At least they save the Goats

Rating: 10/10 (14 June 2013)

Simply put, this movie is brilliant, and hilarious, if you like black comedy. The opening of this movie says 'more of this is true than you would believe', have having seen it, I am inclined to agree.
The hero is a journalist, Bob Wilton (Ewen MacGregor), who discovers his wife having an affair with his boss, and does what all jilted lovers have done throughout history - he goes to war - in Iraq. While having a drink at his hotel in Kuwait, he meets up with Lyn Cassidy (George Cloony), a contractor who has come to Iraq to assist with reconstruction, but he quickly discovers that Cassidy is more than he seems, and thus he embarks on an adventure that takes him across Iraq and into a secret American base.
While this movie is about Wilton's adventure in Iraq, and his freeing of a number of prisoners (and a herd of goats), there is more to this movie than this. In fact it retells the story of a secret, elite, unit of the American Army called the New Earth Army. It was first formed by Bill Django who, while in Vietnam, discovered that it was human nature not to want to kill a fellow human being, so with the Army's blessing, he goes on a research trip into the hippy subculture of California to see if there is a way to harness this power. The result is a unit focused on psychic warfare using powers such as remote viewing, amongst others. However, the more sinister aspects of the American government, in the form of Larry Hooper (Keven Spacey), alienates Django and turns the New Earth Army into a more offensive unit. As the movie mentions at the beginning, more of this is true than you would believe. While most of the characters are based on composites of real people, it is not surprising that the American Military experimented with psychic warfare (as did the CIA and the KGB - anything to get an advantage over their rivals). In fact, this is nothing new, world powers have been delving into the supernatural since before recorded history. We know that the Romans and the Greeks would seek oracles before battle, and would also resort to sorcery in an attempt to win. While our modernist, scientific worldview has no room for such concepts, it does not mean that it is not true. In fact it is said that one of Satan's tactics is to convince people that he does not exist. While I believe that such powers do exist (and the bible does not hide the fact that people practised sorcery back in the days that it was written), it does not necessarily mean that the powers behind them are benevolent. My warning would be to stay away, for there are many things that we humans do not understand, and while we may believe we are in control, we probably are not.