The Men Who Stare at Goats
2009 · Directed by Grant Heslov
Ewan McGregor follows a former Army psychic warrior (Clooney) on a road trip through Iraq. Bridges as the hippie general who founded the program. Spacey as the institutional bad guy. Based on a real thing the Army actually tried.
Why It's Cult
The Men Who Stare at Goats adapts Jon Ronson's investigation into the Army's First Earth Battalion — a real psychic-warfare program. The movie soft-pedals the journalism for laughs and gets away with it. Bridges essentially reprising the Dude as a New Earth Army general. Clooney never funnier. McGregor squinting confusedly through the whole thing. A war movie that's actually a peace movie that's actually a road comedy.
The Plot, Officially
A reporter, trying to lose himself in the romance of war after his marriage fails, gets more than he bargains for when he meets a special forces agent who reveals the existence of a secret, psychic military unit whose goal is to end war as we know it. The founder of the unit has gone missing and the trail leads to another psychic soldier who has distorted the mission to serve his own ends.
Starring
Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Kevin Spacey
Where to Watch
via JustWatch →
