Experimenter: The Stanley Milgram Story

I really liked this film. It is slow and, at times, difficult to focus on, but it covers a difficult topic with elegance and style. I loved the old school stylised sets and direction.

Saarsgad and Ryder are excellent. Low key but powerful.

The neat ending will bring an amused smile.

Really worth the watch.

In 1961 Dr Stanley Milgram performed a series of experiments that revolutionised our understanding of human behaviour, particularly with regard to obedience. It went a long way to explaining how the Nazis managed to carry out the Holocaust and explaining other historic events. This is the story of Dr Milgram, this famous experiment and his other work.

A simple yet effective telling of one of the great breakthroughs in sociology / psychology. Is quite a dry telling, with fairly low production values, but it largely works. Quite interesting, especially as you hear about the results of the main experiment plus some of the other experiments Professor Milgram performed.

As mentioned, it is quite dry though, so can feel a bit dull at times. We don't learn much about Milgram himself, even though much of his life is shown. His family life seems more like padding than anything else (even if his wife is played by the wonderful Winona Ryder).

Solid enough performance by Peter Sarsgaard in the lead role. Good supporting cast. Taryn Manning does look out of place though, playing a 1960s housewife. Maybe it is because I kept thinking of her as Pennsatucky in Orange is the New Black!

This movie is about Stanley Milgram, arguably one of the most important social psychologists in our field, and specifically about one of his most important experiment - his obedience to authority experiment.

The movie depicts to my knowledge accurately the setup, conduction, and results of the experiment and goes further, crafting an interesting and weighted portrayal of the man that Stanley Milgram was. The acting is low key, Peter Sarsgaard especially delivers a down to earth performance which shows that he rigorously prepared for the role. All supporting characters (e.g. Winona Ryder, Anton Yelchin) do a good job and no one distracts from the key issues raised by the experiment.

Cinematography is good, although nothing special. Occasionally there are creative moments in direction. When the 4rth wall is broken by Sarsgaard and he speaks directly to the audience, weird things happen in the background, making these moments very endearing and interesting.

There are no thrills or action in this movie, as well as no conventional drama. It is kind of a biopic with a twist, although I would say the biographic aspect is downplayed by the focus on this specific experiment. Many scientific issues are addressed on a side note (e.g. the ethical code of doing experiments, which triggered the proliferation of ethical committees for scientific research).

I would recommend this movie to people who are interested in science, more specifically in psychology (but not exclusively), that do not need action, drama, or thrills and enjoy a well researched and crafted movie with good acting.

"How do civilized human beings participate in destructive inhumane acts?" Wanting to discover why humans do things that seem cruel and unusual to other humans psychologist Stanley Milgram (Sarsgaard) begins to conduct a series of social experiments. The more people he tests the more worried he becomes about the results, and about the fate of mankind. This is a very good movie, but not a movie for everyone. This movie is a little like the Masters of Sex TV show in the way that you watch an experiment being conducted and how the creator is treated. The movie is very interesting and having known very little about the real experiment it kept me interested and worried at the results as well. There is very little action in this and the movie for the most part is Saarsgaard talking to the audience and trying to explain his method, but I really thought it was interesting and I was surprised as to how much I enjoyed it. Overall, not a movie for everyone, but anyone studying psychology will love this movie. I give this a B.

This film is particularly surprising. It's very interested in many of the facts of the real life obedience experiment. In fact, one could even argue that it seems to be very dry and non- climactic. The docudrama, of course, is restrained and doesn't overdo anything with large dramatizations of events and beats. I can also very much see many people getting bored with it however. Saarsgard is really great, totally inhabiting and creating that version of Milgram. Glad to see Winona Ryder on the screen again. Overall, it is very subdued, but it is a great introduction to the experiment that really shows as much as we can learn about what motivates people to commit such crimes.