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The Men Who Stare at Goats
A reporter in Iraq might just have the story of a lifetime when he meets Lyn Cassady, a guy who claims to be a former member of the U.S. Army's New Earth Army, a unit that employs paranormal powers in their missions.
2009 · Directed by Grant Heslov · 94 min · Comedy · War · Screenplay in the scene database · 6 frames
Tagline
No goats. No glory.
Plot
In a short prelude, U.S. Army General Dean Hopgood is painfully thwarted in an attempt to pass paranormally through a solid wall by simply running into it.
Ann Arbor Daily Telegram reporter Bob Wilton's wife leaves him for his editor. To prove himself, Bob flies to Kuwait to report on the Iraq War. He stumbles onto the story of a lifetime when he meets retired U.S. Army Special Forces operator Lyn Cassady, who claims he was part of a unit called the "New Earth Army" training "psychic" spies in parapsychological skills including invisibility, remote viewing, and phasing.
Lyn explains the origins of his unit: in 1972, Army officer Bill Django, after falling out of a helicopter in Vietnam, found his newly recruited men unable or unwilling to fire on a Viet Cong soldier before being shot in the chest himself. He experienced a vision of a female Viet Cong soldier who said "their gentleness is their strength," prompting him to go to Northern California to explore how gentleness could make better soldiers. He participated in various activities across California including "naked hot tub encounter sessions" in Santa Rosa, "primal arm wrestling" in Sacramento, and the "beyond jogging movement" in Stockton. Django returned to Fort Bragg in 1980 immersed in the New Age movement, with long braided hair and a tattoo of an All-seeing Eye surmounting a pyramid on his chest. Facilitated by the credulous General Hopgood, Django led the training of a New Earth Army, with Lyn Cassady and Larry Hooper as his top students. The two developed a rivalry over their opposing views on implementing the New Earth Army's philosophy. Lyn wanted to emphasize the teachings' positive side, such as resolving conflict peacefully, whereas Larry was interested in the "dark side" of its military application.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Peter Straughan
- Cinematography: Robert Elswit
- Edited by: Tatiana S. Riegel
- Music: Rolfe Kent
- Production design: Sharon Seymour
- Produced by: Paul Lister, Grant Heslov, George Clooney
Cast
- George Clooney as Lyn Cassady
- Ewan McGregor as Bob Wilton
- Jeff Bridges as Bill Django
- Kevin Spacey as Larry Hooper
- Robert Patrick as Todd Nixon
- Stephen Lang as Brigadier General Dean Hopgood
- Waleed Zuaiter as Mahmud Daash
- Stephen Root as Gus Lacey
- Glenn Morshower as Major General Holtz
- Nick Offerman as Scotty Mercer
Production
- Country: United Kingdom, United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Ruby Films, BBC Film, Smokehouse Pictures, Overture Films
- Budget: $24,000,000
- Box office: $68,729,358
- Themes: vietnam veteran, kuwait, new age, paranoid fantasy, hippie lifestyle, drug use, psychedelic drug
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