This film is an adaptation of the book with the same name written by Jon Ronson in 2004.
It deals with the US Army's intentions to use New Age and the paranormal in order to fight the enemy and the title refers to the ability to kill a goat by just starring at it!
The paranormal is combined with the "ordinary" psychological warfare and way of using psychologigal knowledge to surpress the enemy.
A TV documentary was made and its ambition was, in a serious way, to display the total insanity of the United States Army and its leaders and other persons having had influence on their behaviour, their choices of strategies etc.
From this the film by Grant Heslov was made and in this film, the more comic aspects of these serious matters are put in the foreground but on the same time we see similarities with experiments realized within the American Army, as it has been reported through jounalists and other documents being published.
Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) is a journalist heading towards what he thinks is a scoop but on the way he meats some people who either are real or surreal or real and totally insane.
Lyn Cassidy (George Clooney), Bill Django (Jeff Bridges) and Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey) are the main characters in this film and they peu à peu initiate Bob into the world of their "special warfare".
The film contains some very comic and entertaining moments and on the same time the question or questions discussed are serious as it contains experiments on animals and humans.
We know that the military - from the Nazi Germans to recent armies all over the world - always has worked with different kinds of interrogation methods or torture and this film does display some of the aspects of this work.
In this film one build on the "real" story concerning how one developed different kinds of psychological warfare and how these methods became more and more "sophisticated" if one can put it that way.
The problem in this film - for the journalist - is to know if he's dealing with a group of madmen or if there are some traces of truth in what they say. I guess the same goes for the reality!?
On the whole the film halts, due to the fact that it's not a film being felt as a "true" and straightforward comedy but not a "serious" film neither and the ironi is there but not subtle enough to make it into an intelligent comedy.
The actors ability to play comedy also differs - of course!
It deals with the US Army's intentions to use New Age and the paranormal in order to fight the enemy and the title refers to the ability to kill a goat by just starring at it!
The paranormal is combined with the "ordinary" psychological warfare and way of using psychologigal knowledge to surpress the enemy.A TV documentary was made and its ambition was, in a serious way, to display the total insanity of the United States Army and its leaders and other persons having had influence on their behaviour, their choices of strategies etc.
From this the film by Grant Heslov was made and in this film, the more comic aspects of these serious matters are put in the foreground but on the same time we see similarities with experiments realized within the American Army, as it has been reported through jounalists and other documents being published.
Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) is a journalist heading towards what he thinks is a scoop but on the way he meats some people who either are real or surreal or real and totally insane.Lyn Cassidy (George Clooney), Bill Django (Jeff Bridges) and Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey) are the main characters in this film and they peu à peu initiate Bob into the world of their "special warfare".
The film contains some very comic and entertaining moments and on the same time the question or questions discussed are serious as it contains experiments on animals and humans.We know that the military - from the Nazi Germans to recent armies all over the world - always has worked with different kinds of interrogation methods or torture and this film does display some of the aspects of this work.
In this film one build on the "real" story concerning how one developed different kinds of psychological warfare and how these methods became more and more "sophisticated" if one can put it that way.
The problem in this film - for the journalist - is to know if he's dealing with a group of madmen or if there are some traces of truth in what they say. I guess the same goes for the reality!?
On the whole the film halts, due to the fact that it's not a film being felt as a "true" and straightforward comedy but not a "serious" film neither and the ironi is there but not subtle enough to make it into an intelligent comedy.
The actors ability to play comedy also differs - of course!
(Poster copied from: http://www.comingsoon.net/gallery/45089/The_Men_Who_Stare_at_Goats_poster.jpg)
(Photo George Clooney/"Lyn Cassidy" copied from: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY36_lfBT_fNJdmbGKETYfibRagE8zzkOU9qIu-KiEwRlHSorU__8NaGGev2fWGHa6w6hd_HE_BhDy37lhzj5Qlum9VigZZhQQOtqNWnH1rPhuSAK8HdLYFLdh9oVPmHcuHdZD/s400/Clooney+Men+who+stare+at+goats.jpg)
(Photo Jeff Bridges/"Bill Django" copied from: http://content.internetvideoarchive.com/content/photos/6461/27139218_.jpg)
(Photo Kevin Spacey/"Larry Hooper" copied from: http://www.cinemablend.com/images/news_img/15538/men_who_stare_at_goats_15538.jpg)
(Photo Kevin Spacey/"Larry Hooper" copied from: http://www.cinemablend.com/images/news_img/15538/men_who_stare_at_goats_15538.jpg)
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