Movies / Movie Reviews

The Good Shepherd

By Geoff Hoppe
Dec 31, 2006 - 18:50

I saw The Good Shepherd with an old high school friend. Five years ago, he was my classmate in AP world history. Now he’s a West Point graduate and Military Intelligence officer (he’ll go to Iraq in less than a year—say a prayer, if it’s your thing). He’s also a history buff whose specialty is American espionage, mainly in the same period this movie covers. “Why weren’t there any real historical people in this movie?” he wondered as we left the theater. “Dulles was a badass!” We also agreed that this movie was underhanded with its message. “I mean, if you want to bash the CIA, bash the CIA.” Just don’t sneak around when you do it.

 

The Good Shepherd is a glossy, sneaky propaganda real, albeit one with excellent direction and wonderful acting. The CIA is hammered again and again by director Robert DeNiro. Not that Hollywood attacking the CIA is anything new—it’s become kind of a hobby for the film industry. Who hasn’t picked on the CIA in Hollywood? It’s passé.

 

The Good Shepherd’s accusations aren’t direct, however. They’re filtered through the lens of protagonist Edward Wilson (Matt Damon), a patriotic patrician whose intelligence career begins as an undergrad at Yale University. Wilson’s career—and life—are a web of lies and half-truths propagated, he believes, to protect his country. Along the way, he sees friends and family killed, loved ones alienated, and innocent people die.

 

The Good Shepherd’s basic plotline is about the search for a mole in the CIA, one whose involvement botched the Bay of Pigs invasion (good to know JFK actually wasn’t at fault. Cinema truly is the handmaiden of revisionism). The present-day action is played out against flashbacks that show Matt Damon’s evolution from a bland nice guy to a bland cutthroat. He does his best impression of my freshman year Finite Mathematics professor in this movie—no personality, no emotion, and very few social skills. It looks easy, but to keep it up takes talent. Bravo to Matt Damon for his performance, though not for his judgment in becoming involved with this flick.

 

Stargazers will enjoy this picture. There are countless famous people and good actors, though they aren’t always used well. Joe Pesci plays a brilliant bit part as a casino owner. Unfortunately, his purpose is to be a straight man. “We Italians—we have our families and the church. The Irish—they have the homeland. The blacks have their music. What do you people have, Mr. Wilson?” he asks Matt Damon’s WASPy protagonist. “We have the United States of America,” Matt Damon replies. “The rest of you are just visiting.” Hasn’t Joe Pesci done enough for Hollywood not to be used as bait for DeNiro’s leftist, Anglo-Saxons-are-evil-incarnate politics? Let’s not forget The Good Shepherd’s typecasting, either. Angelina Jolie plays a whore, Alec Baldwin’s character is seedy, overweight and marginally important, and Robert DeNiro plays a paralyzed has-been. At least these three fit their roles.

 

It’s the supporting actors who truly shine—John Turturro’s sleepy-eyed, omnipresent enforcer, Michael Gambon’s regal portrayal of a Yale poetry professor, Oleg Stefan’s subtle, powerful performance as the Soviet intelligence god merely known as “Ulysses.”  

 

Worth the money? Heck no. In fact, I plan to raise a big middle finger to this movie—and to Hollywood in general—by continuing to visit my local public library more often than I do my movie theater.

 

P.S. Know what I couldn’t get out of my head during this movie? The way Matt Damon kept screaming MATT DAMON!!! in Team America World Police. Classic.

 

 

 

Last Updated: May 16, 2012 - 6:56
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