It’s a carnivore dressed like an herbivore. Or maybe just an herb. Kill! Kill! Kill!
The Men Who Stare At Goats (2009) is the tale of US Army research into psychic warfare. Told through the eyes of reporter Bob Wilton, reports that the Soviets are working hard in the same sphere, true or not, inspires the Army, or more accurately a few senior officers, to open a research base dedicated to the topic in the 1970s.
Thirty years later, Lyn Cassady, an alumni of the original Army program, is rumbling through the Iraqi desert, looking for something, when Wilton, who learned Cassady’s name earlier, stumbles across him. Between IEDs and firefights in Iraqi towns, they finally find their way to a forward base run by another colleague from the psychic warfare days, Larry Hooper. He’s the man who takes the Army entirely too seriously, ready to use the psychic abilities – if they exist – of those trained for advanced warfare against any enemy who might pop up.
And they’ve proved psychic warfare’s utility with goats, a precursor to … goat stew.
The plot is much like Wilton and Cassady’s exploration of the desert, as it’s never quite clear where we’re going next, nor whether this is really a drama with comedic undertones, or a comedy with a twisted sense to it. It’s interesting, but exactly what it’s trying to say is more in the mind of the audience than the moviemakers.
They’re just hoping to read your’s.
