https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlUkzfITiSs
You are expected to watch the film “The Experiment” 2010 by
Paul Scheuring. There is a review provided for you which I found a little off the main idea.The idea behind the film is how conditioning ties in with
control. Through conditioning (which is the money in the film), one can still
chose to use moral reasoning to change the outcomes.
To get it straight, the issue here is the relation between
control and savage actions.
After you watch the film please respond to the prompt in
about 350 words.
1.
In your opinion, what part of the film includes
the actual collapse of the moral values?
2.
Who is the most influential character in your
opinion? Why?
3.
What problem about the human nature was brought
up? Why? (director’s intention?) Please read some reviews to be able to answer
this question.
4.
In your opinion, what is the role of fear in
order to supress human actions? Do you see it as a long lasting solution?
5.
How did you find the ending? Please explain.
RUBRIC FOR THE BLOG POSTS _____/20pts
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CLASS NOTES
(presentation notes) |
Class notes were either lacking or poorly integrated, note-taking practice needed.
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Class notes are somewhat integrated, yet remains superficial in the blog post.
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Class notes are well-integrated into the post submitted. The student is an attentive listener.
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RESEARCH/INSIGHTFUL RESPONSES BASED ON RESEARCH
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The research is inadequately done, and the quality of the blog post is unsatisfactory.
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The research is somewhat done and quality is at student!s level, however, the student can improve his/her knowledge by reading more.
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The quality of the post is clear evidence for in-depth research. The student excelled his/her skills.Great job!
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LENGTH
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The length of the post does not meet the expectations. (0)
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The length of the post meets the expectations. (5)
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RESPONDING TO OTHERS
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The student didn’t respond to his/her friends’ posts.
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The student responded but it is very haphazardly done and does not go beyond “I like it”.
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The student well-responded to his/her friends’ posts. It is insightful and very thoughtful.
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An impressive movie showing the reality which is the disturbing side of the human beings clearly “The Experiment”. After the explanation of the rules of the experiment it is not hard to predict that there gonna be problems. However, personally I didn’t predict people could be this much savage in this kind of a situation. Leader of the guardians, Barris being a psychopath quickens this horrible process. I think the begginning of the collapse of the morel values is where Travis doesn’t want to eat the whole food, and Barris decides to punish the prisoners according to their false, and he defines the faults by just looking what the rule says. The red light is an important factor in this case as a symbol of religion, and it makes people believe and do what it requires without questioning.
YanıtlaSilTravis and Barris are the two most important charactes and they are totally opposite which causes the all events to happen. They are influential characters yet they are rare when we look all the type of people. By this reason Bosch is the most influential character for me. He does not crate a chaos, yet he couldn’t ignore the moral issues and his feeling about what is right to do. He is really courageous when he goes to bring the medicines and be against to the rules, knowing he is gonna be homiliated by he guardians.As what Bosch has done, when the right thing you feel is against the rules what is have to be done is clear, go against the rules.
The humanity is inside people, yet it is really difficult for humanity to show up throgh all the other destructive characteristics of human beings. The nature of humans is almost impossible to understand but it is destructive enought to ruin all the world for sure. The fear seems like an effective method to prevent the actions that are out of the rule, however when you look in a long process it’s not much effective, even it can make everything worse. When we consider different thype of relations between people as mother and the child or student and the teacher we can understand how ineffective the usage of fear is, and after a while it causes bigger problems. The end of the movie is so quick, however it seems enough to understand what the creators wanted to explain, show.
I think your comments are right, you thought about lots of details. You answered the questions well.
SilI really liked your ideas about humanity inside people. I also think that Bosch is a real impressive character. You covered all the questions thoroughly, Great work.
SilYagmur, thanks for this great post dear. The red light is very controversial and interestingly enough, is the symbol as well as a powerful tool to control as well. I liken it a lot to the conch, however, the red light is more effective in many ways. It even becomes hope at one point..
SilI think that the start of the collapse was the first food. The food was not nice but guardians were forcing prisoners to eat that. Actual collapse happened when they gave penalty for the ball that crashed a guardian by mistake. Moral values collapsed because guardians thought that any little gentleness will cause weakness and they will lose their power. They weren’t totally out of moral values but they acted like they are. They had to because force is used to maintain the authority. They were trying to be the authority in order to get their money. Money is the new meaning of their life in that jail. And the red light symbolizes the power of money. The most influential character was Travis. He is the headliner of the movie. He is the only person who makes an effort to stop violence and stay as a civilized human. Others gave up and stopped fighting against authority. Guardians used fear to control him. However, he was mentally too strong to obey a cruel authority. The problem in this movie was about power and authority. People use violence when they realize that there is no power that can stop them. In the movie, Barris was probably an undervalued person before in his life and we can see it from the method he suggests to stop the revolt. This problem is brought up because the director wants to show us that we not different than animals if we don’t have moral values. Fear is a great weapon to use on people. It won’t last long but it is the easiest way to establish authority on people. However, it has a handicap, strong people won’t be afraid of authority’s power. Authority will break up if someone is stronger than the authority. Also, if a person is suppressed by using fear, the first thing that person do is to take revenge on authority for what it done when he is strong enough. On my last sentence, I explained what happened at the end. I liked the end but ıt was so obvious that the end will be like people killing each other. However, the end was a little different than what ı thought. I thought that the scientists will proceed the experiment until everyone die but they didn’t. Anyway, I liked the movie and the end.
YanıtlaSilI see that when you watched the film you felt excited. Director's intention was also this, give the feeling. Your blog post is awesome.
