Experimenting with Torture: Abu Ghraib through the lens of Paul Scheuring’s The Experiment

Abstract

In the turmoil of the Iraq War, the scandal of what happened at Abu Ghraib leaked through in the form of photographs depicting scenes of torture and humiliation that are usually kept away from public attention. This article reflects on how that event changed the way we think about terror and violence and how they are represented on the silver screen. The article will focus on the 2010 movie The Experiment, itself a dramatization of the 1971 “Stanford Prison” psychology experiment.
The article will analyze to what extent the representation of certain characters, plots and motifs in the film are influenced by images taken from the Abu Ghraib photographs. The article will further explore what the overlaps between movie and photographic images tell us about the complex processes of psychological identification in a context shaped by fear and hatred. The article ultimately seeks to ponder the subversive influence of the Abu Ghraib photos on The Experiment, and how that influence is portrayed.