Matthew Spach First off, Dr. Milgram's work is a great subject for a film and left the door open for a million ways for this story to be told. The positive side: It's a well-cast rendition which covers the basic points in the man's life. For someone who has never read about his work, I think it's a great introduction. The performances are not bad, but I think as a result of a weak script, the action plays out in a very dry and unemotional way. Stylistic decisions (such as direct address of the audience by the title character in almost every scene) make it very hard to take this film seriously or to have any real response. Many moments in the film seem to be reenactments done as snippets of a bad documentary on Milgram, where others hit right on the dot.All in all they tried to cover too much material for one film and should have found something more specific to focus on. They style cinematography, direct address of camera, and moments of green-screened action on black and white backgrounds, make the film very hard to suspend disbelief. It was nice to see someone attempt a style outside the Hollywood formula, but sadly this one didn't choose the right methods of experimentation.

room102 The movie tells the story of the (in)famous Milgram's experiment, a fascinating study of human behavior and how easy it is to influence people to do what you want - even horrible things - when you're in a position they perceive as commanding (which may help explain the behavior of the Nazis in WWII).It's a pretty accurate recreation of the experiment and its outcome, but films like this (e.g.: The numerous films made about the Stanford prison experiment) raise the question: why watch a recreation when you can watch the REAL thing on YouTube?For some odd reason the director chooses, at random occasions, to break the 4th wall or use obvious old B&W rear-screen shots at random places. Very strange decision that throws you out of the movie and seems totally out of place.The first half of the movie is OK, but then it loses some of the focus.Better watch the footage from the actual experiment if you haven't seen it yet.

JvH48 This semi-documentary about Milgram's famous obedience experiments succeeds very well in its prime purpose to show the average layman what these experiments were all about and how they were actually performed. We see it all happening with our own eyes, in a clean laboratory-like environment with tape recorders all around, and witnesses (sometimes behind glass, other times in plain view) who record everything noteworthy as inherent part of the proceedings. When behind glass they proved very useful to throw some comments in our direction. On average, a consistent 65% of volunteers went to the end with lethal voltages administered, in spite of cries of pain and other alarming noises from the receiving side. These experiments are repeated with hundreds of volunteers of various backgrounds, races and sexes. Actual numbers may vary, but the 65% rule of thumb remains unchallenged.As a side benefit, Milgram's family life is included too. We see how he met his wife, and we see two children appear later on. The role of his wife is to add some elements potentially considered by the ideal viewer, like how women would behave in these experiments. After this suggestion is honored we see that it really makes no difference in the statistical outcome. The participation of his wife may attract people who avoid boring documentaries as a rule, and I think that it was a good idea to give her a visible role in the script to make it acceptable for a broader audience.Also adding a bit to the context where the above happened, is that we see fragments of Eichmann's trial shown on TV, that being a contemporary issue at the time (1961). We see and hear part of Eichmann's statement where he explicitly says that he was only following orders, and that everything he did was backed by his superiors. The link is obvious, and it may explain a lot of the hoopla around the publication of Milgram's experiments.Main protagonists in the experiment in the form of a role play are a "pupil" and a "teacher", the latter asking questions and punishing each wrong answer with electric shocks of increasing strength. Unnoticed by the teacher is that the pupil role is in fact played by a tape recorder, producing the actual cries of pain and requests for help. We also see that teacher and pupil shake hands afterwards, demonstrating that no one was actually severely wounded in the proceedings. The teacher assumes that the real purpose of the experiment lies in studying the pupil who has to learn under duress. But we know that the teacher actually has the main role in the play, while finding out how far someone will go in administering pain to the pupil on every wrong answer. The real pressure is actually coming from the laboratory-coated authority figure behind the teacher's back, who states to assume all responsibility and insists that the experiment is completed in full.At first I was wondering about the many scenes where Milgram speaks directly to us, the viewers, even during a social visit to a colleague (with respective wives), where he detaches himself from the conversation every now and then to make a point directly to us. It took some time to get used to this approach. In hindsight I prefer it very much above the traditional wise-crack voice-over that has become a nuisance in almost any documentary. There were two instances where Milgram was followed by an elephant while he spoke to us, peculiarly unnoticed by the others who walked around. I assume it refers to the proverbial "while elephant in the room", something that will be missed by viewers who are not well versed in the English language. Anyway, we get ample chance to hear Milgram explain that he himself was surprised by the results.The dramatized semi-documentary format serves its purpose, and succeeds very well in providing an overview of all arguments pro and con about these experiments, especially the controversial and thought provoking ones. Precisely this aspect is very important in my opinion, as it prevents our own objections from becoming manifest, most of these caused by lack of knowledge about the real circumstances and the real objectives of Milgram's experiments. As an illustration, we see other psychological experiments carried out, like people within a crowd staring above while we observe most bystanders following the example in spite of nothing interesting to see. We see another experiment in an elevator, where people feel uneasy when all others look in an opposite direction, and we see them inventing excuses to change their position to comply with the rest. On the other hand, some of the experiments failed in spite of their good intentions. As mentioned by Milgram himself on one occasion "Not all my ideas are brilliant". Nevertheless, the other experiments shown were all very interesting and new to me, but none was world shaking and none would ever arouse the level of controversy that his famous obedience experiments did.

MarcoLara I saw thing movie before I ever watched it, because I am very familiar with the work of Dr. Stanley Milgram. The actors were well chosen and some of the dialogs during the experiments are basically verbatim to what happened in real life. So kudos on that regard.But then there is that part that I completely missed and the movie brought it to life, and is the struggle or Dr. Milgram to perform his experiments and defend them in a society were we prefer to believe that we are the heroes in our own movies playing in our heads and the heads of the ones we socialize with. Dr. Milgram opened a window into who we really are and how easily we are wiling to cancel our better judgement. This is where this movie shines and this is why this movie is worth watching. And, if you have never heard of Dr. Milgram, then you will really enjoy this movie for his incredibly interesting experiments.Unfortunately, this movie runs a bit longer that it needed be. As this is not an action movie and there is little romance in it, and specially if you are familiar with Dr. Milgram's experiments, you will feel that the movie is boring. I felt that at times, and I wished for the movie to be some 20 minutes shorter.Still, it is a great movie, both for people familiar and unfamiliar with Dr. Milgram and his experiments. Note of caution, though: You may find there something about yourself that you may not like.