When I first saw George Clooney in "O' Brother Where Art Thou?" I thought that Clooney had entered his zone as a quirky and loveable leading man who was just a little bit off. He was like a BMW rolling down the road but with one of those too-small spare tires on the right rear axle.
That Clooney quirkiness reappeared in the Coen Brothers' "Burn After Reading" and has come yet again with "The Men Who Stare at Goats," produced by Clooney, directed by Grant Heslov and written for the screen by Peter Straughan. Though Clooney carries the movie, obliterating co-stars Ewan McGregor and Kevin Spacey, the latter who does a weird and unlikable turn as Clooney's nemesis, the story itself is a meandering mindwarp that, while at times funny, goes nowhere and is utterly forgettable.
The only thing other than Clooney's character, Lyn Cassady, who is any good is Jeff Bridges, who, in his own way, does a rendition of his Cohen Brothers' creation, The Dude, from their popular movie, "The Big Lebowski."
In "Goats," Bridges takes his Dude-like character, Bill Django, into the post-Vietnam army where, after getting shot in combat, has a sort of awakening and convinces the higher-ups to let him spend years investigating the potential benefits of psychological warfare. The theory being, if he could find a way to harness flower power, good vibes and even telepathy, perhaps it could become the U.S. military's most lethal secret weapon. The story is based on Jon Ronson's book of the same title, much of which was based on the writings of Lt. Col. Jim Channon, who wrote the "First Earth Battalion Operations Manual" for the U.S. Army in 1979.
In the film, Django brings small posse of privates into a top-secret unit, among them Cassady. Gradually, the members embrace Django's unorthodox warfare methodology, especially Cassady, who may have actual telepathic powers. They let their hair grow long, they dance, they try to detect shapes on cards contained in iron boxes. And yes, they stare at goats to see if they can make them sleep or even keel over.
The unit is moving along nicely when Larry Hooper (Spacey) is recruited and becomes a rag in the gears, ultimately causing the unit's demise.
Fast-forward a couple decades where Midwestern reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) discovers the Army's old and embarrassing secret and goes on an expedition to uncover more and discover something about himself in the process.
He runs into Cassady who tells him all about the old unit, calling its personnel, "Jedi." The irony of telling this to McGregor, who played Obi Wan Kenobi in the last three "Star Wars" installments, is not lost on the audience. Snickers of recognition are soon enveloped by uneasiness. Was writer Straughan so bored with his own material that he threw the Jedi business in there as a last resort? Or did the producers of the movie think it a good idea? Either way it doesn't work and as the film meanders aimlessly onward, not unlike Clooney and McGregor in their drawn-out desert scenes ("Ishtar" comes to mind), it begins deflating very quickly. The climax is a veritable copout and the ending is, as is the movie itself, a goat.[[In-content Ad]]
