I’m kind of having mixed feelings about this movie. On the one hand, it looks like it would be a very interesting psychological study of a true-life event. On the other, it looks like it would be a very uncomfortable two hours to watch.
Anyone seen it yet? Any insights?
I haven’t seen it, but I did see an episode of Law and Order SVU called “Authority” in which Robin Williams was the villain and did basically the same thing as the villain in Compliance. It was uncomfortable to watch.
It was well acted and interestingly directed. The two leads are able to convey a lot emotion without needing to say very much at all. In fact everyone in the cast was very good. In spite of all of these successes in film making this was not an enjoyable movie. It was extremely stressful, and every time you think someone would wise up and end the situation, it would ratchet up and get worse. It was such a relief when finally someone is smart enough to put a real end to things.
I went into the film knowing only that the film was based on real life events, but I didn’t know what real life events were being depicted, so I pretty much knew nothing. I remembered the real life analog to the story pretty quickly after the phone call came in, and I couldn’t figure out how they could take 90 minutes to tell that story, and how I could sit through it. So, yeah, a tough movie. Probably worthy of awards, but I don’t think I will be seeing it again.
Oh. I remembered the story, but not all of the details. I thought the employee was only strip searched (only!) and held against her will. After watching the movie I pacified myself by saying “This was a movie they probably made things worse then they really were. NO ONE would really do that think a police officer would tell them to do that. HOW?” Then, I read the write up of the real life events and I see that the movie stayed extremely close to real life events. Man.
I have just seen the first few minutes but from what I saw, it appears to be very well done.
I am eager to get back to it and find out what happens.
IMO, the most important factor in deciding how to rate a film is the “gripping” factor. By that, I mean how strongly does the film grip you and hold you in your seat and make you want to watch it and do nothing else for the time that it is playing.
From what I saw of it, this film felt like it was gripping me quite strongly and so my initial feeling towards it is to rate it quite high.
Resurrecting this thread because I just saw this on Netflix. Like the person above I knew this was based on a real event but thought they must have stretched things but no, it was pretty accurate. It was amazing how the requests started relatively reasonable but just kept building and building until it reached insane levels.
It is the kind of movie where you want to believe you are better than the characters but you never know what you would do unless you were in that situation. Spoiler up coming:
That said, I am positive I would never spank someone because someone on the phone told me to.
A fascinating and disturbing movie.
I know exactly what I would do.
But I’ve had so many encounters with people who seem completely unable to think critically about sources of information that I’m not surprised it’s possible to find people–even basically decent people–who will be taken in by something like this.
I just watched this film on Netflix. I knew it was based on a true story but I thought they must have exaggerated parts of it to make it more disturbing. Nope. Shockingly, the film is pretty much 100% what occurred.
I am having a hard time understanding how any reasonably intelligent person could actually believe what the caller was telling them to do.
Eh, no. Someone tells me on the phone to strip search an employee, all that would happen is a “Fuck you” directed their way and then a dial tone. But then I suppose I actually have common sense.
I finally got around to watching the DVD last weekend.
Regardless of the fact that it’s based on real event(s), it doesn’t work, because you can’t believe anybody would be that stupid, especially with the way they wrote the lines for the perp and the way he delivers them.
I managed to watch it all but I wanted to throw up, not because it was poorly filmed but just the premise. At “strip search” I would have been saying fuck this and finding my own phone and calling the STATE police, bur then again I was raised to THINK, not just obey, and I also knew from an early age police can be as corrupt (if not worse) than anyone.
The very fact that police can be as corrupt as anyone (more so, really, since they have virtually full immunity from consequences for wrongdoing) is reason enough to instill a level of fear in the victims that would induce their compliance. He knows where they work, and has only to say he smelled marijuana or whatnot to thoroughly destroy their lives.
I agree with this. I understand the idea of someone bowing to the authority of police (or “police”), but then they should have cast someone more persuasive or authoritative as the caller. The actor delivers his lines like a pissy, overgrown toddler, and when they actually bring the character into the movie, the effect is even worse. It might have worked better if he had remained just a disembodied voice on the phone, but it seems like the filmmakers saw the reveal of his character as something of a twist, and it didn’t work for me at all. If, by the end of the movie, I don’t understand why the characters did what they did, just saying, “But it really happened!” isn’t enough.
Also, I hated the score. It made the whole thing seem like a lurid potboiler instead of the horrific experience it must have been.
I don’t think I could take this movie seriously, because although I know it’s an accurate portrayal of real events, I still find it implausible that anyone could be so stupid for those events to unfold. So I can’t imagine it would be compelling - I’d spend the whole movie saying WTF, REALLY, NOT ONE OF YOU INVOLVED IN THIS SITUATION ISN’T RETARDED?
I still have a hard time believing I live on a planet in which the actual event took place.
And before anyone says “you never know what you’d really do in that situation!”, yeah, no, I’m pretty sure I can confidently say that I wouldn’t do any of that shit.
Just saw this last night on Netflix.
My 2 cents: This situation seemed like it was just the perfect storm. These hoax calls had happened in other parts of the country for years, but this specific situation-- the stressed-out manager, the young immature employee who really needs her job, the ridiculously-busy night at the restaurant, the boozed-up fiance-- all of those things led to what was the absolute worst-case scenario there. Take out any one of those variables, and that probably wouldn’t have gone where it did.
Each one of the players in the story become compliant for different reasons unique to their situation. The most shocking was the fiance who sexually assaulted her. He started off completely horrified by the situation. It all began to change for him when the cop mentioned the drunk driving thing; second, when his fiancee came back to check on things she seemed to chew him out a bit for not doing what the cop wanted, so he probably wanted to avoid pissing her off; third, the alcohol in his system totally clouded his judgement; which leads to the fourth point: an attractive, young naked girl bending over, bouncing up and down for him, and spread across his lap while he spanked her just became too much for him to resist when an authority figure gave him permission to be fellated by her. Not justifying his actions, but alcohol, horniness and a weak will (as well as an authority figure giving the go-ahead, apparently) are what lead this guy to do this.
The perfect storm. Hard movie to watch, but well done I thought. Interestingly, there were several walk-outs during a screening when it first came out, and an interesting Q&A session afterward.
I’m watching this now. I know it’s based on real events, but Christ on a fucking frosted ritz cracker, how did no one at any time say this girl needs a fucking lawyer?!?!?