Experimenter

Peter Sarsgaard ('Black Mass and 'The Killing')stars as Professor Stanley Milgram who conducted a range of experiments as a social psychologist. His most famous/notorious were his 'obedience tests'. He conducted these using volunteers who were told to electrocute a stranger if they answered any pre set question wrong in a controlled environment. The doses increased as the test progressed. His wife is played by the wonderful Winona Ryder.

His results caused him both fame and derision and he is still used and cited widely today. The film follows the life of Milgram, his family and marriage and some of his personal acquaintances. Sarsgaard, as ever, is excellent and convincing but there are some filmatic techniques that were a bit odd. There is deliberate use of fake backgrounds - as if it were a play – in some of the scenes. There is also the use of an Indian elephant for two corridor scenes which is left totally unreferenced!?

This could be the elephant in the room has already escaped and is amongst us? I do not know but it is a great centre piece to get you thinking. And that is what this film is really about – challenging and questioning our ideas and ideals about who we are and how we would act if confronted with the self same situations. He called it the 'agentic state' whereby we say 'we were just following orders', or 'it's the law' or worse 'I was told to do it'. I find this sort of discussion fascinating and there is much more here in this film about Milgram's work. One I really enjoyed and feel easy to recommend even with the elephant.

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!

I have heard about this experiment many times over the years...I even heard about it a few days ago on a podcast before seeing this movie. The movie goes through all of the work of Stanley Milgram along with all of his ups and downs in his career. This was an interesting movie and I liked how Peter Scarsgaard narrated as he went along. It was good to see Winona Ryder again. The acting was very good and it was interesting to see the backstory that went along with all of these experiments that we've heard about in school and elsewhere. You do need some patience to get through the movie - psychological experiments can be tedious on film and in real life.

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.

"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.