The Men Who Stare At Goats
Directed by: Grant Heslov
Written by: Peter Straughan (screenplay), Jon Ronson (book)
Starring: George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey, Jeff Bridges

Since the dawn of modern warfare, people have fantasized about the concept of super soldiers, enhanced human beings that could defend their homeland and give them the edge over their enemies. At this point, we’re not just talking about fictional characters like Captain America, either; today’s soldiers really are trained to push their body beyond its physical and mental limits, and outfitted with bleeding edge technological advancements. Military interests drive scientific research like few other fields, leading to all kinds of wacky pills and biological experiments. But would it surprise you to learn that U.S. military has delved into even stranger realms in the past, and may still be doing so today?

In his 2004 book, The Men Who Stare At Goats, Welsh journalist Jon Ronson reveals the eye-opening story of a top secret program that had been set up in the 1980s to research applications of paranormal and spiritual techniques in the military. Based on interviews with actual personnel involved, he relays tales of officers who attempted to train themselves to walk through walls, read minds, and even kill living creatures just by staring at them. Apparently some of them actually succeeded. While there may be some debate over just how true it all is, the scary thing is that it’s not hard to believe certain world leaders would turn to wacky, unproven theories in their time of need. It’s definitely another great example of how reality is quite often stranger than fiction, and of course, someone eventually saw the potential for a pretty funny movie in all of it. The project ended up attracting some serious A-list talent in the form of George Clooney and Ewan McGregor, but could it hold up on screen in the hands of a relatively inexperienced director?

The movie adaptation of The Men Who Stare At Goats constructs a fictional storyline that finds a journalist named Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) stumbling into the middle of a psychic soldier’s top secret mission in Iraq. After he meets Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) at his hotel, he convinces him to bring him along into the desert. Along the way, he learns about the history of the First Earth Battalion (told largely through shaggy-haired flashbacks), a program headed up by Bill Django (Jeff Bridges), a Vietnam vet turned New Age hippie. As things go terribly awry during their mission, however, Wilton starts to wonder if Cassady really is a Jedi Warrior with paranormal abilities or if he’s just plain crazy.

As you might imagine, a large part of this movie is quite simply The George Clooney Show. Clooney hams it up just as much here as he has in such movies as The Coen Brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Burn After Reading. If you don’t like comedy Clooney, you probably won’t like this movie, that’s not to say that he isn’t required to bring a little bit of depth to the character as well. Personally, I can’t get enough of his wacky facial expressions and fast-talking ways.

Speaking of Coen Brothers films, here Jeff Bridges is probably the closest he’s come to reprising his now legendary role as The Dude from The Big Lebowski. His casting as Bill Django was spot on, although I suppose a little bit predictable as well. There are definitely some straight-up stoner comedy moments in the film, and Bridges nails them all. Ewan McGregor makes the perfect wide-eyed reporter, while Kevin Spacey plays the would-be villain of the piece, a fellow First Earth Battalion trainee named Larry Hooper who is jealous of Cassady’s gift for all things mental.

The Men Who Stare At Goats delivers a good mix of broad laughs along with some dry British humour, and it truly is a movie that draws alternating waves of laughter from two different sections of the audience. The latter half of the film tries to get a little more serious by introducing doubt into the equation, and eventually pulls out a strange last-minute subplot about freeing some prisoners. Although it loses a bit of steam somewhere in the middle, it manages to go out on a fairly high note.

I guess one of the problems with a fictional adaptation of a non-fiction book is that sometimes you have to shoehorn characters into a convenient story arc in order to make it work. Screenwriter Peter Straughan previously adapted Toby Young’s hilarious memoir How to Lose Friends & Alienate People with much less success, but here he does a good job of creating a loose narrative while also incorporating many memorable and funny elements from the book. (Although I haven’t read the book, I’ve seen part of the accompanying documentary and I was surprised by how many things were taken directly from it.) He also plays it with just the right level of farce, leaving it somewhat open-ended as to whether or not some of the First Earth Battalion techniques really are possible.

Grant Heslov, a long-time actor turned producer and now director, co-wrote and produced George Clooney’s Oscar-nominated Good Night, and Good Luck. He also previously directed some episodes of Soderbergh’s Unscripted series for HBO (the movie also shares a similar incredulous tone with Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant) but other than that, his only feature-length directorial credit was an original indie comedy called Par 6. Heslov brings an artful eye to what would otherwise be just a goofy comedy, along with brilliant director of photography Robert Elswit (There Will Be Blood, Michael Clayton, Syriana).

The Men Who Stare At Goats may not the best movie of the year, nor the funniest, but it is a solid comedy full of thoroughly entertaining performances and just enough mystique to keep you thinking about it after the fact. Fans of the book may balk at a few of the fictional fabrications, but if you enjoy quirky comedies and oddball true stories, you won’t regret seeing this flick. Just remember, at the heart of it all is a cold, hard truth: people will believe just about anything. Whether that’s good or bad is up to you to decide. — Sean

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