I watched this at home on Netflix streaming movies. My wife chose to not watch it.
Much of the story centers on experiments done in the early 1960s at Yale by a professor of psychology. Peter Sarsgaard portrays that professor, Stanley Milgram. Being Jewish his outlook and studies were highly influenced by the Nazi treatment of Jews before and during WW2.
The experiments evolved, but involved paid volunteers who acted as "the teacher" and each communicated by voice only with "the student" in an adjacent booth. Questions were asked and if the student answered improperly the teacher would be required to give him an electrical shock. As incorrect answered continued each shock was at a higher voltage.
The test was to see if people would blindly follow instructions even after they heard the student yelling "It hurts, let me out." There never were any electrical shocks, in every case the student was part of the staff conducting the experiments. To Milgram's surprise about 2/3 of the "teachers" kept on following instructions. The obvious parallel are the Germans who executed Jews, often blindly following orders.
Milgram received an abundance of criticism, towards lying to the participants and traumatizing them with the thought that they were hurting people. Some would even ask the test monitor in the room, "Please check, he might be dead." But in the end these experiments and others he formulated contributed greatly to the understanding of human psychology. He died at the young age of 51, he was a professor at CUNY.
In a good role for her Winona Ryder was his wife, Alexandra 'Sasha' Milgram. In an inside joke at the party where Milgram met his wife she said "I am with Seth Horowitz". Horowitz is Ryder's actual family name.
Good movie.
Much of the story centers on experiments done in the early 1960s at Yale by a professor of psychology. Peter Sarsgaard portrays that professor, Stanley Milgram. Being Jewish his outlook and studies were highly influenced by the Nazi treatment of Jews before and during WW2.
The experiments evolved, but involved paid volunteers who acted as "the teacher" and each communicated by voice only with "the student" in an adjacent booth. Questions were asked and if the student answered improperly the teacher would be required to give him an electrical shock. As incorrect answered continued each shock was at a higher voltage.
The test was to see if people would blindly follow instructions even after they heard the student yelling "It hurts, let me out." There never were any electrical shocks, in every case the student was part of the staff conducting the experiments. To Milgram's surprise about 2/3 of the "teachers" kept on following instructions. The obvious parallel are the Germans who executed Jews, often blindly following orders.
Milgram received an abundance of criticism, towards lying to the participants and traumatizing them with the thought that they were hurting people. Some would even ask the test monitor in the room, "Please check, he might be dead." But in the end these experiments and others he formulated contributed greatly to the understanding of human psychology. He died at the young age of 51, he was a professor at CUNY.
In a good role for her Winona Ryder was his wife, Alexandra 'Sasha' Milgram. In an inside joke at the party where Milgram met his wife she said "I am with Seth Horowitz". Horowitz is Ryder's actual family name.
Good movie.