The Men Who Stare at Goats
Directed by Grant Heslov
Three Stars
Albert Stubblebon III makes an interesting point. In the British documentary “The Crazy Rulers of the World” that inspired “The Men Who Stare at Goats”, he tells us, “You know the electron, or the atom, is mostly made up of space,” he said. “My space is made up of atoms. The wall’s space is made up of atoms. All you got to do is merge the spaces.” In other words, if you can realign your atomic structure, you can pass through the empty space of the atoms in the wall. You’ll know when you’ve figured it out, I think. Your clothes will fall to the floor.
Stubblebon was a U.S. Military sergeant in 1983. He was a part of Project Jedi, a small and confidential branch of the military who were trying to find ways to walk through walls, bend spoons, and intercept the thoughts of others. That this is true is why “The Men Who Stare at Goats” is funny. Director Gant Heslov treats the film mostly as a history lesson. No need to go out of your way to make this seem absurd.
There are essentially two stories at work. One is a history of the early years of Project Jedi, now the New Earth Army, how it was formed by a zenned out general (Jeff Bridges) and how it operated within and outside the tapestry of the military, as documented by a present-day journalist, Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) who travels to Kuwait to pick up some story, any story, on the outskirts of the war.
He meets Lyn Cassady (George Clooney), a former member of the New Earth Army, who is venturing into Iraq after sensing telepathically that he should. That the two should meet can be accredited only to fate. Anyone who can sense which way to turn at a fork in the road probably knows fate when they see it.
It is through Lyn that the flashbacks are constructed. He was the most promising soldier in the New Earth Army, the only one who once killed a goat just by staring at it. He recalls the Army’s rise and fall, how and why it was formed, how it was paid for, how it was received, how it was misused and how it was destroyed. All the while, Lyn and Bob are travelling deeper into the war looking for, well they don’t know what they’re looking for, but Lyn will know it when it comes.
“The Men Who Stare at Goats” is an intermittently funny movie, occasionally rising to the level of hilarity. Every major player in the film is given a memorable one-liner and director Heslov takes the right approach to the material. By looking at the paranormal the way the members of the New Earth Army did, as a reality, there is a kind of comic absurdity bubbling beneath the skin of the narrative.
But the film also spends far too much time waiting for itself, and its pacing issues reach their peak with its all too neatly packaged climax that wouldn’t have felt like one had it not loudly announced its arrival.
“More of this is true than you might believe”, reads the title card at the beginning of the film. Well, I believe that there are people in this country who find such madness plausible, and I believe that they have occasionally risen to stature of high office in our government. The United States military funded research in the field of paranormal weaponry. I think that title should have read, “More of this is true than you’d probably be comfortable with”.
Stubblebon was a U.S. Military sergeant in 1983. He was a part of Project Jedi, a small and confidential branch of the military who were trying to find ways to walk through walls, bend spoons, and intercept the thoughts of others. That this is true is why “The Men Who Stare at Goats” is funny. Director Gant Heslov treats the film mostly as a history lesson. No need to go out of your way to make this seem absurd.
There are essentially two stories at work. One is a history of the early years of Project Jedi, now the New Earth Army, how it was formed by a zenned out general (Jeff Bridges) and how it operated within and outside the tapestry of the military, as documented by a present-day journalist, Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) who travels to Kuwait to pick up some story, any story, on the outskirts of the war.
He meets Lyn Cassady (George Clooney), a former member of the New Earth Army, who is venturing into Iraq after sensing telepathically that he should. That the two should meet can be accredited only to fate. Anyone who can sense which way to turn at a fork in the road probably knows fate when they see it.
It is through Lyn that the flashbacks are constructed. He was the most promising soldier in the New Earth Army, the only one who once killed a goat just by staring at it. He recalls the Army’s rise and fall, how and why it was formed, how it was paid for, how it was received, how it was misused and how it was destroyed. All the while, Lyn and Bob are travelling deeper into the war looking for, well they don’t know what they’re looking for, but Lyn will know it when it comes.
“The Men Who Stare at Goats” is an intermittently funny movie, occasionally rising to the level of hilarity. Every major player in the film is given a memorable one-liner and director Heslov takes the right approach to the material. By looking at the paranormal the way the members of the New Earth Army did, as a reality, there is a kind of comic absurdity bubbling beneath the skin of the narrative.
But the film also spends far too much time waiting for itself, and its pacing issues reach their peak with its all too neatly packaged climax that wouldn’t have felt like one had it not loudly announced its arrival.
“More of this is true than you might believe”, reads the title card at the beginning of the film. Well, I believe that there are people in this country who find such madness plausible, and I believe that they have occasionally risen to stature of high office in our government. The United States military funded research in the field of paranormal weaponry. I think that title should have read, “More of this is true than you’d probably be comfortable with”.
Rollan Schott
November 15, 2009
Originally Featured in the Daily Nebraskan
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