The Experiment ( Das Experiment ) ( Black Box )

The Experiment (DVD) (*)

~~$27.99~~ $21.97

Original Title: Das Experiment
Alternate Title: Black Box
Screened, competed or awarded at:
European Film Awards
Fantasporto Awards
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )
English ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
United Kingdom ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
115 min

Aspect Ratio:
Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)

Special Features:
Anamorphic Widescreen
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 2001 and produced in:
Germany ( Germany, Central Europe )

Directed By:
Oliver Hirschbiegel

Written By:
Mario Giordano

Actors:
Moritz Bleibtreu ..... Tarek Fahd - Häftling Nr. 77 / Prisoner #77
Christian Berkel ..... Steinhoff - Häftling Nr. 38 / Prisoner #38
Oliver Stokowski ..... Schütte - Häftling Nr. 82 / Prisoner #82
Wotan Wilke Möhring ..... Joe - Häftling Nr. 69 / Prisoner #69
Stephan Szasz ..... Häftling Nr. 53 / Prisoner #53
Polat Dal ..... Häftling Nr. 40 / Prisoner #40
Danny Richter ..... Häftling Nr. 21 / Prisoner #21
Ralf Müller ..... Häftling Nr. 15 / Prisoner #15
Markus Rudolf ..... Häftling Nr. 74 / Prisoner #74
Peter Fieseler ..... Häftling Nr. 11 / Prisoner #11
Thorsten Dersch ..... Häftling Nr. 86 / Prisoner #86 (as Thorsten J.H. Dersch)
Sven Grefer ..... Häftling Nr. 94 / Prisoner #94
Justus von Dohnanyi ..... Berus - Strafvollzugsbeamter / Guard (as Justus von Dohnànyi)
Nicki von Tempelhoff ..... Kamps - Strafvollzugsbeamter / Guard
Timo Dierkes ..... Eckert - Strafvollzugsbeamter / Guard

Synopsis:

The movie is based on the infamous 'Stanford Prison Experiment' conducted in 1971. A makeshift prison is set up in a research lab, complete with cells, bars and surveillance cameras. For two weeks 20 male participants are hired to play prisoners and guards. The 'prisoners' are locked up and have to follow seemingly mild rules, and the 'guards' are told simply to retain order without using physical violence. Everybody is free to quit at any time, thereby forfeiting payment. In the beginning the mood between both groups is insecure and rather emphatic. But soon quarrels arise and the wardens employ ever more drastic sanctions to confirm their authority.

Inspired by a famous 1971 psychological experiment, Oliver Hirschbiegel's movie Das Experiment finds a group of 20 volunteers randomly divided into 12 prisoners and eight guards and asked to play out their roles for a fortnight while scientists study their reactions. A conflict arises between undercover reporter Fahd (Moritz Bleibtreu), a con with a hidden agenda and the apparently mild-mannered Berus (Justus von Dohnanyi), a guard with a megalomaniac streak. The film begins as a psychological drama as ordinary people settle into the game, with joking displays of resistance by the 'prisoners' greeted with increasing brutality from the 'guards', but detours into suspense and horror as Fahd, who needs the experiment to get out of hand in order to make his story more saleable, deliberately ratchets up the tension between the factions only to see the situation spiral nightmarishly out of control as various test subjects in both camps edge closer to snapping. With a terrific display of ensemble acting and unforced use of the currently popular claustrophobic semi-documentary look, Hirschbiegel's movie takes its time to get underway, with apparently irrelevant cutaways to Fahd's outside girlfriend (Maren Eggert), but works up to a powerful second half that delivers a sustained symphony of psychological and physical anguish. On the DVD:Das Experiment on disc has an excellent-looking anamorphic widescreen transfer with English subtitles.

DAS EXPERIMENT, a German film about a group of 20 men who are asked to participate in a psychological test with the promise of a monetary award, centres on Tarek (Moritz Bleibtreu) a reporter who wants to write about the event and so volunteers. When he is locked in a strange prison, not to emerge for 14 days, he worries that he made a bad choice.

This product was added to our catalog on Wednesday 30 June, 2010.

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