The Men Who Stare At Goats

More Than A Feeling

You can watch a lot of movies before somebody makes a film that delivers everything you personally need in a movie. It's hard to say what that is for most people. I know a guy who swears by 'Equilibrium' as the high point of science fiction cinema - a view I don't share, but the film hits all the marks he's looking for in a film. As somebody who works in fiction, I'm actually hard to satisfy because I'm often watching somebody's handiwork with their fingerprints all over the material.

So it sometimes comes as a surprise when a film is not only good, but good in exactly the right way. This is that film for me this year; and believe it or not I think I like it much more than 'Avatar 3D'. Yes, 'Avatar' is a great movie, but 'The Men Who Stare At Goats' hits upon so many things about life that it leaves me agog in wonderment.

Will it be that good for you? I don't know. But it's pretty darn good for me.

What's Good About It

There are so many good things about the film but for me it actually begins with casting. The casting of Ewan McGregor as Bob, Jeff Bridges as Bill, and George Clooney as Lyn are inspired and reach out so far beyond the text on the screen. Ewan McGregor carries into this film the baggage of having played the younger Obi-Wan Kenobi, right into the heart of dialogue where Jedi Warriors are discussed. Jeff Bridges brings with him the considerable cult status legacy of having played The Dude in 'The Big Lebowski', and pretty much extends the Dude persona out through the US Army. And to complete the Coen Brothers echoes, George Clooney plays a character with the same kind of manic self-obsession and focus that he played for the Coen Brothers in 'O Brother Where Art Thou?' and 'Intolerable Cruelty'.

The casting is so good, the material plays like the proverbial "It writes itself".

Also good is the weaving of the irony of the casting against the apparent seriousness of the back story. The story is based on a book that looked at the US Army's attempts at extreme projects, while the film playfully explores those projects as an extension of the Big Lebowski Dude's exploration. It is a little like the revenge of the Hippie Ethos, coming back to rescue us from the spiritual malaise of living during a War on Terror. And boy do we need it badly.

What's Bad About It

Technical faults in the direction. I hate movies that "cross the imaginary line". The director's job is to not cross that line. I hate eye lines that don't match Left & Right. It's the most basic part of the director's job not to screw this up. I mean, if you can't get this stuff right, you're not a director.

The film is great in spite of the director is all I can conclude from watching this film twice now.

What's Interesting About It

First there is the parodic dimension to the road movie into Iraq at the height of the Iraq war. His home destroyed by a man with a mechanical arm - surely a Darth Vader reference - Bob goes to war, only to find it's not what he expected. Instead he hooks up with Lyn Cassidy who comes to him allegedly full of ESP powers from along gone unit - clearly Lyn's Obi Wan, and Bob is Luke. It's Star Wars. So off they go, wandering over the desert which may as well be Tatooine, until they land in the secret base - the Death Star anybody? - where they rescue goats and Iraqi prisoners. While the story isn't beat for beat Star Wars, the plot elements conspire to bring forth the mirth and the farce is indeed strong in this one.

How good can a parody really be? This film shows that if you don't do it by every story beat, but through characters and situations, then it can be quite fruitful. All the critics who thought the references were heavy-handed probably are Star Wars geeks themselves. All the critics saying they didn't get the Star Wars references need to get their heads checked. In any case, this is a wonderful re-writing of that text. This film is to 'Star Wars' what 'Son of Rambow' is to 'First Blood'.

Young At Heart

Secondly, there is the actual irreverence towards ESP and the paranormal. When I read an excerpt of the book years ago, I found the notion of the US Army investing in such projects as the 'First Earth Battalion' to be creepy more than anything else. Mixed in with reference to projects such as MK-Ultra which involved LSD and Majik 12, you have the picture of creepiness that gives rise to an uneasy conspiracy theory set, which is also quite queasy-making when you look into it. The film manages to turn it all round and treat it with such irreverence that you never actually feel sick about it. Instead the film invites the audience to laugh at the idiocy of the US Army trying to harness the Psi factor for warfare, which somehow banishes the creepiness right out of the picture. Except if you watch closely, you come to realise the film is saying that the Lyn Cassidy character is right, the cynics are wrong.

Where The Mind Goes

Thirdly, the film is actually an appeal to one's inner irrationalist. Not everything in life is rational or calculated. Your intuition can lead you to wonderful and magnificent things, the film seems to argue. The whole section explaining Bill's journey through the various kooky ideas from the 60s and 70s is priceless.

Sometimes I wonder where all that intellectual energy went. All that free love and reaching out to other living beings and expanding consciousness and compassion and "using the right side of your brain" and all that. I guess it's all coalesced in the Adyar bookshop or something and so can be safely ignored. The prosaic, materialist, arch-conservative, AIDS-riddled, 'Greed is Good' 1980s sure as hell sucked. Don't get nostalgic about that decade boys and girls, it's bad for your soul.

Some Thoughts About That Song

Don't laugh, but I've always associated the Boston song 'More Than A Feeling' with something deeply nostalgic. The song was already nostalgic when it hit the air waves and its been nothing but gaining even more glowing nostalgia since. Yet of all the nostalgic things I can think about this song, perhaps my favorite will be George Clooney's Lyn Cassidy doing 'remote viewing' with a beer in hand. It's a splendidly appropriate song to have picked.

Look, go see it if you loved Star Wars. Go see it if you didn't. It's a good movie that means so well. It tells us deep down, we can all be members of the First Earth Army. We are all born to be Jedis if we want to be. George Lucas would be spinning in his grave, if only he were dead.