Das Experiment

"Das Experiment" is one of the films I watched recently. It is a German film starring one of my favorite actors, Moritz Bleibtreu. It was based on the novel Black Box by Mario Giordano. Its story is similar to an experiment that took place in Stanford, California. Moritz Bleibtreu plays a taxi driver who answers an ad for an psychological experiment dealing with the roles of prisoners and guards. The use of violence is supposed to be forbidden, and participants are given the promise that they would be able to leave if they are not able to complete the experiment. Bleibtreu's character had previously worked as a reporter for a newspaper. He gets the paper to agree to letting him write about the experiment. Some participants will be prisoners, and some will be guards. Things quickly get out of control. The experiment goes on longer than it should. The guards abuse their authority. There are some scenes that would arouse some fetishists. One of these is a scene where the character played by Moritz Bleibtreu is humiliated by the guards. They shave his head, then after several guards urinate on him. After that he is forced to clean toilets with his tunic. After he cleans the toilet with it he is forced to wear it dirty with urine and feces. He is forced to clean feces off of a toilet with his fingernail. The guards wear full uniforms, and the prisoners only wear short tunics without undwear. The prisoners are forced to address the prison guards formally, but the prisoners are only referred to by their numbers. It is a very intense, well-made film. Bleibtreu's character has the number 77 in the film, but on the cover of the DVD his number is 82. The film shows another aspect of the wide range of Moritz Bleibtreu's acting ability. Oliver Stokowski, who is #82 in the film, is another of my favorites. It is an accurate portrayal of what can happen when people are given too much authority.