We were celebrating Beth’s birthday at the Branded Butcher, but all I could think of was Compliance. This weekend I’m interviewing the director, Craig Zobel, and I’d just finished watching the film. Based on true events, Compliance is set in a fast food restaurant in suburban Ohio. A stressed manager (Ann Dowd) gets a call during a busy shift accusing a female employee of theft. A “cop” orders her to search the employee. Violations occur. Zobel uses Compliance to explore the lengths people will go to obey an authority figure…and causes us to question- how do we know we wouldn’t do the same?
It was Beth’s birthday, so we didn’t just talk about Compliance. However, Craig’s a one-time Athenian, so we’re all intrigued. He helped found Homestar Runner. He produced Nina’s husband’s band’s documentary. He dates our friend Dana Penrod, whom we all adore. He and our friend Heather McIntosh composed the score, performed by many of our friends. Still I always picture him when he was seventeen…back when I was a junior he and Jamie Huggins came over from Atlanta for this “prom” that my roommates threw every year.
Now he’s all over the media. It’s not surprising. We loved his debut, the Great Wall of Sound. But Compliance is different. At least eight people walked out of its premiere at Sundance. I didn’t know what to expect.
It was riveting, disturbing, the same way Blue Valentine freaked me. Over dinner, I tried not to give away too much. “I’d never let anyone strip-search me,” one of us said.
I shrugged. She could be right. She wasn’t raised evangelical in the South like me. You never know what you’ll do until an authority figure orders you to do something when you are cut off from contact from the outside world. I was given a cavity search when I was fifteen years old. I was in this hospital outside of Memphis. Supposedly I was being searched for drugs. I tried to protest, but I was stressed and locked in a ward in an examining room with two nurses. And that was only the beginning of the violations that occurred while I was in the teen treatment industry.
Which is what Craig illustrates so authentically- how situations effect our behavior…the steps predators take to prime their victims for abuse…the way we shut down when under stress when we’re ordered to do something by an authority figure..the ambiguity of who is responsible when “good people” are coerced into committing heinous crimes. All of this is explored brilliantly in the Lucifer Effect by Phillip Zimbardo (this case is even mentioned in Chapter 12).
I couldn’t help but think of Escuela Caribe and all the parallels. Or of a conversation I had with Mary Shrout Powell back when I was in Portland, when we had dinner at the Doug Fir. At first she had a hard time believing I’d forgiven her. Mary was one of the “good” staff in New Horizons Youth Ministries. I have nothing but good memories…but of course I only knew her in Canada, when she first was hired. When Kate Logan interviewed her for the upcoming documentary about Escuela Caribe, Kidnapped for Christ (for which I was also interviewed), Mary broke down crying. During her seven months at Escuela Caribe, she was coerced by the director, Phil Redwine, to do horrible things—be a witness to teen spankings, at times taking swats for students—Phil explained to her that sharing their punishment confused them and made it easier for them to break down. She was told she was doing it to help us troubled teens.
Compliance disturbs people because it causes us to question what we’d do in that situation. Everyone wants to think of themselves as strong…but most of us can be swayed. I’ve got so many questions for Craig. Updates will be posted soon.