The Men Who Stare at Goats (Grant Heslov, 2009): USA/UK

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy. Viewed at the Fairview Twin, Goleta.

In 2004, a book was published in conjunction with a 3-part televised British documentary.  The material was based on an investigation, conducted by journalist Jon Ronson, into the use of paranormal tactics by the U.S. Army for its war on terror.

The First Earth Battalion was an idea first proposed by a returning American soldier from Vietnam.   In the 1970’s, Lt. Col.  Jim Channon thoroughly immersed himself into the New Age Movement, and wrote a manual of his findings which he submitted to the U.S. Army.  In it, Channon suggested New Age tactics for combating terrorism, such as the positive use of inflicting mental anguish by playing Barney and Friends’  theme song “I Love You, You Love Me.”

The film adaptation focuses on the journalist character Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) as he meets up with Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) who is a former member of the New Earth Army, and one of  The Men Who Stare at Goats.  Cassady explains to Wilton that he was coerced into stopping the heart of a goat (an act that went against his training and philosophy) merely by staring it down with Jedi-like mind control.

The two end up on a journey (road trip if you will) in the middle of the desert near Kuwait and Iraq.  The men get into one scrape after another – Cassady demonstrates to Wilton, his “cloud dispersing” eye techniques while driving, and manages to crash into the only single large rock in the middle of nowhere.  They are also captured by dissidents, then rescued by an independent security patrol, and who later find themselves in the middle of a battle with a competing security patrol.

Wilton decides the premise of his investigation is a lot of hogwash, until the eccentric Cassady psychically stumbles upon his own nemesis Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey).   Hooper is in command of his own New Age military battalion and holds Cassady’s mentor Bill Django played supremely by Jeff Bridges (who is the Channon character) as an emotional hostage.

The roles of  Cassady and Django by George Clooney and Jeff Bridges are reminiscent of their earlier roles as Everett and the Dude in 2000’s O Brother Where Art Thou and 1998’s The Big Lebowski, both films made by the Coen Bros. and for this reason worth seeing – larger than life, over-the-top, but brilliant!

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Published:
11.10.09 / 9pm
Category:
Films