Yale University, 1961. Stanley Milgram designs a psychology experiment that still resonates to this day, in which people think they’re delivering painful electric shocks to an affable stranger strapped into a chair in another room. Despite his pleads for mercy, the majority of subjects don’t stop the experiment, administering what they think is a near-fatal electric shock, simply because they’ve been told to do so. With Nazi Adolf Eichmann’s trial airing in living rooms across America, Milgram strikes a nerve in popular culture and the scientific community with his exploration into people’s tendency to comply with authority. Celebrated in some circles, he is also accused of being a deceptive, manipulative monster, but his wife Sasha stands by him through it all.
Direction
Almereyda breaks fourth wall like it's a nervous tic—daring, alienating, perfect
Acting
Sarsgaard's deadpan intensity makes Milgram unknowable by design
Production
Elephant on set? Surrealist touches that shouldn't work but absolutely do
Director
Michael Almereyda
Peter Sarsgaard
Stanley Milgram
Winona Ryder
Alexandra "Sasha" Milgram
Jim Gaffigan
James McDonough
Edoardo Ballerini
Paul Hollander
John Palladino
John Williams
Kellan Lutz
William Shatner
Dennis Haysbert
Ossie Davis
Danny A. Abeckaser
Braverman
Taryn Manning
Mrs. Lowe
Anthony Edwards
Miller
Lori Singer
Florence Asch
Josh Hamilton
Tom Shannon
Anton Yelchin
Rensaleer
Adriana Randall
Mrs. Stein
Donnie Keshawarz
Bruno
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The elephant in the office is a real unexplained detail—Almereyda found a photo of Milgram with an elephant and decided 'yes, this belongs in my film.'
The 2010s saw a Milgram revival: this film, a Biography Channel special, and a controversial 2015 replication study suggesting his results hold up—controversy included.
US
