The Men Who Stare at Goats (film)
The Men Who Stare at Goats is a 2009 British-American war parody comedy film directed by Grant Heslov. It is a fictionalized version of Jon Ronson's 2004 book of an investigation into attempts by the U.S. military to employ psychic powers as a weapon. The film stars George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey, and was produced by Clooney's and Heslov's production company Smokehouse Pictures.
The film premiered at the 66th Venice International Film Festival on September 8, 2009, and went on general release in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, and Italy on November 6, 2009.
Plot summary
In a short prelude, U.S. Army General Hopgood (Stephen Lang) is painfully thwarted in an attempt to pass paranormally through a solid wall by simply running into it. The film then follows Ann Arbor Daily Telegram reporter Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor), whose wife leaves him for the newspaper's editor. Seeking an escape, Bob flies to Kuwait to report on the Iraq War and to prove to his wife and himself that he is a man. However, he stumbles onto the story of a lifetime when he meets a retired U.S. Army Special Forces operator, Lyn Cassady (George Clooney), who reveals that he was part of a U.S. Army unit training psychic spies (or "Jedi Warriors") to develop a range of parapsychological skills including invisibility, remote viewing, and phasing. The back story is told mainly through flashbacks.
The Men
The Men may refer to:
Film and TV
Music
See also
The Men (punk band)
The Men are a punk rock band from Brooklyn, formed in 2008. The band consists of Mark Perro (vocals, guitar, keys), Nick Chiericozzi (vocals, guitar), Rich Samis (drums), and Kevin Faulkner (Bass).
The band has produced five studio albums. The Men's first two albums, Immaculada (2010) and Leave Home (2011), were noted for their abrasive, noise rock sound. The band gained recognition for their third album Open Your Heart (2012), which was released to mostly positive reviews, including a Best New Music designation from Pitchfork Media.Open Your Heart was also noted for being more accessible than the previous two albums, incorporating influences from country music and surf rock. The band's follow-up albums, New Moon (2013) and Tomorrow's Hits (2014), continued down the path set by Open Your Heart, with more melodic songs and fewer noise rock influences.
History
Formation and Leave Home (2008-11)
The Men was formed by Nick Chiericozzi, Chris Hansell, and Mark Perro in 2008 in Brooklyn. After recording a demo tape and a 12" EP, they self-released their first album, Immaculada, in 2010 and their first widely available album, Leave Home, on Sacred Bones Records in 2011.Leave Home received mostly positive reviews, with one critic describing the album as "[..] one of the most gut-punched and brain-addled rock records to arrive in quite some time." Later in 2011, Ben Greenberg, who engineered Leave Home, replaced bassist Chris Hansell after Hansell left the band.
The Men (TV series)
The Men was an umbrella title for three crime/adventure dramas aired in the United States by ABC as part of its 1972-73 lineup.
The Men comprised Assignment Vienna, Jigsaw, and The Delphi Bureau. The common element in each of those hour-long series was that its hero was a rugged individualist, working essentially alone with little or no supervision on matters of vital significance. The program originally aired on Thursday nights, with each element appearing in a regular rotation, every third week. But when The Men was moved to Saturday nights, in January 1973, the elements began to be aired with several episodes of the same one appearing in consecutive weeks.
Unlike the similar NBC Mystery Movie wheel, the elements of The Men all came from different TV studios—Assignment Vienna, Jigsaw, and The Delphi Bureau were respectively produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television, Universal Television (the same studio behind the Mystery Movie), and Warner Bros. Television.
While the series was a failure in the Nielsen TV ratings, its theme song—composed and recorded by Isaac Hayes—was a minor R&B hit. (A disco version of that theme was recorded by Joe Bataan in 1976 and a smooth jazz version was recorded by Gerald Albright in 2008.)
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