UK Edition
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Screenwriters: Peter Straughn
Starring: George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey
Running Time: 93 mins
Certificate: 15
If looks could kill then The Men Who Stare at Goats would be a searing war drama instead of an outrageously funny screwball comedy which just happens to be set against the war in Iraq. George Clooney takes the lead as career soldier Lyn Cassady in this strange but mostly true story about a special unit of the US military who practice psychic warfare. Indeed, Cassady is so 'special', he just might be a complete nutter, which is how it appears to reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor), a character loosely based on the Welsh journalist Jon Ronson who penned the same-titled book.
Cassady might be crazy, but Wilton is childishly naïve. He goes to war to escape the trauma of being dumped and because he thinks the ex might be impressed by the manliness of it all. McGregor brushes up on his US accent (because, one assumes, his Welsh accent is even worse) and instead plays it like Bambi in the headlights of an oncoming M1 Abram. Cassady has an hypnotic effect as well; Clooney doing that wild-eyed thing reminiscent of his shifty convict in O Brother, Where Art Thou? When first approached by Wilton in a roadside café, he scarpers (afraid of having his cover blown), but after seeing a mystical doodle in his notepad, he concludes that this journo is, in fact, a 'Jedi' (wink, wink) and enlists his help for a mission.
The stage is set for a buddy flick in the desert, but the mission is so secret, even Cassady doesn't know the objective. He's guided merely by a dream, which allows room to explore for screenwriter Peter Straughn (who's penned other real-life comedies like How To Lose Friends And Alienate People) to illustrate the madness and the method of the so-called New Earth Army. When the duo are taken hostage, Cassady tries dazzling their captors with positive thoughts, but there's something else in his eyes that speaks of deep suffering. In flashbacks to the '70s, he reveals how the unit was founded by Bill Django (Jeff Bridges playing The Dude, but with a sense of purpose) believing wars could be won without hurting people. Then came the experiments, one including a goat and Cassady's heart-stopping stare...
Of course the death of a goat induces more laughter than tears in this context, but director Grant Heslov is careful not to be merciless with the humour. Up until this point, he is perhaps best known for co-writing and co-producing Good Night, And Good Luck with Clooney so their liberal stance is well-known and still evident. Make no mistake, this is a film packed with silliness, but Heslov is also sensitivite to the hopelessness of Cassady's mission. If there is a serious message, it's that the situation in Iraq has become so chaotic, only the most extreme solutions are viable. A running joke about walking through walls neatly illustrates the point, but it remains in the subtext and could easily go unnoticed by casual moviegoers, because (and it may be a weakness as well a strength) the film is just so darned entertaining.
The rapport between Clooney and McGregor isn't quite snap and crackle, but it seems to work precisely because they aren't on the same page. Clooney is 'far out' for sure, but it's his deadly seriousness that makes him so funny in the role of Cassady. There's also an air of nobility about him, because, even as he claims to have killed goats just by looking at them, he has a blunt approach to genuine danger. In a smaller role (as a renegade member of the New Earth Army), Kevin Spacey becomes the villain of the piece and perhaps tries a little too hard to be funny. He confronts Cassady and Django in a trippy ending, which doesn't quite hit mark, but getting there is a helluva lot of fun. This is war, but not as we know it.
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