Experiment in 1971, the film tells the story of 20 men who volunteer to be placed into a makeshift prison for 12 days. Once inside, some are chosen to be guards whilst the others will act the role of prisoners, a process that involves abandoning their names, their clothing and their civil rights for the duration of the experiment.

The job of the guards is simple, maintain peace and order at all times without using physical violence.

At the heart of the film is Tarek, prisoner 77, an undercover journalist who is secretly filming from inside the prison, hoping to sell his exclusive once it's over. Tarek underestimates his own role in the experiment, though. He starts in irreverent mood, thinking it's just a game until he sparks a conflict with one of the guards, Berus. The two adversaries drive each other on relentlessly forcing the experiment to become darker, more grotesque, as each man fights for their own idea of power and identity.

Das Experiment asks what happens when good people are put in an evil place. Does humanity win over evil, or does evil triumph ? Also, it examines the role of memory when faced with extreme stress and deprivation. Whilst the film is based on a true story, it's cinematic influences can be traced back to Samuel Fuller's masterpiece "Shock Corridor" and, to a lesser extent, Chris Marker's "La Jetee". The comparisons to "Shock Corridor" are there for all to see but it's also worth noting that in all three films, the protagonists are obsessed with the memory of a girl, often using that memory as an anchor to cling on to a more idealised past, a potential escape route from the situation they find themselves in. For Tarek, as the situation becomes more extreme, the memories become stronger and stronger as he attempts to block out the present and focus on the past and a possible future with the girl.

Das Experiment is more than simple homage and pop psychology, though, largely due to it's director. In his first film, Hirschbiegel manages to create an entirely dark world, both inside and outside of the prison. Only in the final frames of the film do we see any natural daylight at all which offers stark contrast to everything we've seen before. The sense of claustrophobia, the complete lack of space, carefully manipulates the viewer throughout the film and, at times, it's genuinely unnerving. Consequently, it's difficult to find any real distance between yourself and the film as you become more and more absorbed. Like the characters within the prison there appears to be escape route for the viewer. A sparse script and real sensitivity from the actors, none of them overplaying their role, only adds further to the film's power. Moritz Bleibtreu (Run Lola Run) is particularly strong as Tarek whilst Justus Von Dohnanyi is positively menacing in the role of the sadistic guard Berus.

Hirschbiegel would, of course, develop these themes further in Downfall a few years later and in many senses, Das Experiment can be seen as a companion piece to the latter. As a debut work it's nothing short of astonishing, a director completely in control of the film and the viewer. Cinema not for the faint hearted, where you have to go the dark places first before you can see the light.

I saw this film recently on the Sundance Channel. I could not stop watching. After seeing the prison pictures from Iraq, the film fully explored the reasons for the abuse of prisoners. When I read some of the reviews posted, I noticed how many dismissed the film as contrived and not plausible. I wonder if any of those reviewers would like to modify their dismissal of Das Experiment. Human behavior under stress often declines to the lowest common instinct. It reminded me of an adult Lord of the Flies. Degradation and humiliation seems to exactly follow what happened in Iraq. As a veteran who spent most of time working on Military Mental wards, I witnessed a number of abuses, as force had to be used patients were acting out or lost control, but all those memories seem pale compared to the horrors of the Iraq prison camps. Since life imitates art, this makes the film even more profound.

Without fancy tricks and clichés, this movie tells us why riots occurs, why hatred spreads, and how to solve it.

In the beginning of this movie, the main character (prisoner no.77), an ex-journalist who hopes to take his job back, participates in a experiment in a mock prison for 2 weeks in order to record down this story, and publish it on the newspaper. Furthermore, he taunts and insults mock prison guards who are also the participants in this experiment so that he can make this story more interesting. However, things become worse and worse...

I am really surprised that this movie doesn't either glorify main characters, nor malign bad guys. Everyone has their characteristics, and their interaction is cruel but practical. We can see how the whole thing becomes worse. Don't stereotype this German story as a reflection of Nazism, because this movie is a warning for every culture which the power is overused. I am really glad that German dares to make this movie without too much clichés and fancy tricks. If you are tired of clichés in Hollywood films, this is a great movie for you.

