The Tenth Level

When reading my review, please consider my rating carefully. I saw it when I was a kid and it has not been on TV for many, many years AND it's not available on video. So, if I COULD see it again, maybe I would think less highly of it.

The reason I am rating it so high is that this film was very instrumental in influencing my career choices. As a psychology teacher, much of the time is spent discussing the moral implications of the famous Milgram Studies--on which this TV movie is based. It's too bad that such a moral dilemma is rarely discussed on television--TV too seldom is about moral decisions and choices.

If it every comes back on TV or video, get a copy FAST--it may be your only chance!

PS--NOTE that all the reviews as of 2/13/06 are VERY positive yet the movie has a score of only 5.0--this doesn't make sense. Please don't dismiss this film too quickly based on such a low score!

UPDATE (11/24/15)--The film IS currently available on YouTube. I haven't yet re-watched it but thought you might like to know.

This made-for-TV movie is taken directly from the work of Dr. Stanley Milgram. Although much of Milgram's scientific methods are omitted in favor of dramatic content, the central point of the experiment remains true and very poignant. There is supposed to be a remake of this film which came out in 2005. I haven't seen it and the title eludes me (something like Atrocity?). However, like the subject matter of "The Tenth Level", there are many eye-popping discoveries in psychology which movies could exploit to lay naked the flaws and fallacies of human nature without Hollywood's melodrama making the case inane and useless to a public desperately in need of modern morality tales. The most wonderful thing about "The Tenth Level" was that it sought a higher ground instead of the formulaic boy-meets-girl, boy-saves-world, boy-gets-girl garbage. If there is any way you can see this film, it is well worth watching even if all you wish to see is what William Shatner did between Star Trek and T. J. Hooker.

I sat transfixed, even through the commercials (made for TV, I think), and it affected me on a deep emotional level. I loved it, but unfortunately, it must have been deemed too powerful, as I have never seen it aired again. I have not talked with anyone else who has seen it, other than the person who viewed it with me originally. I wish I could find a copy of it, as I would like to share it with others. I guess it is not available anywhere, and that is indeed a shame.

Like the other commenters, I saw this as a child. I would have been 9 years old, but I still remember the shocking realization of the fact that this experiment reveals (depressingly) that most people are willing throw all their beliefs out the window and submit unquestioningly to authority.

It's not easy to stand up to entrenched authority, with the only thing on your side the knowledge that righteousness is with you. What I took away from the film at such a young age was that peer pressure can be evil and should not be followed blindly; what's right is right, and that's that.

I remember Shatner going over the top as usual, but somehow his assay of the evil doctor worked very well. Before the final twist was revealed, I was quite shocked that such a film would be shown; the main character of the film is ostensibly evil and making innocent people suffer for no good reason and is a sadist. I believe this was shot on video in a television studio; in spite of that extra added element of unreality, this production still effected me greatly.

Highly recommended. If anyone reading this controls the rights to it, PLEASE RELEASE IT! You will sell many copies.

This is Shatner's most important and probably least-known vehicle. I wish I could remember more about his performance, but it really doesn't matter compared to the issues raised by the experiment depicted here. Laurence Olivier would have disappeared behind this story.

Milgram's experiment involved convincing a subject that he or she was testing another subject (who was actually not, but was performing out of sight, and could obviously be heard) by supplying info and then asking questions. A wrong answer from the hidden subject required the real subject to administer a shock, and each successive wrong response got a higher-voltage shock, up to "The Tenth Level", which was lethal.

Somehow, even more shocking were the results of the tests, which were done all around the world and are revealed at the end of the show.

Somebody tell Shatner to get this put on a DVD (or do a remake!) because it is that important. I have never forgotten it, and sincerely doubt that anyone else who saw it forgot it, either.