More of this is true than you would believe

The Men Who Stare at Goats is non-stop entertainment. It's funny as hell, though not particularly heavy on the plot. The movie is the story of a frustrated reporter, Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) trying to find meaning in his life. In Kuwait, Bob meets Lynn Cassady (George Clooney), a man who was once a part of something called Project Jedi. Lynn is a psychic spy, a Jedi warrior. The narrative zips back in time to the 70's, where Lynn was part of a special program, the New Earth Army. The group was formed by Bill Django (Jeff Bridges), who found spirituality after returning from Vietnam. The New Earth Army was all about New Age philosophy. They danced, discovered psychic powers, and learned to use weakness as a strength. But the regiment was disgraced after Larry Hooper's (Kevin Spacey) Machiavellian experiments with LSD, which leading to a chillingly Fort Hood-like shooting. Django is discharged in disgrace and Lynn brings a curse on the regiment by killing a goat just by staring at it.

The movie follows Lynn and Bob's adventures in the desert. Bob discovers his burgeoning potential, eventually discovering the true Jedi within. (It should be noted that it is ironic that Ewan McGregor, who played Obi-Wan Kenobi, becomes a Jedi. I hadn't thought of this until someone brought it up, which is a sign of how hard I have worked to scrub the Star Wars prequels from my mind.) Lynn struggles with his own mortality and his guilt over the downfall of the regiment, the first place he found a sense of belonging. In a prison camp in al'Qaim, where Barney songs play all day, Lynn and Bob meet the villainous Hooper, who has government backing. They must confront and overcome the dark side, redeem Lynn and Django, and most importantly, save some goats.

This movie has the potential to be a cutting dark comedy that calls attention to the army's craziness. However, it plays on the lighter side, ignoring political satire for narrative. Characterization belongs solely to the growing Jedi yearnings of Bob, only touching lightly on the dark alcoholic fate of Bill Django, or Lynn's journey, or the motivations of the villain Hooper. The movie only barely acknowledges Vietnam, the event that gave birth to most of the beliefs that fuel the story. The New Age movement was accepted by the army because of the horrible wounds scored into the souls of Vietnam vets. If you're looking for deep meaningful characterization, or an in-depth look at the reactions of soldiers to war, you are in the wrong theater. If you are looking for a funny, well-acted, screwball comedy, this is the movie for you.

As the movie itself says, "More of this is true than you would believe." Jim Channon, the founder of the actual First Earth Battalion, did in fact postulate the technique of "sparkly eyes" and using kindness as a pacifying weapon. The army did have a battalion of "psychics" spying on enemies and trying to acquire superpowers. General did try to run through walls, men did try to kill goats by staring at them, LSD was misused and hamsters were harmed in the making of this story. But much more experiments, most darker than those mentioned in the movie, were conducted by the army--including an LSD-related murder plot, the ties between the army's psychic experiments and both Waco and the Heaven's Gate debacles. Psychological warfare fueled the torture at abu Ghraib. Psychic espionage wasn't all fun and games.

Even now, the army continues to experiment with "non-lethals" that are nothing short of science fiction. Foam to pacify crowds, music to control the minds of Gitmo detainees, beam weapons called "pain rays". I find the thought of the American government/military having any kind of means of controlling our minds to be pretty damn scary. Luckily, though the army tried to be all that it could be, it never had the kind of results that you see in this movie. When General Stubblebine tried to phase through a wall, all he did was run into a wall. When Guy Savelli stared at a goat, it was the one standing next to it that fell down. Though he did seem to have some effect on his hamster.

If there are Jedi, the army certainly didn't find them. And maybe that's a good thing.