Taxi driver and freelance journalist Tarek Fahd spots an advert in a newspaper for volunteers to take part in a psychological experiment over two weeks. He arrives along with a group of others, to be divided up into prisoners and guards before being placed into a simulated prison and provided with rules, Tarek being prisoner number 77. Initially everyone is enjoying themselves but soon the guards tire of the prisoners taking the p*ss and decide it is time to clamp down on their behaviour. As they realize that they have no limit on their powers, the actions of the guards become increasingly brutal and uncaring.

Based on the infamous experiments carried out at Stanford in the 1970's, this film had it all going for it in terms of being an effective thriller while also looking at the ways that human nature will gravitate towards the cruel once they are placed in positions of power. I decided to watch this film because it seemed interesting on this basis but also very topical considering the behaviour of the US soldiers in the Iraq prisons – mostly poor 'white trash' types who were corrupted when they suddenly found themselves in a position they had never been in before – control. Like them, the characters here gradually get more extreme – just like they did in the real experiment as well. With this topicality it is no surprise that I was easily taken in by the film and was never really bored by it. Being a thriller in its own right, the film has to settle into the eventual action conclusion but even this works pretty well and doesn't detract from what has gone before in terms of interest.

This is not to say it is perfect, because it could have been much better than it was. The constant cutting to Tarek's girlfriend now and in flashback only took away from the film and she could have still played her part at the end with much less time during the main body of the film. Also it became a little too far-fetched for the sake of drama – a recent television drama in the UK did it differently by actually recreating the same experiment as opposed to this film which needed to go harder and faster in order to reach the eventual running and fighting stage! But it still works and, to be honest, it is well worth seeking out for the 'human nature' aspect alone – it had a special resonance in Germany but it is hard not to be put in a thoughtful mood given recent events in Iraqi military prisons.

The cast are roundly good and all slip one way or the other in a convincing manner. Beibtreu is good once he gets past the stage where he is making trouble for the sake of it – this is necessary to speed the descent into cruelty but it was laid on a bit thick at the start. After this his performance is much more evenly balanced and he is a good lead. I struggled to pick up the names of all the others because they were mostly unknown to me but the head guard was very good while the rest of the cast did more than just deliver their pigeon-holed characters, where really they could have been nothing more than 'prisoner who goes crazy', 'timid guard', 'angry guard', 'silent prisoner' etc – they weren't, they were all pretty real people.

Overall this is not the best thing to come to if you are after a sort of documentary drama about the original experiment but it is still a very good film. It is exciting and dramatic while still having a bit of a brain on it – an asset made more interesting by what we have seen in Iraq over the past few months with guards becoming even worse than those we see in this film! Not a perfect film but a well made one that is interesting, involving and exciting and one that is well worth looking up.

I was initially a bit dubious about 'Das Experiment', thinking it looked like it was going to be lame, but within half an hour I was hooked. It isn't the greatest movie ever made, the most technically dazzling, or the most insightful into the human condition, but as a thriller it is first class, and far better than any I've seen come out of Hollywood for years. The movie in inspired by an experiment conducted in America in the early 1970s. 'Das Experiment' isn't a documentary it is after all but a thriller, so the outcome is more sensational than in real life. But I think people may be shocked when they read about the real experiment, as they will see that the basic pattern of what happens in the movie happened in reality. And if people are still skeptical I just suggest they look into their heart and ask themselves honestly what they would do in a similar situation... The cast are all terrific. The only actor I recognized was the star Moritz Bleibtreu, from 'Knocking On Heaven's Door' and 'Run Lola Run', but it really is an ensemble piece and all the actors were well cast and convincing. I highly recommend this movie and just hope that Hollywood doesn't decide to remake it because I'm sure it'll be another 'Insomnia' farce all over again...