Top positive review
4.0 out of 5 starsCrazy story of how US army tried to create a unit of psychics Sounds ridiculous and it was
Reviewed in the United States on July 18, 2020
Men Who Stare At Goats was a quirky comedy based off of a book of the same name that looked at the U.S. military’s attempt to weaponize psychic powers. It featured Ewan McGregor as investigative reporter Bob Wilton who discovers George Clooney was Lyn Cassady who was the lead psychic in the army’s program, Jeff Bridges was Bill Django the army officer who wrote a manual on how to use psychic powers and organized a unit. That was backed by Stephen Lang as General Hopgood who was convinced the Soviets were doing psychic research so America had to respond. Finally, there’s Kevin Spacey as Sergeant Larry Hooper who joined Django’s unit and acted like a jerk to everyone and destroyed their comradery. As Cassady told Wilton he worked in Project Jedhi and the goal was to create super soldiers each with their own superpower. The whole thing was based upon Django researching the hippie movement and drugs in the 1970s. Afterward he came up with the New Earth Army. This movie explains their activities and aftermath up to the Iraq war.
The story is crazy because it’s basically based upon a soldier, Django, who became a hippie. It’s nuts that he would be able to get the military to back his ideas. I guess during the Cold War if the U.S. thought the Soviets were doing something crazy the Americans would follow in kind.
There’s plenty of comedy as well. Seeing Django talking about bringing flowers and indigenous music to people and the “sparkling eyes technique” to spread peace was hilarious.
If this all sounds ridiculous that’s the point. It’s meant to be absurd, and that’s proven to be even more so as some of this really happened. This all adds up to a highly entertaining and crazy movie.
C