SilFirst of all,you made a great analysis about the movie. I never thought that the red light symbolizes the power of money. I thought that the red light is like a judge. So it is a different perspective compared to my own. You also made inferences about Barris's old life.I loved your post.Impressive work.
SilHüseyin, interesting remarks made on low moral values+undervalued personality and certain weaknesses. Therefore, he actually turns this into a power issue. You brought up a total new concept. I found your post very thought provoking.
SilThe movie The Experiment by Paul Scheuring shows evil side of human nature. People are born with survival instinct and they have aggression. This is the subject for many books and films, like The Experiment, Lord of the Flies, Lost series. This film is based on a real experiment, this experiment was done by psychologist Zimbardo and it is called Stanford Prison Experiment because it was in a basement in Stanford University. Like the experiment movie show people show behaviors according to the environment and their social roles. The guards become more disciplined with authority they begin to act cruel. Authority corrupt some people. At first, the prisoners act like real prisoners, they are obedient. However, when conditions become too harsh they riot. For me, the scene with Travis was unbelievable. The guards tied him to chair and shaved his hair. They showed inhuman action towards him because they also pissed on Travis. It was sad to see humans doing this to other human. In most parts I think human values corrupt but this was striking for me. I think that Barris was quite influential because he showed how authority can change a person. In the beginning, they said when violence start the experiment will stop, but this never happens. That is why the guards become uncontrollable. Of course fear is an important factor in our social lifes. Fear keep people on track, people obey rules and laws because the fear results. However, after some point fear becomes less effective and people show their dark side. In the movie, fear keep the prisoners under control for a while but the prisoners react and they riot. The director Scheuring aimed to show that environment and social roles controls peoples behaviors. This film is successful because it is very realistic. People who took part in the experiment were not criminals or sadistic people like the guards but in the end there is chaos in the prison and nobody is the same. I think that ending was realistic like a reel life.
YanıtlaSilEren, I liked your post and I agree with you on how power change people. However, you could improve your writing by explaining the human nature part more detailed.
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SilFirst of all, I really liked your example"Lost series" for similar subjects.It is easy to understand that you did a research about the real experiment.I totally agree with the scene with Travis, it is horrible. I really liked your post.Great job.
SilHey, Eren. I think you summed up everything with a big exertion. Everything is clear to understand and well answered. I totally agree with your thoughts about fear. I think this time you did a good job :P
SilEren I think you wrote enough for each question and your thoughts are high toned. Great job
SilHi Eren, I agree with Fem that you thoroughly tried to answer the questions this time. Pissing on him was quite inhumane, shaving was also humiliating, not bad!!
SilThe experiment is a thriller movie about a study, which examines aggressive behavior in an artificial prison setting. One group of volunteers assigned the role of prison guards while the others are assigned as the role of inmates. In my opinion, the whole movie includes lots of examples of the collapse of the moral values. But most importantly I recognized how brutal the guards are when they don’t give sugar to the man who suffers from diabetes. Even though he was exhausted they forced him to stand up and continue to move on. I think the most influential character is Barris. He espouses the guardian role and enjoys holding all the power and becomes extremely cruel and oppressive in order to prevent red light flashing. He sees the light and rules as god. He doesn’t question whether they are right or wrong. The strength makes him forget all the moral values. On no account should the guards harm the prisoners psychologically and physically. Apparently, humans can’t tolerate each other. Travis says, “If you lock the animals in a place for a while, the strong ones start to eat the weaker ones.” This is what happened at the prison. Environmental factors affect human behavior a lot. Within a very short time both guards and prisoners settles into their new roles, with the guards adopting theirs quickly and easily. As the prisoners become more dependent, the guards become more derisive towards them. The prisoners are humiliated and taunted with insults. When insulting becomes unsatisfactory to suppress the actions of inmates, the guards fear them. Although this helped for a while the prisoners couldn’t stand their torture and stopped obeying the rules. Travis attends to this experiment in order to travel India. He believes in pacifism and the savage actions of guards make him go crazy. The experiment ends at the sixth day. Travis finds a guard about to rape an inmate. He unlocks the inmates one by one and they use violence to guards. It was obvious from the beginning that the experiment will not last 14 days but I didn’t expect it to end that soon. I didn’t quite like the ending because everyone acted normal at the bus like nothing happened. If I were Travis I wouldn’t stay silent to Barris after what he have done.
YanıtlaSilElif, I think this blogpost of yours is a true “all-around”. I can easily say that you watched the movie very carefully and observed it very well. I can’t see a missing point in your blogpost. Your grammer and word choice look perfect. Also, I found the part where you stated the most influential character very impressive. I really liked it.
