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In a case of bizzare synchronicity “Das Experiment” worked its way up my Netflix Queue and arrived just as I finished reading Thomas Blass’ bio of Stanley Milgram. Milgram and his historic experiment on obedience were a direct influence on Philip Zimbardo and his notorious Stanford Prison Experiment. Oliver Hirschbiegel’s “Das Experiment” is a fictionalized version of the events of Stanford. Whereas Zimbardo had the sense to pull the plug after a few days, “Das Experiment” sees the premise through to its conceivable, tragic (and cinematic!) conclusion. “Das Experiment” is certainly a voyeruristic joyride — and the production design is absolutely fabulous! — but I must charge Hirschbiegel with sacrificing psychological insight for the sake of action-adventure sequences. Put bluntly, we never get a chance to learn what “The Experiment” wants. The compliant prisoners are motivated by a paycheck, and the guards’ transformation from average Joe to bullying bastards, while we may fool ourselves into thinking this far-fetched, has precedence from Stanford all the way to Abu Ghraib. I just wish I knew more about these omnipitent tinkerers who set the scenario up. What are they looking for? What are they learning? What, by extension, is the lesson of this film, other than “sometimes people are dicks”? The biggest problem with the film, though, is the dopey love story, so obviously tacked on to please some financial exec. How the hell did that get past script stage?

But as an action-adventure film with some cool psychology thrown in, it is a real winner. Oliver Hirschbiegel is a terrific director and a master of the slow burn (this movie is not all that dissimilar from his later masterpiece “Downfall.”)