The Men Who Stare at Goats
November 9, 2009
This one and “Whip It” make me think that I was traumatized by all the overblown, overhyped, and downright terrible big-budget action movies I saw over the summer. Anything relatively quiet and character-oriented seems like such a revelation. I need to see more movies like this for awhile.
I liked “The Men Who Stare at Goats” quite a lot. It was mostly funny and engaging, with just a sprinkling of seriousness and subtext to keep it from being entirely shallow. I have a feeling the more contact you’ve had with the military, the funnier it gets. Having a fabulous, amazing cast helps as well. Jeff Bridges especially. He plays the same guy, both twenty years younger and twenty years older than his actual age, and he’s so convincing.
I will say that the metafictional poke in the ribs was a bit much. I’m convinced Ewan McGregor was cast specifically so that every time George Clooney’s character ranted at him about how they’re all Jedi Masters, and about his Jedi training, and McGregor’s character went, “Huh?” the audience would laugh. But after the first time it was just distracting.
November 9, 2009 at 10:43 am
I’m hoping to go and see it soon. The (nonfiction) book it’s based on, by the British journalist Jon Ronson, is a fascinating, entertaining and sometimes deeply worrying read.
As is his earlier book “Them: Adventures With Extremists”, in which he interviews a collection of variously unhinged conspiracy theorists. The chapter on David Icke is excellent: in the UK he’s generally regarded as a bit of a crank, a former footballer who went a bit mad, but in recent years he’s reinvented himself as some sort of countercultural public speaker in a white suit, who reckons that the world is secretly run by 12′ tall alien lizards in human form, engaged in a clandestine war for control of the fifteen trans-dimensional portals. (One compelling suggestion is that he watched V under the impression that it was a documentary.)
November 9, 2009 at 10:49 am
Oh Nick, I need to send you the link about the secret city under Denver International Airport where the lizard aliens are harvesting human babies…
November 9, 2009 at 11:51 am
I saw it this weekend. I liked it in sort of an ehh way. It didn’t blow me away. The acting was great, and the story line was interesting, but I thought it was extremely weird. However out of the 4 peopel I went with, I was the only one to say it was decent. They all hated it, and wanted to walk out.
November 9, 2009 at 1:41 pm
I do think it’s a “love it or hate it” kind of movie. I really like weird and surreal, and I liked how this one stayed right on the edge.
I think the same story could have been done as a dead-serious thriller — and it would have been awful.
That “glittering eyes” scene? I actually had somebody do something similar to me. When that scene came up, I about fell out of the chair laughing.
November 9, 2009 at 2:56 pm
The glittering eyes scene was pretty funny. Also, a favorite part was the knife fighting technique scene. But I think was pushed it over the weird line for me was the ending. If they had ended the movie, oh about 2 seconds before (being intentionally vague to avoid spoilers) I would have enjoyed the movie a lot more, that scene just pushed it to far I think.
November 10, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Carrie: The secret alien city is under Denver International Airport? I’d kind of assumed it would be on the ocean floor, in the basement of the Bilderberg Hotel, at the North Pole, or maybe somewhere under Tibet, Switzerland or Washington DC. (Or possibly Wold Newton at a pinch.) But I guess those places are too obvious.
November 10, 2009 at 6:19 pm
Just google “Denver International Airport conspiracy” whenever you have a few hours to spare…
November 10, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Psh. Everyone knows the lizards are after the dimensional portal in Cheyenne Mountain. Stargate, the SGC, is all a cover for that. They figured if Richard Dean Anderson was involved, no one would believe it possible.
Also… I hope to see the movie. What I’d really like to see is a scientific analysis of the things that the military was doing, the hard data about any possible results they may have uncovered. Can a man stop a goat with his mind? Well, besides a Scotsman…
November 11, 2009 at 9:51 am
The movie’s not about the science so much as character studies — belief, faith, redemption, etc. It also leaves it pretty wide open for the audience to believe or disbelieve what’s happening, which I liked quite a lot.