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SilThe same part hit me as well, when they were in the bus going back.. Lots happened, now what? How should they feel? I donno, something similar will happen at the end of the book as well.. I'm curious about your input there... Great job. (Btw, I noticed that you are using the new structures we learned lately-well done)
SilFirst of all, I want to say that it was a great movie about the human nature. As a person who always liked psychological movies instead of fantastic ones, I can say that this movie teaches a lot about the human psychology and how people show their true personalities when they are restricted or the opposite, given the authority. In my opinion, the actual collapse of the moral values in the movie was when Travis refused to eat the whole meal because after that, the guards counted it as disobedience to the rules and they tried to warn them without using violence; because the prisoners knew the guards aren't able to use violence, they attacked them with the food in their hands and the real conflict started there. For me, the most influential character in the movie is definitely Barris. His swift change is the most obvious evidence for how humans show their hidden personalities when they are given an advantage that they never had before. A little part of Barris's life was shown in a flashback at the beginning: he was humiliated and told what to do by someone who we were only able to hear the voice of. When he first took the "guard" alias, he was more strict about the rules and he punished his friend Travis for breaking a rule & tempting the others to do that. After a while, he thought that he had the right to do anything to the prisoners if they don't listen to him. He abused the authority that was given to him. Being the superior turned him into someone else, but it wasn't that unfamiliar to him, it was the part of his personality which is hidden deep inside him and the authority revealed it. A problem of the human nature that was brought up in this movie was that the more our rights are limited, the more we get aggressive. It's also the same if we get the authority, we get aggressive in that way either. I actually think that by making this real experiment's film, Paul Scheuring intended to show this problem of the human nature. Just like the prisons in the real life, people change when they start to give orders or the orders are given to them. But most importantly, people use more violence when the violence is forbidden. When the superior people have the right to use violence like in real prisons, at least the prisoners don't respond so there is no chaos. However, fear is not a long lasting solution to suppress human actions at all. It can only make people swallow their real feelings and when they do that, what they hide gets bigger and bigger and it finally explodes, which can cause harm to themselves and also to the other people around them. At the end, I guess I'm not the only one who thinks that the red alarm should've rang before but anyway, that alarm symbolizes the transition, it's like a bridge between all of the guards' and the prisoners' behavior towards each other in the prison and outside. It was so realistic and it showed how people change when the conditions change very well. I loved the ending and the movie because it makes people understand a lot about the human nature.
YanıtlaSilI want to start with saying that I liked the beggining of your blogpost, İnci. Beside that, I think you made a deep analysis of the story in your mind, as it was reflected to what you wrote. It is well organized and the questions are carefully answered. I also really liked the relations you made in your blogpost, like the red light symbolization and Barris’ past. In my opinion, this post is overally first-class.
Silİnci, great point made. Here is a question for you. If there's opression in prisons, then why do we put them there as to bring them back to the society in healthy mind?
SilThis movie “The Experiment”, is based on a real experiment, Stanford Prison Experiment or in another words Zimbardo Experiment. This information is very important, because as it was displayed in the movie, it shows us how different types of people living together can become so savage in just 5-6 days. Even though several topics like pride, fear and rebellion were handled in this experiment, the most striking one was the collapse of moral in my opinion. In the movie, it was perfectly reflected to the audience. The class discrimination among the people who take part in the experiment, as guardians and prisoners, goes well in the first day. That is because people did not internalize their roles yet ,and they were all aiming the money only. Actually after the first day in prison, the collapse of moral begins. The prisoners are forced to eat dog stool, while the guardians were eating and drinking as they wish in the second day. Travis starts a “small-scale” rebellion in the cafeteria, and as a punishment the head(!) guardian Barris’ himuliated him in front of the others. As Travis resists, Barris goes wild and lose control. The part where the guardians abduct Travis, ties him, shave his hair and urinate upon him is the actual collapse of moral, because after this guardians thought that the red light would go, but it didn’t so they thought their actions were “commensurate” and continue to do what they were doing. Among the savage guardians, there was an exception, Bosch. I think he was the most influential character in the movie. Because, even though Travis is very influential with resisting the guardins and seeking prisoners’ rights, Bosch shows no adaptation to the inhumane actions of the guardians and taking risks to help prisoners, and this is harder. In “The Experiment” it is very easy to see some of the problems and issues in the human nature. As the movie goes on these problems become easier to observe, and they become more apperant. In my opinion, these problems are lack of pride, himuliating others, remorselesness, obedience, eagerness to rebel, hunger for authority, reign of terror, ideolizing something(someone), too much self-confidence and pleasure that comes with power. The only reason of these problems is being human. Unfortunately, human beings are prone to do even worse things than these. The movie includes all of them, but the director’s real intention was ideolizing something, pleasure that comes with power and reign of terror. These three problems are related to the red light and Barris. Especially, Barris tries use reign of terror to supress the prisoners’actions. However, this doesn’t work on Travis, and Barris fails on this attempt. Suppresing humans’ actions with fear of terror work, if only there is no rebellious person or people in that group. In the movie there were rebellious people like Travis, Benjy and Bosch, that is why Berris’s plan about his reign of terror didn’t work. To conclude my blogpost, I want to say that the end was both surprising and not for me. I was expecting the experimenters to active the red light, because they got what they wanted, but I was not expecting Travis to stop hitting Barris, after the experiment is over. However, I am not saying that the end was bad, it was rational that they stop fighting after the door is opened, because both guardians and prisoners had enough of the experiment, and they were unhappy of what they became.
YanıtlaSilEge, I agree with you on how Barris enpaused himself being (!)head guard. Actually, your writing is pretty impressive in general. However, there are some mistakes that you should definitely and immediately change. One of them is "himuliating" which should be written as "humiliating" and "ideolizing" which should be written as "idolizing".
SilI like your work. It's obvious that you search a lot. Mixing your search and class notes you look different perspective from me, I like it :)
SilI see some great comments about the movie and its content. I liked your thoughts about the director's intention, fear and actually everything. I think your post is totally amazing.
Sil"remorselessness", exactly. I was expecting Travis to do the same thing, but wouldn't it ruin the whole character? I resemble him very much to Ralph in the book. Once you go savage, there's no turning back. I'm glad some stayed sane at least.
