What Happened When Stanford's Famous Prison Experiment Got Out of Control
The Leonard Lopate Show | Jul 13, 2015
Director Kyle Patrick Alvarez and actor Billy Crudup discuss their new film “The Stanford Prison Experiment,” along with Dr. Philip Zimbardo, who provided the real-life research on which the movie is based. In the summer of 1971, Dr. Philip Zimbardo launches a study on the psychology of imprisonment. Twenty-four male undergraduates are randomly assigned to be either a guard or a prisoner in a simulated jail. The guards become power-hungry and sadistic, while the prisoners strategize against the guards. As Zimbardo and team monitor the escalation of action through surveillance cameras, they are not fully aware of how they, too, have become part of the experiment. The film premiers at the IFC Center July 17, and on VOD July 24.
