Das Experiment

Das Experiment
(2001) [Trailer]

Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel (IMDB)

Ryan Gosling is so HOTTT right now. What does that have to do with Das Experiment? Absolutely nothing but an intro is an intro (and Gosling is hot right now). Anyway, hello East Village Film Society readers (if you exist), my name is Sam. I am currently one of the editors of the East Village Film Society Blog and have decided to do an (Das) experiment with the idea of writing as well. My style is going to be a little different than the master critic Tallzy but I think with a little time (ok a lot) you will hopefully find my reviews to be up to the standard set prior to my arrival. So without further ado…..

Das Experiment is a truly interesting and intense film. It is a psychological German film about the effect of power and control. The premise revolves around (you guessed it) an experiment in which a group of 20 men are split into 2 groups, prison guards and prisoners, and are placed in a fake prison. Both groups are told in order to get paid, you must complete two weeks in these conditions. The guards are then told specifically, if the prisoners don’t follow their rules they will not get paid. As you can imagine (or else this movie wouldn't be very interesting) things don’t go as planned for the guards.

Overall, I thought this was a fantastic film. A lot of horrible things happen (again they are in prison), yet it still seemed very believable to me. The acting is fantastic and there are many times where I caught myself thinking, wow, what would I do in that situation? This to me is the essence of a good film, one which you can lose yourself in. This film challenges you to think (I know a novel idea, film that has more depth than do vampires and werewolves get along), is violence ever the answer? Don’t answer until you watch.