SilWhen I saw the beginning scene of the movie, I expected to watch a thriller that’d give me a few breathless moments but I was disappointed. The movie was great, the acting was amazing there’s no discussion on that. The movie told the story of man who lost all of their morals and ethics as they enjoyed the taste of power. The moment their morals broke was, in my opinion, when Barris insisted that they needed to humiliate them. Until that moment, they were only trying to keep the peace by staying true to the rules but when they started thinking about humiliating them, they started losing the authority they’ve never had and doing inhumane things. Barris seemed like a guy next door type of person at the beginning but by the end, he became a true savage, willing to do what it takes to maintain control and get the money he was promised. And it was a wonderful experience go watch Barris turn into a vicious psychopath whose eyes was darkened with power and I believe he was the most influential one. He was the one who you would expect least to be the turn into a savage first but when he noticed that breaking the rules and leaving without the money was so easy, he slowly released the monster he had inside.
YanıtlaSilI think the movie's point was to show how easy humans can change in order to reach their goal. Without caring about their morals or ethics or values they’ve had in their lives, they can turn into merciless people who would not hold back a fist to shut one person. And that was shown through conditioning in the movie. Travis never lost his values because he knew it was an act but he also didn't need to keep an order, Barris had to. He either would lose the money or his morals. He chose the ignore his morals and kept working for the money. And that is what people do if they have a dilemma that includes a profit.
Fear is important, fear can control people. But the only thing strong than fear is hope. And that is a quote by President Snow in The Hunger Games. The quote fits the movie because Travis and the prisoners (it sounded like a 70’s band name) knew that the experiment was not real, they could get out of it anytime so they had hope. If they didn't, they wouldn't dare to create an uprising like that. Controlling by fear is a great control way but there will always be one person that has hope enough for a riot.
The ending of the movie was nonsense. It was totally nonsense. They turned a great movie about human psychology into a cheesy love story. Nevermind the love story, they didn't get charged for murder! Only the doctor was imprisoned from what I’ve understood but it made no sense, it was Barris who had killed the guy. Also I’d like to know about what happened after the experiment was over. Most of them probably had some post traumatic stress disorder because that experiment was not okay. It was such a weird ending, they tried to end everything so fast and they’ve actually explained many things but it made no sense. I didn't like it.
When I saw the beginning scene of the movie, I expected to watch a thriller that’d give me a few breathless moments but I was disappointed. The movie was great, the acting was amazing there’s no discussion on that. The movie told the story of man who lost all of their morals and ethics as they enjoyed the taste of power. The moment their morals broke was, in my opinion, when Barris insisted that they needed to humiliate them. Until that moment, they were only trying to keep the peace by staying true to the rules but when they started thinking about humiliating them, they started losing the authority they’ve never had and doing inhumane things. Barris seemed like a guy next door type of person at the beginning but by the end, he became a true savage, willing to do what it takes to maintain control and get the money he was promised. And it was a wonderful experience go watch Barris turn into a vicious psychopath whose eyes was darkened with power and I believe he was the most influential one. He was the one who you would expect least to be the turn into a savage first but when he noticed that breaking the rules and leaving without the money was so easy, he slowly released the monster he had inside.
YanıtlaSilI think the movie's point was to show how easy humans can change in order to reach their goal. Without caring about their morals or ethics or values they’ve had in their lives, they can turn into merciless people who would not hold back a fist to shut one person. And that was shown through conditioning in the movie. Travis never lost his values because he knew it was an act but he also didn't need to keep an order, Barris had to. He either would lose the money or his morals. He chose the ignore his morals and kept working for the money. And that is what people do if they have a dilemma that includes a profit.
Fear is important, fear can control people. But the only thing strong than fear is hope. And that is a quote by President Snow in The Hunger Games. The quote fits the movie because Travis and the prisoners (it sounded like a 70’s band name) knew that the experiment was not real, they could get out of it anytime so they had hope. If they didn't, they wouldn't dare to create an uprising like that. Controlling by fear is a great control way but there will always be one person that has hope enough for a riot.
The ending of the movie was nonsense. It was totally nonsense. They turned a great movie about human psychology into a cheesy love story. Nevermind the love story, they didn't get charged for murder! Only the doctor was imprisoned from what I’ve understood but it made no sense, it was Barris who had killed the guy. Also I’d like to know about what happened after the experiment was over. Most of them probably had some post traumatic stress disorder because that experiment was not okay. It was such a weird ending, they tried to end everything so fast and they’ve actually explained many things but it made no sense. I didn't like it.
I am not sure hope is stronger than fear, there is different consequences. I like your connection with The Hungar Games. Also totally agree with you on the ending of the story. I was nonsense. Good work :)
SilThe way you made a connection with The Hunger Games really grabbed my attention. You always make good connections and that's why I like reading your posts so much. Overall, I really liked your post. Go Travis and the prisoners :)
SilI think your post covers all the answers to the questions in detailed. Also, I see that you integrated the discussions we had in class time. I agree with you on the directer's intention. Your post is amazing.
SilGunesss, this is definitely a good blog. I liked your ideas, examples and the transitions that you made between the topics. The content is satisfying and the questions are well answered. Good job.
SilO-M-G. It is not hard to imagine you talking about this for hours. I liked your ideas. I totally agree with you that this movie shows how people change to gain what they want.
Sil"Travis and the prosioners" is cracking me up right now. However, I'm intending to disagree with you on why the ending was low-paced compared to the rest of the film. I believe, the director's intention is not what next, but rather, the shock of the experience they had that is unforgettable. by not dragging the audience towards the next step, he intrinsically asked us to linger there...Right in the heart of the experiment.
