The Men Who Stare at Goats
DIR: Grant Heslov • WRI: Peter Straughan • PRO: George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Paul Lister • DOP: Robert Elswit • ED: Tatiana S. Riegel • DES: Sharon Seymour • CAST: George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey
“More of this is true than you would believe”…
This is how the film starts and as it progresses one can’t help but become fascinated by what the true parts are because every facet of this film is quite simply insane! The film revolves around journalist Bob Wilton (McGregor) who becomes involved with former ‘psychic spy’ Lyn Cassidy (Clooney) while trying to get across the Iraq border. As he uncovers Lyn’s story through a series of very entertaining flashbacks he finds out more than he wants to about the lengths his government is willing to go to out-think the Russians and, later, the Iraqis.
The film stays somewhat on the fence about whether Cassidy is an eccentric super-soldier or a crazed hippie madman but the heart of the film lies in the tragedy of the corruption of something you believe in. Whether or not these people are insane doesn’t matter when you see the evil Hooper (Spacey) abusing what he has learned from the shaman-like Bill Django (Bridges).
This film for all its insanity is really entertaining, extremely funny and the cast, particularly Clooney and Bridges turn in some fantastic performances. Also, for an Iraq movie, it nicely avoids waxing lyrical on the subject and keeps quiet to a large extent, remaining within its own world, only coming in contact with the war when it suits the plot.
This is a very unusual, very funny and very clever film, made all the more interesting because of its unlikely basis on fact.
Charlene Lydon
(See biog here)
Rated 15A (See IFCO website for details)
The Men Who Stare at Goats is released on 6th November 2009
The Men Who Stare at Goats – Official Website
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