Based on Jon Ronson's nonfiction book, this fictional account starts with a note that more of this is true than you would believe. In the hands of director Grant Heslov and writer Peter Straughan, the film tells the mind boggling history of the Army's history with training psychic spies.
Reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor, STAR WARS prequels) stumbles into the story of the military's psychic spies. Following the break up of his marriage, he goes to Iraq to prove himself. There he meets Lyn Cassady (George Clooney, CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND), the legendary Jedi warrior of the military's New Earth Army. Lyn agrees to take him on his secret mission in Iraq and reveals the history of his fellow Jedi warriors.
During the Vietnam War, Bill Django (Jeff Bridges, THE BIG LEBOWSKI) realized that most new soldiers will fire high at an enemy because they are not ready to take another human life. He wanted to discover how to use this impulse to transform the Army into psychic warriors who use less lethal measures. Lyn was one of his top students. He was a true believer. He believes he can get into the minds of the enemy. He believes he can remote travel and find missing soldiers. He believes he can burst clouds with his mind.
Lyn's skills intimidate fellow Jedi Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey, THE USUAL SUSPECTS). Larry wants to use psychic skills for more deadly means. Thus comes the title of the film. The Jedis are turned against helpless goats, who had their bleats removed. If the Jedis stare at them and focus their mind power, can they stop the heart of the beast? Larry will also introduce LSD experiments, which lead to some bad trips, and "dark side" methods that would become better known as "advanced interrogation techniques."
Driven by the comedy talents of Clooney, Bridges and Spacey, and the thankless straight man work of McGregor, the film is often hilarious. But the humor comes from the characters. The foolishness of the entire psychic warrior program is at the center of this satire. How safe do you feel that your tax money went to pay for the training of soldiers to walk through walls? The film works in all the facts from real life, but there were real people behind those facts. Clooney and Bridges' character embody those facts. While we laugh at their methods, we respect their intensions to transform the Army into peacekeepers.
While the ending was a bit too naïve and then too whimsical, its heart is in the right place. For a film with a thin plot that is driven by its characters, it still works, because we believe these characters would do just what they did. But belief is at the center of this story in many ways. And it's really funny. The film makes military intelligence an even greater oxymoron.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