SilMovie “The Experiment” shows us the cruel side of the human beings and rule of the nature “strong eats weak ”. In nature stronger eats weak and wants to be more and more powerful. It is also same for human beings. These problems are hunger for power, the pleasure comes with power, heartlessness, obligation, excessive self-confidence, covetousness and not self-sufficiency. There is not any other reason for them other than being human. When guardians get the power they don’t hesitate to use it. They always want to demonstrate that they are the most dominant.The explanation of the rules of the experiment it is not hard to understand that there is gonna be problems. Even at the beginning of the movie, place where the experiment takes place foreshadows us that the ending will be bloody. Moral values collapse when Barris understands that he has power. He is just a man who lives with his mother. He tastes power, likes it and by trusting it he regains confidence. His actions change towards people. He always tries to frighten prisons to control them. He wants to show them that he is the most powerful person in there. Fear, physical and mental oppression together can suppress human actions. Although just fear or just oppression won’t suppress human action for long time. Barris shows them that he has power, however Travis is also a powerful character. Barris didn’t control Travis with just fear. No matter what he does to him, Travis didn’t give up. They are always contradict which causes the all events to happen.Travis and Barris are the protagonist and antagonist of the movie, notwithstanding Bosch is the most influential character. He had power, but he didn’t use it to hurt people beginning till end. In my point of view, Bosh symbolizes moral issues and Barris symbolizes legal issues. Bosch is one of the guardians, despite that without provision waiting he accepted to help Benjy about insulin. Also at the end he attack guardians with prisoners even he is not one of them. Barris always tries to show people that he has power. He accepts to give insulin Benjy, but ironicly he killed him at the end. He is not consistent. I like the movie, but the ending was not impressive. I was waiting different ending with more action.
YanıtlaSilAzra,
SilI enjoyed reading your post I think it is lovely. I liked your comments about Bosch and Barris. I agree with you that Barris symbolizes legal issues. I also didn't like the ending. I think it would be more astonishing.
I liked how you explain the actions of human by using the power factor. I also choose Bosch as an influental character, and your comparison of him to Travis is so right.
SilHim being such an ordinary character feeding a psychopath inside him. If you ask me, humans are the most creepy creatures on earth. I believe he parallels Jack in the story especially when he said, "We are British after all", don't you think?
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YanıtlaSilWe watched the movie ‘’The Experiment’’, which I found very disturbing yet real. We directly witnessed the wild side of the humanity, when they are being pushed to their limits. The experiment is being done in order to observe the human psychology when it is under control. The Guinea pigs of the experiment are being confronted with the psychologic collapse in less than a week. I don’t think there is only one point where the moral collapse happens, but I thing everything starts to grow up after the guardians make the prisoners do push-ups. When the black guy sees that the guardians can make the prisoners do whatever they want, he becomes aware of the power that he has, and then the super ego inside him starts to fade away. It is not only the black guy who loses his moral concepts. All of the the subjects’ super egos starts to turn into something else. Their super ego starts to turn into the red light. From now on, the red light is what they believe in, and what they fear from. In my opinion, the most influential character is of course 77. I think he is very firm because he is able to stay on the right track for a very long time. Even though I think like that, I also think that he is not very enduring because he is the one who always revolts. As a result he has achieved being a fluential character for his prison mates and they stand against the authority together, however they defile themselves at last. The director’s intention in this movie is to give the idea that, when people are together there is always violence and the trial of creating a supremacy. Also,natural selection has brought up. The strong ones stays alive and the weak ones eventually bound to die. If there is a society there should be one group of people who controls them, but sometimes the people that has been given a chance to take control of the society, because they can reach a good amount of power, they see themselves important and they start to be addicted to the power, that they want to show off more of their power. I think the fear plays a big role in suppressing actions, in the movie the red light is their fear and if they don’t obey the rules they know that the red light is going to turn on and the experiment will be over. That is why they try to control their own feelings and actions, however eventually they succumb to their selves. It is just like in real life, people think they need to obey the rules of their religion in order to go to heaven. Yet people kill and rape and do many cruel things that we can hardly call them as humans. In the and of the movie I felt a little bit disappointed because I was expecting the scientist to come and tell the results or take them to the hospitals and do some more researches about the test subjects’ new personalities. I was at least expecting some more people to be waiting at the exit but there was nobody. I felt like, the director wanted to express that even though they lost their moral concepts and they did violent things, he wanted to show that the experiment was their lives and when everything was finished, everyone came up to the same place. A big nothing. No heaven, no hell. Overall, even though I found the movie a little bit disgusting I think I liked the movie. Thumbs up!!!
YanıtlaSilGuinea pigs, nice metaphor :) You gave answer to all questions, and you mentioned so much ideas fluently. About the ending, first you said that you were disappointed, yet then you explained the reason of the ending, what the director wanted to show perfectly. Nice work!
SilHere is a question for your wonderful post, does natural selection take place based on a scale of evil? In other words, the stronger eats the weaker one? Or the more evil one eats the good-hearted one? I think this is the question here...
