The Men Who Stare At Goats (2009)
“I know. The first time I saw that I was like, ‘What the fuck?’”
Directed by: Grant Heslov
Written by: Peter Straughan
Based on book by: Jon Ronson
Before I talk about crazy people, let’s see something about some REAL crazies.
THE CRAZIES–A remake of a pretty good George Romero movie that looks…um…yeah. Actually, the movie itself looks like it might be decent, but I’m not so sure after the worst use of the Donnie Darko version of “Mad World” EVER! That pretty much kills the trailer for me.
Now, let’s talk about goats.
We all know that the military does some crazy shit. Why else would they allow politicians anywhere near them and their equipment? But who knew that they were doing experiments with psychic abilities?
Well, maybe they were and maybe they weren’t, but I believe at least a little bit of what happens in this movie.
Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) is, most likely, a paranoid schizophrenic. But possibly, just possibly, he has some psychic powers that the military helped to develop throughout the 90s. When he runs into small-time reporter, Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor), in Kuwait City during the second Gulf War, he sees a guy who is psychicly linked to himself.
The two new not-so-much friends make it into Iraq to complete a mission. What’s the mission? Lyn won’t say. Where are they headed? Lyn won’t say. Bob just has to trust him. But that’s really hard when he keeps talking about cloudbusting and glitter eyes.
Lyn isn’t alone in his psychic weirdness. His superior officer, Bill Django (Jeff Bridges), is a federally sanctioned hippy. One of his co-workers (Kevin Spacey) is a supposedly gifted psychic who will stop at nothing to prove himself. And the rest of the troop isn’t much more functional.
This is one of those movies that, although I really liked it, I can’t really say why. It’s hard to tell where it is really coming from. The military is seen as a joke and war is hell and all that, sure. But the psychics and the hippies are stupid, too. The only person who isn’t a complete dumbass is Bob and he’s a little bit debatable. He’s following Lyn, after all.
I guess, besides showing us a ridiculous semi-true story, it’s just here to tell us that war is silly. But peace is hard to do without some violence.
Hell, I don’t know. The movie was really more of a series of really funny vignettes with these crazy characters than it was a complete story.
Why is this movie so fucking hard to review?! I liked it, but it just didn’t add up to very much. Not really. I think I’ve forgotten most of the movie already. And I guess that’s not a very good thing…but I still think it’s worth seeing.
One bit of really bad timing: there’s a scene with a guy shooting up a military base. I bet they’re regretting that right now. I could feel the tension in the theatre.
