We all want to believe that we're good people; that we're not capable of cruel, inhuman, acts. But what if that isn't the case? What if we all have the capability for great evil? In 1971, a professor at Stanford found out that just might be the case, and a new film by Kyle Patrick Alvarez offers a look at that experiment.
The whole concept the professor employed sounds pretty simple: randomly divide a group of college students into prisoners and guards, put them in a fake jail, and see what happens. The answer is awful things. Awful things happen.
Over the course of the two-hour film, we get to see the students selected, assigned a role, and then a complete breakdown of acceptable society. The Stanford Prison Experiment can be a difficult film to watch, not in how graphic it is—there is no blood and only minor physical violence—but simply in its depicting of how quickly average people can abuse their power.
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The whole concept the professor employed sounds pretty simple: randomly divide a group of college students into prisoners and guards, put them in a fake jail, and see what happens. The answer is awful things. Awful things happen.
Over the course of the two-hour film, we get to see the students selected, assigned a role, and then a complete breakdown of acceptable society. The Stanford Prison Experiment can be a difficult film to watch, not in how graphic it is—there is no blood and only minor physical violence—but simply in its depicting of how quickly average people can abuse their power.
Continue reading…
Continue reading...