'More than a feeling'

It may well be the case that now that the main front of the ‘war on terror’ has shifted back to Afghanistan and the spill over AfPak theatre of operation and also a change of White House administration has occurred, a somewhat objective varied look back at the Iraq situation can be taken. Of late we have been offered the intense and exceptional ‘The Hurt Locker’ and now we have the farcical ‘The Men Who Stare at Goats’. This latest review of the Iraq situation is a goofy slapstick comical farce with enough suggestive gestures to drive a heard of goats with: nearly always the humour is deployed at the absurdness of the situation.

The film is based on the journalistic work of the same name written by Jon Ronson and it follows the journey of the journalist Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor) as he tries to find a story in Iraq. After a chance meeting with Lyn Cassady (George Clooney) a story starts to materialise out of the cosmos of chance that is tinged with flowers, peace and jealousy.

Through a series of well timed and charming flashbacks the story of the New Earth Army is told and its quest for mental war that doesn’t resemble any form of war that we have previously known. The guru at the centre of these flashbacks is Bill Django (Jeff Bridges) whose lovey-dovey eyes and words are the platform that inspires a small wave of young officers to embrace counter-culture ways of life that were sweeping the U.S post Vietnam. These flashbacks capture the clichéd zeitgeist of that time with its good will and optimism but bring in a new twist of a military training and industrial complex setting: which makes for a good mash-up. These flashback scenes are the films most captivating and swirl with tweaked nostalgia.

But back to the present, where we are lead through a war ravaged Iraq, with side long glances cast at the politics of hostage taking, mercenaries, methods of information retrieval and the dark turn that The New Earth army has taken. An obscure momentum drives these scenes that give the impression that we are on a road to ruin. In the films final throws an insurrection of old ideals is grasped but is ultimately lack lustre and this film in the end seems to putter out like a car that’s air filter has consume too much sand. And the film seems stranded in the desert, much like the allied efforts in Iraq, with no real exit strategy.

What the film leaves us with apart from a disappointing ending is the message that resilience in the midst of any system that has evil elements is a must if one is to realise their ideals and hopes. It’s just a shame that the coup-de-grace of this message didn’t have the incision of its opening forays.