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kamreadsandrecsPeople tend to underestimate titles - and by this I don't mean social titles, but the ones given to movies and books and songs. Titles are like names, and many writers feel that titling a piece gives it an identity, a soul. It becomes more than just "another piece," but it becomes its own entity.
And just like names, a good title is crucial. It's the very first thing most people encounter when they are looking at a song or a literary work or a movie, so an interesting title can make or break the reception of a story. Why do you suppose people are so intrigued by the title One Thousand and One Arabian Nights? It could just as easily have been One Thousand Arabian Nights, but it's that extra "One" that tips the title over into something rather interesting. Another good example is Blade Runner. It was based on a novel titled Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which is only mildly interesting, and is difficult to fit on a movie poster. Blade Runner as a title might have absolutely no connection to the content of the movie, but it's short, and it's catchy, too.
When you see a title like The Men Who Stare At Goats, you know, just know, that something's got to be up with whatever's connected to it. Inspired by the book of the same title written by Jon Ronson, the movie (directed by Grant Heslov) proves to be a very interesting hour-and-a-half.
The Men Who Stare At Goats is about a reporter named Bob Wilton (played by Ewan McGregor), who interviews a man who claims to have been part of a secret military team called the New Earth Army, a group of specially-trained men who were supposed to be able to perform powerful psychic feats for the benefit of the military. The crackpot (or so he seems at this stage) speaks of a man named Skip Cassaday, who was a member of their team and who was also one of the most talented people in the group. Wilton puts the article out of his mind after he writes it, but a romantic crisis with his wife and editor urges him to go off to the Middle East to become a war correspondent. While in Kuwait waiting for a chance to go to the front in Iraq, he meets Lyn "Skip" Cassaday (played by George Clooney) - the very same man the interviewee talked about. From that point onwards Cassaday and Wilton are linked to each other (or so Cassaday believes), and they head out into the desert in an attempt to get to the war-front, where Wilton hopes to get a story, and where Cassaday- Well, if I said anything more I'd be spoiling way too much of the story.
Either way, over the course of the movie Wilton narrates the history of the group Cassaday was once a part of, which was started up (and led by) a man named Bill Django (played by Jeff Bridges, whose character showcases a great many parallels to The Dude from The Big Lebowski, which Bridges also played), and was later brought down by one Larry Hooper (played by Kevin Spacey). Both characters make an appearance towards the latter third of the movie, and they both do play an important role in shaping the ending of the movie.
The movie opens with the sentence "More of this is true than you would believe." From this point onwards, the viewer can choose to view this movie in one of two ways. The first way involves leaving your cynicism at the door and just "flowing" with it. The second way involves taking your cynicism with you and seeing the entire movie through that lens.
Let me say this now: neither view is better than the other. In fact, it might be a good idea to see this movie twice, the first time without cynicism, and the second time with it - or the other way around, if that so pleases you. None of this affects the fact that this is a pretty funny movie. There's no cheekiness or eye-rolling, metaphorical or otherwise, going on anywhere in the movie, which only allows the viewer to either accept what's going on for what it is, or snicker to themselves over the absurdity of the whole thing.
Indeed, if there's one good word to use for the whole movie, "absurd" sounds like a good one. There really is just something absurd about people in the military believing that you can actually train someone to kill an animal with just their thoughts, or to walk through walls. But in the movie, almost everyone believes that what they're doing is legit and actually works - Wilton's beliefs regarding the absurdity of it all are squashed pretty quickly, especially after Cassaday calls him a "fellow Jedi Warrior."
Yes, you read that right. There's a lot of Star Wars (the Force and Jedi/Sith side of it, mostly) going around in this movie, though how it all fits is part of what makes The Men Who Stare at Goats amusing in the first place.
Either way, though, the absurdity of the movie doesn't mean it's bad. It's really a question of how much you want to believe, or not believe. That sentence (or disclaimer, if you want to view it that way) at the beginning of the movie was put there for a reason: you can, but you don't have to. Whether or not you do, it doesn't matter. You are still likely to find something amusing or outright funny in this movie, whether you are a wide-eyed optimist or a hardened cynic. And that, really, is what makes this a pretty decent movie.
