THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS

dannybananny

Jedi Council Member
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC2TzspJn5A&feature=channel

This movie is black comedy but interesting is that there is truth in deeper level, branches of army involved in mind programming and paranormal abilities. The Men Who Stare at Goats was inspired by Jon Ronsons non-fiction bestseller of the same name, an eye-opening and often hilarious exploration of the governments attempts to harness paranormal abilities to combat its enemies. The film is nominally inspired by British journalist Jon Ronson's book, which was based on the 2004 Channel 4 three-part documentary Crazy Rulers Of The World in which the maker finds and interviews many of the military minds behind "project jedi" and the 1st earth battalion , draws a line between the remote viewing experiments and the deaths of the heavens gate cult. In turn, Ronson had dedicated his book to journalist and filmmaker John Sergeant, who worked intensely through 2003 and 2004 on the original documentary. However, Sergeant has complained he has not received any credit for his part in formulating what was the inspiration for the movie.

Plot:

The film follows Ann Arbor Daily Telegram reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor), who one day interviews Gus Lacey, a man who claims to have psychic abilities. Bob shrugs Lacey off as crazy. Soon after, Bob's wife leaves him for his one-armed editor. Bob, out of anger, flies to Kuwait to investigate the Iraq War. However, he stumbles onto the story of a lifetime when he meets Special Forces operator, Lyn Cassady (George Clooney). Lyn reveals that he was part of an American army unit training psychic spies (or "Jedi Warriors"), trained to develop a range of parapsychological skills including invisibility, remote viewing, cloud bursting, walking through walls, and intuition.

The founder of this unit, Bill Django (Jeff Bridges), travelled across America in the 1970s for six years exploring a range of New Age movements (including the Human potential movement), because of a vision he received after getting shot during the Vietnam War, and used these experiences to found the New Earth Army. In the 1980s, two of Django's best recruits were Lyn Cassady and Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey), who developed a lifelong rivalry because of their opposing views of how to implement the New Earth Army philosophy; Lyn wanted to emphasize the positive side of the teachings, whereas Larry was more interested in the dark side of the philosophy.

In the early 2000s Bob and Lyn embark on a new mission in Iraq, where they are kidnapped by a criminal gang. They escape with fellow kidnapping victim Mahmud Daash (Waleed Zuaiter) and get rescued by a private security firm led by Todd Nixon (Robert Patrick), but get caught up in a firefight between Todd's security firm and a rival security firm; this would later be known as the "Battle of Ramadi." Mahmud, Bob and Lyn escape from the firefight and go to Mahmud's house, which has been shot up by soldiers. From there Bob and Lyn leave to continue on Lyn's vague mission involving a vision he had of Bill Django.

After their car hits an IED, Bob and Lyn wander in the desert where Lyn reveals a terrible secret to Bob: Lyn was asked to stop a goat's heart to test the limit of his mental abilities. Lyn had decided against it, but was compelled to try to accomplish the feat and stared at the goat intently. Lyn managed to stop the goat's heart, but felt that what he did was inhumane and against the entire purpose of the New Earth Army. Lyn left the Army, believing that he and the other New Earth soldiers were cursed and his powers were gone because of that fateful episode. After spending a few days in the desert, Bob and Lyn get rescued and rehabilitated at a camp run by PSIC, a private research firm engaged in psychological and psychic experiments on a herd of goats and some captured locals. To Lyn's dismay, Larry Hooper runs the firm and employs a now depressed and alcoholic Django.

Bob spends time with Django and learns the ways of the New Earth Army and together they spike the water and food of the base with LSD and free both the goats and captured locals. Following this, Lyn and Django fly off in a Bell JetRanger helicopter, but not before trusting Bob with the duty of making sure his story reaches the public. Bob reveals that neither Lyn nor Django were ever heard from again, believed to have crashed their helicopter.

Bob returns to work as a reporter and writes an article about his entire experience with Lyn. However, the only portion of the story to be aired on the news was how the captives were forced to repeatedly listen to the Barney & Friends theme song. However, this part of the story was treated as a joke, and Bob vows to continue trying to get the story out. In the film's final scene, Bob exercises his own psychic abilities and runs through a solid wall in his office.

Here is a link to documentary Crazy Rulers of the World :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jozzugIEaoU
 
Thanks for posting this.

Certainly one of the most “serious/funny” movie in this year with a very “special” meaning and messages about the MKultra project.

I do not see it as a “Comedy” it is just “seriously funny”.


:)
 
I haven't watched the movie, but I'm almost done listening to the audio book. It is excellent! For those who like audio books, I really recommend it. The reader sounds as if he was literally living the book. Very interesting content, scary, frustrating and sad, but funny at times when the author gets inspired and makes ironic comments.

If all what he says is true, it is really terrible (and unfortunately not surprising at all). The examples about paranormal phenomena and mind programming in prisons like Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib are just incredible, not to mention the cruelty involved in the secret experiments with goats. In spite of the excellent style, it is taking me a bit long to finish it, because I need a brake from it, so hard it is to digest.