SilFor scientists, the experiment is a general term for finding out the truth or convincing their hypothesis as if it is true. All around the world, scientists have an experiment about the human nature. They are trying to find out the question "Are we naturally good or bad?". This question is still debated between the psychologists. Some of them believe that we born evil and some of them think we are evil due to the influence of the environment. Lord of The Flies is a book that also written by the author who wants to purely show how bad humans are. William Goulding made an experiment to make a clear stance for his intention. For that question, the babies are a perfect solution in order to understood the human nature because their minds are as close to innocent as human can get. However, their lack of language makes a hardship to get their opinions. Accordingly, the author needs to have an observation on kids or adults to show the real face of humans. Eventually, he selected bunch of boys for that purpose. Likewise, the movie "The Experiment" directed by Paul Scheuring also has the same idea. He selected adults to purely show the human nature and unlikely the scientists try to control by depending them about the money they will get. The film is based on observation day by day. First we can see that the rules of a society still an important issues even in the jail. Related with, if a society has rules to maintain the order, there will be punishments for someone who will break the rules. So that, I think the collapse of moral values started with the sentence " I think we have got to do something". While they are playing with a ball, the ball hits Bosch, even he told that there is no problem, Chase impels them to respond commensurately. In my opinion, the most influential character is Bosch because even he has the power over the prisoners, he never used his power in a bad way unlike the other guardians. From the beginning of the film, although Bosch hit by the ball, he never think that he should punish them. Additionally, when Benjy needs insulin, he risks his position in order to save his life. Barris forced him to act like evil but he never did and even he become one of the prisoners. From my perspective, it is a signal of strong heart with moral values because when humans have the power, it is hard to sacrifice this power for goodness. Moreover, I think in the experiment is representing our society today, the guardians are potency, and the prisoners are public. The potency also wants respect to the authority like the guardians and when somebody against them or not approving their behaviors, they also give them punishment or different types of responding. Related with, I think the directors intention is to show that we are not different from the men in this experiment. Also, just because it is a true story from the past, it is convincing. Moreover,the role of fear is a vital issue that keeps humans in order. In the movie, the concept fear reveals by Chase's actions. When he calls number 22, we can see the fear on number 22's face. In my opinion, when you pervade the fear over the society, the order will not be permanent. Somebody will revolt against and in the movie, that somebody is Travis who revolts against Barris for his dying friend. At the end, the order lost and guardians also lost their powers. Accordingly, I think, the fear is not a long lasting solution, eventually it will collapse. Finally, the ending was not impressive and it is easy to guess. Even the experiment is only 14 days, due to the human nature, it only takes 6 days. It shows that humans don't need much time to be evil, it is inside of us. However, as Travis said," we can still do something about it".
YanıtlaSilFear and order seem to be two inseperable friends, and sadly one dominates the other. Order without fear is just the utopia I believe, thank you Ilgaz. You have thrived so much this year.
SilThis movie is an impressive one which shows us everything about the real human nature. When people are put into a cage and they have a huge money price if they follow the rules of the experiment they start to act like rules are the religion. When there is no superego left we see the real faces of human beings. The part where the moral values collapse is the part that when Boch secretly gets the medicine and give it to the prisoner. Even though it is something which should be morally appreciated, because he didn't obeyed the rules he got punished and became one of the prisoners. The most effective character is Barris because we can see the dark side of human beings and how they show their real faces when there is no superego just by looking at his change. At first he was a sympathetic, religious guy who lives with his mother. Afterwards when he gets the authority he cant control himself and becomes a psychopath. The real problem of the modern world is that no one shows the real face of themselves. Everyone tries to act like what their rules, culture, and religion tells them what to do. For example in this movie the red light is the religion for them, rules are the bible and the money is heaven. When the rules of the modern society change and totally new rules show up they start to act totally different, all the trues and the wrongs change. The guardians tried to fear the prisoners in order to show them their dominance, but as in all of the historical events, it didn't last too long and people started to search for their rights and can't stand being humiliated. Fear is a solution which don't last too long, but may be effective for short termed problems. At the end we saw that when people saw the real world they remembered their normal lifes, the rules of the real world and their superego, they stopped fighting and went to the bus one by one. This shows us that they understood that the things they did in the prison wasn't normal directly after seeing the real world, they remembered their superego and started to think with their mind in modern world. They understood that everything they did was foolish and didn't even talk about it.
YanıtlaSilArda, I liked the way you mentioned about the role of the superego in human actions. Great comments on fear though. I think your answers are clearly written and I really liked your blog post to be honest.
SilAccording to Freud, the most important thing to bend on is the ID, and he believes that human nature can be kept under control by implementing methods to supress it. I believe in the opposite, I believe instead of increasing oppression on id, one should try to improve the superego-the conscience...
SilThe movie "The Experiment" by Paul Scheuring is about an experiment, obviously, 26 men are chosen to participate in the roles of guards and prisoners in a psychological study that delivers all the actions that are considered aggressive and "inhumane" which can be done by humans if they are forced into their limits. In other hand, the movie reflects that when an authority is given to the people, they use it harsh and on their own benefits by the name of justice and equality. It is based on a real experiment that took place in 1971 and got the name of the Stanford Prison experiment organized by the American scientist Philip Zimbardo. The director's intentions were to reflect and transfer the behavior of people caught up in the extreme and claustrophobic conditions. The moral values collapsed by the man who had nail polishes were forcing them to clean their plates. He was trying to apply a rule which is given by the instructor of the experiment who is, in my opinion, a psychopathic genius. The "moral values" exist only in people's minds that are modernized and who hide their real ego that couldn't evolve throughout the evolution. Moral values need to exist in order people to live together in the community and for the continuous of human race. The part that Travis refused to eat the food on his plate helped other "prisoners" to bring up their rage against the rules of the "prison. The most influential character was the black man called "Bosch" who is chosen to be guardian, but then changed side. In my opinion, he reflects the human behavior of how human beings have that sense or skill which is congenital, that leads them to be wildly obstinate against the authority. Fear is a strong feeling that humans have and it has a lot of impact on us in everyday life. It suppresses our actions, behaviors and even controls our words. Nevertheless, it remains deficient when it comes to suppress the human actions that belong to the wild, such as aggression. As examined in the movie, initially, the guardians that counted as authority, by the leadership of Barris, tried to scare the prisoners in order them to obey their orders. At first, it seemed to be working; nevertheless, rage demolished the authority. The ending was not that much interesting and impressive, but it reflects the theme of the movie. Everybody was shocked when they got out of the prison. Their aggression eased by the feeling of freedom.
