the men who stare at goats

Jon Ronson is a particular type of journalist, but for the life of me I can't think of what they're called.

I don't mean that in any nasty sense, it's more that I don't know if there's a word to some it up. 'Gonzo' is about the closest term I can think of.

Basically, in Gonzo journalism, the journalist is generally a part of the actual story themselves. So the story tends to be a very subjective one and the idea is that it's effectively told through that person's experiences, but also, crucially, through what they personally thought about what was going on.

But the point is that doesn't quite sum it up with Ronson, because there's an open-mindedness that isn't really synonymous with Gonzo. Michael Moore's stuff is more in line with the aim of Gonzo (although really, he does polemics). I dunno - it's like a humanist version of Gonzo. A sort of "I actually think you're right/wrong, but I'm genuinely going to let you have your say" approach to the subjects being interviewed.

I mention this because the men who stare at goats is technically a fictional film, but it's based on a non-fiction book with the same name by Jon Ronson. And it's really rather good, except for the end.

In case you don't know, the specific men who did the goat staring where part of the US military's attempt to explore the potential that new age type thinking offered. In other words, it involved attempts at things like remote viewing and invisibility.

Now the point that was emphasised in the film was that this was clearly daft, although the nature of the daftness doesn't really come from the actual psychic powers themselves. The comedy is derived more from the idea that these people seemed to genuinely believe that they could develop these sorts of powers.

I've not actually read the book, but one of the commentaries is by Ronson and he suggests that this wasn't really true. The man who's idea it was had a more pragmatic approach - that by trying to reach these goals, they might be able to develop something that was actually doable.

Also, while the idea of developing psychic soldiers might seem daft from a purely rational point of view, you have to bear in mind that this is going on at the height of the cold war and also in the shadow of Vietnam. Given the mode of thinking that gives rise to policies such as Mutually Assured Destruction, you can kind of see how it becomes a kind of self-reinforcing possibility.

I mean, what if it was possible and they hadn't tried, but the Russians had?

Anyway, the point is that the film is very good - it's very funny and yet at the same time makes some interesting points. I wasn't a particular fan of the end, because for me, it represented a bit of a step too far (I won't spoiler it), but you can see where it's coming from. But apart from that, it's very worth your time watching it.