INSIDE THE HEART OF THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS A REVIEW OF THE MOVIE

Comment

(STARpod.org) -- "The Men Who Stare at Goats" is an entertaining, if somewhat disjointed fictional movie re-interpretation of the non-fiction book by British author Jon Ronson.

I truly enjoyed Ronson's book: a darkly humorous exploration of the American government's decades long involvement with paranormal activity.

The movie is an enjoyable but light-weight synthesis of anecdotes uncovered by Ronson.

Part of the problem with "Goats" is inherited from Ronson's book: the movie is one long, drawn out exposition of disconnected real-life events, mostly presented in a series of flashbacks, like sticky-notes on the story-line.

Critics of the film complain they left the theater wondering what it was all about: apparently the message, central to both Ronson's book and the movie, was too subtle for their discernment.

"Goats" is an allegorical adventure: getting to the true heart of this story involves more than staring at your television for the day's news.

After a few seconds' nod towards the classic cold-war black comedy "Dr. Strangelove," the film winds along the road aimlessly somewhat in the direction of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" -- but Peter Straughan's screenplay never approaches the requisite depth of danger, insanity, and drama to fully pull this rabbit out of the hat.

Nevertheless, this is a story that must be told: the real theme here, and in Ronson's book, is represented by the torture of listening to Barney, the Purple Dinosaur.

The heart of the film captures the warmth of Jon Ronson's humanistic naiveté -- where ordinary people are forced to confront "them" -- persons who hold world views at odds with common notions of common sense. Ronson, to his credit, approaches the madness with an open mind. Extremists, after all, are members of the human family too.

The movie, to its credit, does more or less the same, with fine performances from a top-notch cast headed by George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, and Kevin Spacey.

Screen author Straughan runs with a lead phoned-in to Ronson at the end of his book: Special Forces assassins, trained in "human enhancement" techniques, including psychic "remote viewing," are being sent to Iraq.

I suspect many viewers will confuse real-life events with the fictional elements of the story.

The America government has been involved in using the paranormal since the beginning of the cold war. (I have 89,900 pages of documents about the psychic effort, provided by the CIA.)

In Ronson's book, a couple of chapters revolve around CIA's misuse of LSD, including death and conspiracy resulting from covert administration of the drug to unwitting victims. The use of LSD as portrayed in the movie is fictional.

In the 1970s, the American Intelligence Community, including but not limited to CIA, DIA, NSA, Army intelligence, the USAF, the Navy, and others, engaged in secret research to determine the usefulness of psychic phenomena. This is true, and this larger effort is mostly ignored by the film, which tells the story from the point of view of the characters, some who were inspired by real persons and events.

In the 1980s, Army intelligence did train operational military psychic spies, who were tasked against real targets of interest, including several high profile cases, such as the hostage crisis in Iran. Tasking for the units was handed down from highest levels of the U.S. government, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to declassified government files.

Ronson's book focused on one group of psychic spies in the Army. Most of the movie is based upon this group, and the real story of Lt. Col. Jim Channon, creator of the new age soldier's "First Earth Battalion" manual.

Ronson concluded, without strong supporting evidence, that the psychic research had been exploited by the dark side of psychological warfare.

There is some anecdotal evidence to suggest American psychic spies continue to provide intelligence input following 9/11. Declassified files prove they were used during the first Gulf War.

In the end, it's not about forgotten government programs but the impact they had on the human-minds who lived with that reality.

"Goats" is about the people who are lost in the day's events: it's about their lives, their dreams, their hopes, and their belief in something more than personal tragedy. It's about redemption. And if, along the way, we can look back and laugh at our own misadventures, then so much the better.

For more information about the real-life government psychic paranormal activities, please visit STARpod.org

Copyright (c) 2009 by Gary S. Bekkum -- All rights reserved.