YanıtlaSilThe "moral values" exist only in people's minds that are modernized and who hide their real ego that couldn't evolve throughout the evolution. What a wonderful sentence, just summarizing the whole idea, superego protects its signficance yet, it is also superficial and almost artificial to human body as it is injected. Great job!!!
SilIt was a masterpiece that how human being can be savages. In the movie people they have shown their real faces. The most interesting part was that actually the rules were really simple and they could have spent their time in a fun way. Most dangerous factor was the money because money changes people a lot. In the prison authority was very crucial and also very hard to ensure. Guardians should keep the authority in their hands if they did not they can lose their money. Fear of loosing the money was much more greater than anything than the human ethics and respect. The braking point was definitely the part that guardians have came up with the idea of breaking prisoners self confidence and humiliating them at front of everyone. Actually that was the ironically the best mistake that they could have choose. After that decision they did horrible things to prisoners. There was the only one guy who did not do that plus showed us that there will be always a hope to look for. He was the symbol of human ethics and respect. In my opinion if he did want to control the prisoners he would be the guy because he was acting to people in such a kind way. Which is actually all guardians should have done. This shows us the actually the basic society problems in our real life. People always had problems with the people who holds the authority. Mostly the people who holds it uses his power and if you are powerful people will fear from you. They will be people also who are fearless and trying to resist to it. We human beings most of the time we brake the rules if there is no serious punishment at the end. In our world from different countries and cultures some of them choose the factor being nice and trying to fallow the word "justice" and some of them which I think it is the best like UAE they offer the ultimate price to any kind of criminal situations or authority problems. It is in our nature that we have the emotion fear and feeling it very strongly. It is coming from way earlier than today. When we look at the history the passed governments people always used the factor of fear in order to supress people's action. You might think that it is efficient in short term but I believe that it is also efficient in long terms. Let's just compare Turkey and UAE we fallow the word "justice" in the courts. When we come to result it is just a scandal. Criminal issues happens all of the time and people do that because the punishment is not enough! So that in their psychology " Oh well nothing happened to me and you know what I kind of like this just gonna keep this doing" it is really normal to think him like that because he has no fear and a man without fear means he is limitless! That is why we need the factor fear in order to get those people out of trouble and UAE is the perfect example the reason is they give you the feeling of the fear in a very well way. People always thinks the consequences of the actions they have done or they will. As we see it as an example the criminal situations almost never happens. When we come to movie I found it as a proof because if there were not any weak chains the authority would have kept perfectly because they were showing them what would happen if they do not obey them.
YanıtlaSilBringing the money issue up is spectacular as it is proving your own TED talk topic.. You are right about justice falling apart in Turkey as well.. Striking and daring points made. Great job! I admire your wording btw..
SilThe part where the moral values collapse is when Barris' plan to humiliate the prisoners because Barris pretty much a loser in his own personal life. However Barris, like most people, is blinded by power that changes behaivour towards the prisoners. At first I think that Barris was the most influencial character because his plans was working out and other guardians had trust in him. He was able to scare others. However, at the end of the story prisoner 77 was the most influencial character, in my opinion, because he rationalize other prisoners against the guradians with his strength and durability. It was about being blinded by the power as the athority. The moral values of the story was collapsed by the power that authority had. The reason behşnd iving such an example of moral breakdown was to show that this kind of breakdown happens all the time with the goventments and people whom are in power. Fear is a concept that bascially controls our actions towards things. When an another human takes control of your fears that means that human is controlling you. That is what happens in the movie. They basically take control of their fears by torturing them and even killing one of them thus fear is playing a huge role in this movie. However at some point people overcome their fear and this control of fear proves to be nothing but a short term solution. Finally i find that the ending of the story was satisfying because it created a scenario of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan got beaten like that and there fore it very much pleased me. ;)
YanıtlaSilOhh,striking facts being revealed... What can I say, you are right. Also about fear as well, sadly, it makes people do things they cannot imagine, and when power switched hands, rocks roll down the hill like never before.
SilNext time, write a little longer :)
The movie called ‘The Experiment’ is a movie about man named Travis who need instant money to go İndia because he wants to be with his girlfriend. While searching for a job hefounds a ‘Behaviour experiment ‘ that gives one thousand dolars per day to participants. They choose Travis and some other people for the experiment . They seperate them in two groups , guardians and the prisoner which guardians can rule the whole prison and prisoners must obey to their rules .They choose Travis as a prisoner .At first they were all trying to be calm because when there is any action that can be considered as violence the experiment ends . But everything changes when guardians try to make prisoners obey the rules . They start with making them eat disgusting food .At this point Travis makes a difference and disobeys to their rules .I think thats what makes Travis most influence character in the movie , his bravery and not obeying the rules that he thinks its unnecessary. From start to the end Travis disagrees to obey guardians rules that because he is the one who is being humiliated.I n this movie they mostly brought up evil side of the human nature which men’s capabilitiy to do anything to get power by power ı mean having more authority than the others .That wanting of the authority made forty two year old man who lives with his mother to torture someone and made him more violence eventhough they try everthing to do that can be considered as violence.When they realized that they are able to use violence they start to use force to create a authority.Creating fear on men’ hearth is not a good way to create authority because that fear changes itself into anger .It is not a way to create authority which last long.I found the ending so satisfiying because guardians must get paid for what they did to prisoners and also i found that when they get out they act like nothing happend if ı were there i wouldnt stop until i killed that man.
