In this comedic look at real life events that are almost too bizarre to believe, reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) discovers an experimental top-secret wing of the U.S. military called The New Earth Army, trained to change the ways wars are fought through New Age psychic power. In search of his next big story, Wilton tracks down Lyn Cassady (Academy Award® winner George Clooney), a shadowy figure who claims to be a member of this legion of “Warrior Monks” with unparalleled psychic powers who can read the enemy’s thoughts, pass through walls, and even kill a goat simply by staring at it.Hard to define but easy to enjoy, The Men Who Stare at Goats is the preposterous yet more-true-than-not story of a small-town journalist named Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) who, trying to prove himself in Iraq, stumbles upon a man named Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) who claims to be a psychic spy for the U.S. Army. With dazzling cinematic efficiency, the movie bounces back and forth between the origins of the New Earth Army–a squad of American Jedi warriors–and Bob and Lyn wandering through war-torn Iraq, pursuing a mission that turns out to have been assigned by a vision. The movie shifts from giddy comedy to melancholy as a portrait of human pettiness, manifested in military paranoia and corporate greed, unfolds. The ending loses a bit of steam, but most of The Men Who Stare at Goats is a delight–unusual yet satisfying, funny and thoughtful in turns. Jeff Bridges plays–of course–the addled yet charismatic founder of the New Earth Army, while Kevin Spacey plays–of course–the weaselly, manipulative psychic spy who turns what was meant to transform the world for the better into a mechanism for propaganda and worse. Adapted from the bestselling nonfiction book of the same title by British journalist Jon Ronson, The Men Who Stare at Goats niftily balances surface lunacy with serious undercurrents, buoyed by excellent performances from all involved. –Bret Fetzer
Stills from The Men Who Stare At Goats (Click for larger image)
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January 11, 2006
#1
A road less traveled, off the beaten path kind of movie. More here than meets the eye.
January 11, 2006
#2
For me — I found this movie far exceeded my hopes for it, which in turn were
much better than the niggling reviews from local movie critics.
Why the difference? Maybe because most people go to movies in order to find help in escaping from reality. They want war movies to be a clash of perfect heroes against perfect evil, or, alternatively, a moral drama of enlightened pacifists confronting the
perfect evil of war. In addressing the sensitive subject of human paranormal
abilities, they want either a total righteous debunking of “parapsychology, cold fusion and religion” (a curse chant I have heard from cetain folks in the halls of power), or
a kind of morality play of perfect omniscient and omnipotent heroes doing miracles. They approach all of life that way.
This movie actually is relentlessly heroic in its own way — in trying to chase the truth, in presenting an entertaining and important chapter of reality (both war and paranormal), and in trying to see at least some way thorugh the very challenging maze we are still facing.
My wife (who was well trained to fight in Afghanistan about 15-20 years ago, but never went when folks decided it might remind too many locals of the movie “Barbarella”)
did not like it quite so much, even though she too is a realist. “Who could believe this? Especially that part about Barney?” So we went to google … (regular google, on “Iraq Barney”).
I wouldn’t really empathize fully with any of the main characters. I really, really do not like or respect the attitude of certain folks regarding LSD. LSD is a disaster in many ways. But the movie had to mention it, to be true to the real-life drama.
LSD did play a decisive role in wiping out the army’s activity in this area — and
that, too, is very clear in the movie, and needs to be remembered.
On the other hand, we really should not be self-righteously dismissive of “hippie style thinking.” Some of us still remember that Jesus Christ himself engaged in a lot of hippie style thinking — and some of us believe it would be a huge mistake to
be totally dismissive of his style of thinking and feeling and trying to “let the scales fall from your eyes.” He who has an ear, let him hear.
The movie concludes with the thought that “we really need Jedi.” This is worth thinking about. Certainly we have more than our share of Sith Lords in the world today — from Al Qaida to Cheney. The alternative view is that our situation is already hopeless, as nuclear capabilities proliferate and groups who would misuse them also proliferate, and freedom for individual humans erodes in subtle but decisive ways
all over the world. Still, there are huge challenges in trying to fill this vacuum,
and it would not work to just rerun the imperfect (though important) efforts of the past. The biggest challenge would be how to prevent corruption at the top from screwing it all up as it screws up many other things, such as the eroding capabilities in access to space. The next, of course, is how to insert real science so as to upgrade the best of what can be found from prior history, of which California is only one small part.
January 12, 2006
#3
The ONLY redeeming quality of this movie? George Clooney. And that was just to look at him. No plot, and one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Not worth viewing, much less renting or buying!
January 12, 2006
#4
If you ever wondered what the Republicans are doing with your money in Iraq, here’s one answer. I wouldn’t call it a comedy as much as a tragedy of sorts. We always knew the Feds were exploiting all that was good in us. Now, we have proof. Don’t expect to laugh as much as have your eyes opened–in a big way. This is a prime example of how to use all our god-given gifts for evil AKA war. It’s an important movie for you to watch, if only to understand why the Iraqis will have actual reason to kill us in the future. God help us all…
If you want to know more about what your gifts are, this movie will illuminate parts of that. However, this is not the movie to show you HOW to use your gifts.
January 12, 2006
#5
When I discovered a movie was being made about The Men Who Stare at Goats I was excited, until I realized it was a comedic work of fiction. Thing is, The Men Who Stare at Goats isn’t funny.
Oh, it’s darkly humorous as the author, Jon Ronson, attempts to get to the truth while keeping a straight face. But it’s not funny, and the conclusion Ronson reaches by the end of the book, after tracking the noble origins of a twisted, sadistic form of psychological warfare, is a punch in the face. So why was it made into a comedy?
Fortunately, comedy is too broad a stroke for the movie. It’s actually a gonzo buddy journalism movie, where the actors play everything utterly straight. The humor is in what isn’t said.
For example: When Ewan McGregor’s journalist character Bob Wilton, he of Obi-Wan fame, asks “What’s a Jedi?” nobody so much as snickers. Unfortunately the audience didn’t seem to get it either: only my wife and I were laughing.
Wilton is on a mission to prove to his wife that he’s more of a man than the one-armed editor who steals her from him. See? One armed men are funny!
Partnering with Lyn Cassady (George Clooney), a Special Forces psi-ops soldier, the two travel around Iraq on a mysterious mission. Just about every eccentric Ronson encountered in his book is collapsed into two characters in the film, Cassady and Bill Django (Jeff Bridges), Cassady’s mentor.
And that’s pretty much where The Men Who Stares at Goats loses its way…literally, as the two characters repeatedly get lost in the desert. Eventually, they end up at a secret base where more than just goat staring takes place.
The film is faithful to its source in surprising ways, from the Today show broadcast of Barney music used in torturing prisoners to a picture-for-picture reproduction of the First Earth Battalion manual (here titled the New Earth Army). The problem is that following Ronson/Wilton’s journey to its logical conclusion should end with court marshals, public outrage, and an official inquiry. The strength and weakness of The Men Who Stare at Goats is that it unflinchingly deals with this problem…it’s just that the solution is patently ridiculous. The film drives right off the cliff into a wish fulfillment fantasy that saps the strength of the rest of the movie.
The film ends with a sucker punch (SPOILER). Wilton publishes the truth, and instead of outrage, the world just laughs. The moral is that mass media turned the awful true story into a comedy…just like a comedic buddy movie did to a certain book you might have read.
Too bleak to be funny, too lighthearted to be serious, The Men Who Stares at Goats ends up as a hot mess of hippy idealism smashed together with modern conspiracy. It should have been a documentary.