Men Who Stare At Goats: Absurdist Army Comedy
The new big Hollywood film, The Men Who Stare at Goats , has a minor Vietnam War theme. The movie spin out a based-on-a-true (if extremely odd) story of military intelligence gone two steps over the line. Said theme plays out in the person of Vietnam veteran Bill Django, played by the always-good Jeff Bridges, who in the two decades after his service in the war, has morphed into a New Age hippie type.
He comes up with a goofy intelligence manual (partially under the influence of hallucinogens) that the Army decides to adopt. It’s based on his hush-hush Nam assignment as the leader of an experimental unit called The New Earth Army.
“We must be the first superpower to have super powers, ” Django, notes, and then the excellent ensemble, led by George Clooney (above, staring at a goat ) Ewan McGregor, Bridges and Kevin Spacey, have fun with the Army’s version of Jedi “warrior monks.”
The reviews were generally positive. The New York Times ‘ Manohla Dargis , for example, called the movie “likable, lightweight, absurdist comedy.”
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