YanıtlaSilYou are such a democratic and calm person, I admire your stance.. I second you on Travis and his endavours...Great job!
SilFirst of all, the movie “The Experiment” is incredible movie. It reflects human psychology and action for protect themselves professionally. In my opinion, most collapse of moral values part in the movie is when the man who is diabetic, needs to insulin. First times the guardians don’t give insulin to him, because they don’t want to lost money and light red lane. For this, they must obey the rules. If they don’t, the experiment will be cancel and they won’t take money. I think this part of the movie is most collapse of moral values also this part shows human nature very well. Money can make people blind and merciless such as the guardians. Secondly, I think most influential character in the movie is Travis. He is only person who tries to stop violence and injustice in prison. He doesn’t afraid guardians and he always seeks justice of himself and the others. Because of that the other prisoners seems him like a leader of themselves. Also he triggers uprising in the prison. That’s why I think that he is most influential character in the movie. Thirdly, the problem is using ways to establish authority. This movie brought up this issue. In these present day, and also in the past, people always use violence and force to established authority. They kill, pound, torture, intimidate and threaten as like as in the events of the guardians in the movie. They pound, humiliate, torture prisoners to establish authority. Is that really solution? I don’t think so because even although all torture and threaten, prisoners don’t tolerate guardians and they attack them and beat them. Actually this movie has lot of message, and one of the message is violence and using force wrongly is short time solution. This events might be causation big problems in the future. Also people cannot live with fear until forever because of that, fear is not a good solution. Lastly, I think, end of the movie is not intriguing and amazing because I think movie wants to show audience that when people have power, they control that like animal. Stronger beat weakness. Also I think that, theme of the movie is that too. That’s why I think end of the movie should be more bloody.
YanıtlaSilI totally agree with you that using fear to control people is a short term solution.. Great refleciton Metehancım, thank you.
SilThe experiment is a very extraordinary film which is about a research on how people act in a simulated setting of a prison. The people there, did the job they were given without having connection with the outside. Their aim to be here is having money. In the film see the collapse of moral valves however when the given when the guardian Barris understand that he has the more power on the other the collapse of the moral value start. He starts to give punishment to the prisoners. While doing this, he only hides himself to the rules. He says , I do this because of the rules. For me the most important character is Travis out of his efforts to stop the violence also he is the head character of the film. Violence is utilized mostly inside the film too show the violence part of the humanbeing. The human have evil side in their inside. People become agresive, when they are under pressure. So the director tries to show this to the viewer in the film. Moreover the guardians or the aouthorities endeavours to use fear to stop people. They have the people to become frightened to enable authority there. However supplying authority by getting frightened the people around you, returns to you badly. As people get used to fear, or fear become less, they do their best to revenge and to do nasty things. So I think fear is not a way to stop people. It’s not an effective way, in contras it makes the people more violene. So it is not a long lasting solution. The more you have the people get under pressure, the more violence comes in front of your face. To sum up, in the end the experiment finishes in six days, this makes me irritated, because I think the prisoners can react more. I don’t like the ending because it can react be more impressive. There’s nothing important at the end, everybody is at the same place when they start. The only thing I enjoy relted to the end the prisoners beat the guardians, this is enjoyable for me. This shows us, when people have chance, and power, they revenge.
YanıtlaSilThanks Yaren, good post.
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YanıtlaSilIn the movie "The Experiment", the human tendency to obey rules and follow orders is shown by a system that emphasizes the human nature and behaviors. The movie shows the evil side of the human with the collapse of the moral values. Throughout the movie, it is obvious to see that the characters looses their self consciousness (Becoming ID: not having the ability to be logical or consider what is moral/No real awareness -Freud's theory) with the roles that they play. The people that play the guards shows the selfish part of human. The ability of having the authority integrates them with the rude and careless guard character. The guards forget what is right or wrong and just follows their own ways and rules. (Turns into Kohlberg's theory: stage 2- individualism and exchange: having own different ways, having, wanting and doing by their own ways including obeying rules or giving/obeying punishments) Their new character which is far from a normal person behaviors, lets the men with the diabetes suffer and almost die because of not having enough sugar in his body. Also the part that pulled my attention was the part that the guard Barris that pied to the his prisoner "friend" which is an unacceptable, exhausting, disgusting and humiliating thing and it makes him the most influential character. It is obvious to understand that he used to be the weak and the loser throughout his life. The way he talks about religion shows the lie about his life and how he hides his character by pretending to be an angel and always following the rules of his religion and believing in God(Does he really?). With the control of the authority, he shows what he hides and becomes uncontrollable. It is the biggest problem of the human nature. Hiding the reality and covering it by pretending to be the perfect, and the best. Even though it is not the point, it is a part of one of the dozen problems. The point is that, we, people, try to make things happen by using fear. We use the power of fear when it's hard to control things around us with the idea of "Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world." (Ralph Waldo Emerson) It is not a long lasting solution. It can make you gain what you want but just for a while. And here comes the end of the movie which fear doesn't work on the prisoners anymore. The experiment turns them into crazy and at the end, they attack each other with the anger of being in control and being around the people who force them to obey the rules. The ending surprised me. I was thinking that Travis would proceed Barris because of the things he had done. It was not legal to touch the prisoners and suffer them. He could use that and show the camera recordings to the judge and put him in prison. It was a quite affective movie by understanding the human psychology and the cast is playing their roles perfect.
YanıtlaSilReligion-the dark side.. Just like the beast, right? Fear defeats, totally, look at all the terrorist attacks and what happens to people when they are scared.. Thought provoking.. Amazing!
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