And just like names, a good title is crucial. It's the very first thing most people encounter when they are looking at a song or a literary work or a movie, so an interesting title can make or break the reception of a story. Why do you suppose people are so intrigued by the title One Thousand and One Arabian Nights? It could just as easily have been One Thousand Arabian Nights, but it's that extra "One" that tips the title over into something rather interesting. Another good example is Blade Runner. It was based on a novel titled Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which is only mildly interesting, and is difficult to fit on a movie poster. Blade Runner as a title might have absolutely no connection to the content of the movie, but it's short, and it's catchy, too.
When you see a title like The Men Who Stare At Goats, you know, just know, that something's got to be up with whatever's connected to it. Inspired by the book of the same title written by Jon Ronson, the movie (directed by Grant Heslov) proves to be a very interesting hour-and-a-half.
The Men Who Stare At Goats is about a reporter named Bob Wilton (played by Ewan McGregor), who interviews a man who claims to have been part of a secret military team called the New Earth Army, a group of specially-trained men who were supposed to be able to perform powerful psychic feats for the benefit of the military. The crackpot (or so he seems at this stage) speaks of a man named Skip Cassaday, who was a member of their team and who was also one of the most talented people in the group. Wilton puts the article out of his mind after he writes it, but a romantic crisis with his wife and editor urges him to go off to the Middle East to become a war correspondent. While in Kuwait waiting for a chance to go to the front in Iraq, he meets Lyn "Skip" Cassaday (played by George Clooney) - the very same man the interviewee talked about. From that point onwards Cassaday and Wilton are linked to each other (or so Cassaday believes), and they head out into the desert in an attempt to get to the war-front, where Wilton hopes to get a story, and where Cassaday- Well, if I said anything more I'd be spoiling way too much of the story.
Either way, over the course of the movie Wilton narrates the history of the group Cassaday was once a part of, which was started up (and led by) a man named Bill Django (played by Jeff Bridges, whose character showcases a great many parallels to The Dude from The Big Lebowski, which Bridges also played), and was later brought down by one Larry Hooper (played by Kevin Spacey). Both characters make an appearance towards the latter third of the movie, and they both do play an important role in shaping the ending of the movie.
The movie opens with the sentence "More of this is true than you would believe." From this point onwards, the viewer can choose to view this movie in one of two ways. The first way involves leaving your cynicism at the door and just "flowing" with it. The second way involves taking your cynicism with you and seeing the entire movie through that lens.
Let me say this now: neither view is better than the other. In fact, it might be a good idea to see this movie twice, the first time without cynicism, and the second time with it - or the other way around, if that so pleases you. None of this affects the fact that this is a pretty funny movie. There's no cheekiness or eye-rolling, metaphorical or otherwise, going on anywhere in the movie, which only allows the viewer to either accept what's going on for what it is, or snicker to themselves over the absurdity of the whole thing.
Indeed, if there's one good word to use for the whole movie, "absurd" sounds like a good one. There really is just something absurd about people in the military believing that you can actually train someone to kill an animal with just their thoughts, or to walk through walls. But in the movie, almost everyone believes that what they're doing is legit and actually works - Wilton's beliefs regarding the absurdity of it all are squashed pretty quickly, especially after Cassaday calls him a "fellow Jedi Warrior."
Yes, you read that right. There's a lot of Star Wars (the Force and Jedi/Sith side of it, mostly) going around in this movie, though how it all fits is part of what makes The Men Who Stare at Goats amusing in the first place.
Either way, though, the absurdity of the movie doesn't mean it's bad. It's really a question of how much you want to believe, or not believe. That sentence (or disclaimer, if you want to view it that way) at the beginning of the movie was put there for a reason: you can, but you don't have to. Whether or not you do, it doesn't matter. You are still likely to find something amusing or outright funny in this movie, whether you are a wide-eyed optimist or a hardened cynic. And that, really, is what makes this a pretty decent movie.
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Date: 2011-01-25 09:52 pm (UTC)If you want to know how much to believe or not believe then read the original non-fiction book by Jon Ronson. Basically all the funniest bits are true.
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Date: 2011-01-26 05:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-26 07:25 am (UTC)