The Movie Compliance

[Hatha Sunahara]

One of my major interests is examining why people obey authority. One of my major sources of information on this issue is from the Milgram Experiments in the 1960s. I recently watched a movie called Compliance that deals with this subject and does an excellent job of dramatizing the awe that people have for authority.

It is a story about the manager of a fast food restaurant who gets a call from someone claiming to be a cop who says that one of the restaurant's employees stole money from a customer's purse while it was sitting on the counter. The employee accused is a young teenage girl, and the manager is instructed to detain the employee until the police arrive, and to follow all other instructions the cop on the phone gives her. Everyone does what they are told to do on the authority of the cop on the phone. No one questions this authority. Here is a link to the plot synopsis on IMDB:


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1971352/...ef_=tt_stry_pl

Here's the official trailer:



I think this movie beautifully summarizes and portrays the core problem in American culture: unquestioning obedience to authority. People don't see it as a problem--it is just a cultural norm. When authority speaks, we are all commanded to stop thinking and to obey. It's what's behind all the cop shootings of innocent people, and essentially most of the evil we see in our society. Our laws and our criminal justice system encourage such a culture. Just think of what will happen if you don't obey a cop.

I also ran into an interesting article by Henry Makow about the movie here:


http://henrymakow.com/2014/02/Why-Do...Authority.html

I would encourage everybody here to watch this movie.


Hatha