A Balsa

There is a fair amount of "stuff" going on here. Arguably the most interesting aspect of this experiment is the manner in which it is conducted - . An aspect that isn't scrutinised in any greater depth.

There are a few, non negotiable, rules that apply to scientific experiments, a number of which were broken in this study:

• A honest researcher doesn't have an agenda to, by means of bias, validitie their hypothesis. A study/experiment is exactly what it implies - a test to see if a theory can be further validated. Trying to influence a study to prove your point is a big no-no.

So... before the experiment began it was, from a scientific point of view a "non-starter".

• A scientific study is most often, and certainly in the case, required to outline what "it is looking for" and "how it is going to be conducted" - before it begins. Changing objective and methodology once the study has commenced is another bi no-no

• The most flagrant breach of conduct is having the "scientist" play an active part in the study - and thus play an active roll in the findings. That is an, enormous, NO-NO.

So... whatever The Raft was - it was not a scientific study and it's findings, whatever they turned out to be, were unlikely to be accepted by any form of "academia".

Then there are the obvious, and hugely relevant, ethical questions. That any higher educational establishment would allow an experiment which, in its definition, aims at placing "real people" in harms way just to study how they would react - is incomprehensible.

There is a documentary to be had out of all this - it's the one covering how it was ever allowed to happen and why nobody ended up in court after its completion.

An interesting documentary about an experiment to create violence and tension upon a raft that backfired on the Santiago who organised it as it produced only unity and lifelong bonds despite his provocation.

The old footage is fantastic and the interviews with the seven that are still alive are revealing but I would have liked a description of what happened to the men on the boat after the experiment. Absolutely no background to what happened to them and that lets the film down slightly .

In a way this was the forerunner to reality TV as basically this was Big Brother but on a boat . I'd definitely tune in to watch a modern day version of that .

There is no action in this movie. The experiment was practicaly a disaster, resulting in totally different manner than expected. My 8 friends and me were on a boat for 7 days last summer. More things happened to us every single day than this crew experienced in 101 days. Avoid this movie. It's movie about nothing

This is an unexpected gem, as funny as it is wise. I'd literally never heard of the Acali. Fifteen years on, we were still reading Lord of the Flies at school, and all the grown-ups around me were nodding sagely. Had the media told the story this film tells instead of dubbing Santiago Genovés' ambitious project the sex raft, public opinion might have changed. The anthropologist expected his volunteers to develop aggressions towards each other during their long and lonely voyage. They didn't. So he did. Until he broke down and cried for the first time since childhood. He certainly learned something - about himself. I have rarely seen such a convincing demonstration of the self-help truism that aggression, anger and an overdeveloped need for control stem from repressed grief. Who would have thought that a macho man in his fifties could put us vs. them aside after all, and open up so far? Still, what touched me most was the reunion of the surviving volunteers, more than four decades later: most of all Captain Maria, against whom Genovés mutineered, and engineer Fé, whom he tried to set up with the Catholic priest on the expedition for no better reason than the colour of their skins. Fé's story, in particular, made me want to follow the advice an euphoric Genovés gives to everyone after it's all over: build your own raft! She really nailed it when she said (quoting from memory, sorry for any mistakes): I think Santiago's experiment was a huge success, but he missed it.

I really enjoyed this film. The concept of the "experiment" was interesting to me from an anthropological perspective. I was fascinated getting to know the characters and how their experience progressed. It missed a 10 because I would've been okay with it being a little longer and getting to know more about the dynamics with the characters that past away before the film began.