Men Who Do Not Stare At The Normal Things

With The Men Who Stare At Goats we are in the land where fantasy and reality roam hand in hand. This is a film based on a book by a journalist who stumbled upon a secret project funded by the US Army to create soldiers with Superpowers. Like walking through walls, becoming invisible and also killing goats by staring at them – therefore the title.

So far so good. We have seen such sci-fi or fantasy stuff. But the director does not treat it like that. This is a spoof, a satire – a commentary on how men go mad in the search for a silly fantasy.

The story is told through the eyes of the journalist on whose book the film is based. Initially he is fascinated by the project but soon he realizes that the soldiers who were part of the project have lost their marbles by abuse of drugs or other experiments.

The film shifts between present day Iraq and the history of the project starting from the late seventies. Most of the stuff is told normally but the characters who are part of the project have a certain edge to their behaviour. They make outlandish claims and are not able to demonstrate their super human skills. Instead of walking through walls, they stare at clouds and make them scatter. Something I remember I used to do a child. And I did not even need any training for it.

At one point Lynn Cassidy (George Clooney) and Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) are traveling through Iraq and reach a fork in the road. They do not understand which sign to follow. Lynn keeps staring at it for a long time. He claims that he will soon know the right answer through his psychic powers. When he finally chooses a road, their car is immediately blown up by a land mine. And when such disasters happen Lynn continues as if it was destined to happen.

In the end, the story converges on a similar facility in Iraq where the army is still carrying experiments. Eventually the narrator joins up with the founder of the original project and they are able to free the prisoners on whom new experiments are being conducted.

Somewhere in the middle, one comes across a rare moment in the film that surprises you by its poignancy. Lynn and Bob have escaped a kidnapping and gunfight and are eating at the house of an Iraqi whom they had saved from another kidnapping (I told you it is weird). Lynn apologizes for the gunfight that had been started by private American security forces. The Iraqi apologizes for his countrymen who did the kidnapping. And they continue to eat in the house that has been ransacked when the man was taken away.

Yes this is that kind of a film.