The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This film tells the story of a psychological experiment that goes horribly wrong.It is fascinating to see the change of the psychological state of the participants. The film captivates and portrays the atmosphere very well. The things depicted are horrible, but entirely believable given the circumstances.

"Das Experiment" is a German thriller movie from almost 15 years ago. It runs for 2 hours and was directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel. This is not the only very famous German film he made, because he is also responsible for "Der Untergang". Hirschbiegel and lead actor Moritz Bleibtreu, around the age of 30 here, received awards recognition on really a lot of occasions and Justus von Dohnányi had his big breakthrough with this movie as well and received a German Film Award just like Bleibtreu. There are more German actors in here who are still somewhat famous quite some time later today. This includes Möhring, Gärtner, Monot Jr., Sawatzki and Berkel.The premise is simply: 20 men are recruited to take part in a role play, in which 10 of them are prison guards and the other 10 are inmates. It does not take long until authority, testosterone and power turn the whole scenario into a complete mess that results in 2 casualties in the end and many more heavily injured, all of them emotionally basically. Early on, there is some joking about the whole situation, but things get far more serious pretty quickly. I thought this was a good thriller, very tense from start to finish, but very graphic as well, so this may not be for the easily offended. Violence is only psychological for almost the entire movie until it escalates physically towards the ending. I personally think that the way things turned out here is not too realistic, but it is not a problem at all to enjoy this as a fictional film, even if it is based on a real experiment. This film was so successful that there is an American movie from 2010 based on this one starring Oscar winners Adrien Brody and Forest Whitaker. And, even more recently, there is another new American movie based on this one here with rising star Ezra Miller in the lead role. Overall, I recommend it, but be warned: This film is pretty tough to digest. Little final note to close this review: "Das Experiment" was Germany's submission to the Foreign Language Oscars, but did not score a nomination. One year later, Caroline Link's "Nowhere in Africa" won the Award.

The film based on the novel by Mario Giordani about the Stanford Prison Experiment in which 20 volunteers agreed to spent two weeks in which one group of them will take the roles of guards and another group will take roles of prisoners. The prisoners were placed in the cells, and the guards had an easy task to maintain order without violence. Of course, if it was all by the rules, this film would not exist. Movie is directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, who became widely know for his movie from 2004. Downfall. He done his job very well, atmosphere is great, camera work could be better but it's satisfying. Technical par of the film is more than solid with excellent acting, especially from Moritz Bleibtreu (Run Lola Run, Munich) who plays the main character, Tarek Fahdia, journalists who expects to deliver a good story by participating in the experiment. The story is very interesting and tense, almost a textbook example of a real thriller with a well thought-out characters. Love story is completely unneeded and it largely destroys the impression of serious movie, but it is well blended into the overall story and does not cause as much damage as it seems at first glance. Historical inconsistency must be mentioned. Because of the dramatic story the events are shown much more extreme and violent, and real experiment was terminated when some volunteers became too violent and there were no deaths.

Das Experiment relates the tale of a prison simulation experiment which derails due to the natural psychological trauma and disorders which (an important detail) do not result from - but are inherent to - the subjects under study.It is fascinating to watch the gradual change in both collective atmosphere and in individuals along the two week period. The conclusions with regard to underlying human tendencies are frightening. The fact that it is based on a true story makes it even more so.I just finished watching this film and I highly recommend it. It is the sort of film for those who like reflecting on the nature of humanity and human society, in a similar manner to - although not as good as - Dogville (surely the greatest love-it-or-hate-it film ever made). The only aspect of this film which made me not grade it as "exceptional" is a somewhat weak romantic element that feels pushed into the story just because the producers wouldn't fund the film without one, but maybe that's just me.Whatever your favourite film-genre is, this is one to watch, if only to reflect upon what you would do, under similar conditions.