The Tenth Level (1975) - Part 13

Inspired by the Stanley Milgram obedience research, this TV movie chronicles a psychology professor's study to determine why people, such as the Nazi's, were willing to "just follow orders" and do horrible things to others. Professor Stephen Turner leads students to believe that they are applying increasingly painful electric shocks to other subjects when they fail to perform a task correctly, and is alarmed to see how much pain the students can be convinced to inflict "in the name of science."
This 1975 William Shatner made for TV movie was broadcast only a few times on CBS. This may not be Shatner's most famous role, but it is certainly one of his most important. Despite being based on actual events, it was considered too unrealistic and disturbing. CBS shelved the movie and it was never released on video. This recording is a VHS copy so the quality will be poor. However, because it was never released on video you aren't likely to find this anywhere else or a better quality copy.

[@puccinislarondine]

One of the things this movie illuminated for me is that the researchers were, in fact, also victims of their own experiment. They kept doing it even though they knew they were hurting people. That said, in retrospect, these experiments by Milgram were truly groundbreaking and essential to the understanding of human nature and one of history's most troublesome questions: How can good people commit acts of evil?
The quest for the answer continues even today...

[@wdharvey1]

this really happened, as a social experiment. In college, this was one of the experiments we studied and the implications surrounding it. This is actually the first time I've seen this movie as well as the first time I've TRULY understood what happened. We also studied "A Clockwork Orange"...look at how the main character is "conditioned" to respond to certain stimuli. Who really cares who was the actor: it's what happened or CAN happen, given the circumstance.

[@efreedee]

Interesting that William Shatner was involved in 3 productions on the subject of following orders -- Judgment At Nuremberg, Andersonville Trial and Tenth Level.

[@insdmia]

According to Wikipedia, this was John Travolta's first film. If it is, where is he?

[@koln1996]

I had no idea that he was Jewish!!!
I never heard him talking about that!!!

[@mindgamesguy]

@efreedee Maybe not so strange, since his grandparents were Jewish immigrants from Austria, Poland, and Hungary. This may have been behind his interest in these topics.