Here is a brief review of the book, and below, a comment on the audio book:

Men Who Stare at Goats, by Jon Ronson, is the first book to be discussed in Jonathon Ross's Twitter bookclub. The audiobook is expertly narrated by Sean Mangan

Men Who Stare at Goats, by Jon Ronson, was the first book to be discussed as part of Jonathon Ross's informal Twitter book club. This exposure has raised awareness of the book, although a movie starring George Clooney and Ewan McGregor is being filmed which many fans will be aware of. In addition to paper and ebook formats, Men Who Stare at Goats is available as an audiobook narrated by Sean Mangan.

First Earth Battalion

Men Who Stare at Goats is the result of Jon Ronson's investigation into the US military's experimentation into the paranormal and the supernatural, exploring how this was incorporated into the War on Terror. This included a proposal for the First Earth Battalion, which was a restyling of the military along New Age lines. The title refers to the belief that men possessing certain powers could kill goats by staring at them. This is just one of the many findings that leaves readers and listeners wondering that the truth is truly stranger than fiction.

Jon Ronson has a satirical and dry writing style that people familiar with his work will recognize from his other writing, such as Them, as well as his television and radio work. In Men Who Stare at Goats, Jon Ronson simply presents the findings of his investigations and does not add comment or speculation to this. This gives the book a very narrow focus, however the content is so bizarre and stretches credibility to a stage where it is almost beyond belief, that people will find that the chapters fly by.

Narration of Men Who Stare at Goats

For the audiobook version of Men Who Stare at Goats to really work it is essential that the style of the narrator reflects the style of writing. Sean Mangan does this perfectly and his dry and witty narration brings Jon Ronson's words alive without turning the book into farce.

The narration allows the content of the book to stand on its own without resorting to characterizes which would have detracted from the flow. Mangan's deadpan delivery makes the strangeness of Jon Ronson's investigations all the more apparent. Sean Mangan is a skilled narrator and has voiced many bestsellers including books by Matthew Reilly, A J Butcher and Michael Connell.

Read more at Suite101: Men Who Stare at Goats Audiobook Review: Jonathon Ross Picks Jon Ronson Bestseller for Twitter Book Club http://nonfictionaudiobooks.suite101.com/article.cfm/men_who_stare_at_goats_audiobook_review#ixzz0bCjRIzMc
 
Just saw this movie and I really liked it :) However it felt like there was some "holes" in the storyline, and I was left after watching the movie with the feeling that I really wanted to see more. So I`m glad there is a Book ;D
 
I had an entirely different impression of Men who stare at goats, though I did find it interesting.
Reminded me of the old Daniel Boone tale of staring down a bear and those snake charmers with the little flute.
Only predatory animals stare when fully engaging their prey and the poor goats probably passed out from fear.

It also seemed that the main character was more of an enigma in his own mind and just happened to be very lucky, when he needed it!

Don`t want to spoil it though for those who have not seen this one yet.

You can watch it online for free. They have "Avatar" already as well.

_http://www.watch-movies-online.tv/s/men_who_stare_at_goats.html
 
Hi Meager1,

The website that you recommended above, are they violating any copyright or audio/video piracy rules? :huh:
 
Sounds like they pass the liability onto whoever you eventually download the movie from,

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I remember seeing a small clip of this on TV a while back, and thinking it was worth watching / reading the whole thing. The guy, Jon Ronson, pinged my radar many years ago as in interesting one to watch with his own particular style of quirky investigative journalism, so it was quite a pleasant surprise to see him pop up years later with this.

Thanks for link, Ailén, I may check out the audiobook.
 
i have only seen the 'crazy rulers of the world' documentary and can recommend this to anyone who can track it down (seems to have gone from google video)
 
I did manage to track down "Crazy Rulers Of The World" via _video.google.com. Interesting stuff.

But this dancing kung fu goat starer, Savelli, didnt came through as a believable chap. At least i didnt see any abnormal hamster activity in his videos.
 
Arne said:
I did manage to track down "Crazy Rulers Of The World" via _video.google.com. Interesting stuff.

But this dancing kung fu goat starer, Savelli, didnt came through as a believable chap. At least i didnt see any abnormal hamster activity in his videos.

I listened to the audio book first, then I watched Crazy Rulers of the World, and then I watched the Hollywood version.

I recommend reading the book or listening to the audio book, and then watch Crazy Rulers. Skip the Hollywood crapola. The story is completely unlike the book. They merge all sorts of things, add the whole Iraq thing which doesn't happen in the book, and so on.

If you have limited time and/or you don't read very quickly, just watch Crazy Rulers of the World. When watching that 3-part show, I thought it was actually very interesting to SEE the people in the story, their mannerisms, etc. Especially "Major Ed Dames" - what a creep! CRotW is basically a video version of the book that I guess must have been made as he was researching the book. It's only three 50-minute episodes.

Still, the book has the most detail.
 
pming is disallowed. If you have something to discuss you do it in the open on the forum. So tell us, what do you want serious jedis for? To walk through walls? Don't tell me you got taken in by nutjobs like stubblebine now, did you?
 
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