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Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) practices his paranormal powers to kill goats in “The Men Who Stare at Goats.” |
It takes a quick 93 minutes for “The Men Who Stare at Goats” to dump a load of satirical napalm all over the U.S. military in a story so comically outrageous that when it cautions us, “More of this is true than you would believe,” we can believe that.
“Goats” has flourishes of other zany black comedies contemplating the madness of war, particularly “M*A*S*H” and “Catch-22,” but finds its own identity in a post-“Star Wars” era when George Lucas apparently had a much greater influence on military PSYOPS (psychological operations) than anyone could have imagined.
Ewan McGregor, who has a few “Star Wars” ties of his own, stars as Bob Wilton, a small-town journalist who decides, after being dumped by his lover for a one-armed man, to cover the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Stuck in Kuwait City and rejected by the established correspondents, Wilton stumbles upon a major story when he meets a mysterious guy named “Skip” with information about a U.S. program to create an army of super psychic soldiers who can kill goats by staring at them.
Skip turns out to be Lyn Cassady, a retired military man and apparently the most gifted goat killer, returned to active duty to perform a secret operation in Iraq.
Although it doesn’t hit Wilton, we can tell that Cassady, played with comic macho bravado by producer George Clooney, is a few rounds short of a full clip. (Read more…)