The Good Shepherd
***
Rated R for some violence, sexuality and language.
2 hr, 45 min.
written by: Eric Roth
produced by: Robert DeNiro, Jane Rosenthal, & James G. Robinson
directed by: Robert DeNiro
It's taken me almost a week to write a review of this film. I couldn't really figure out how to approach writing about it. Explaining the film to people has been quite a task. It's one of those films that demands every iota of one's attention. It is a very detailed, complex, and involving film. It is more than just a movie about the formation of the
CIA. It's about a solitary pursuit involving secrecy, duplicity and paranoia. Ultimately it is a troubling movie about trust and mistrust.
The film is mesmerizingly paced and ambitious all while invoking the style of
";The Godfather" which doesn't seem too far off since director
Robert DeNiro was directed by
Francis Ford Coppola in
"The Godfather Part II" who is also one of the executive producers in this film. DeNiro has made a smart, cerebral espionage thriller that captures the feel of a true spy film. I'm not gonna say to much about the film cuz I feel it's worthy of individual internalization after your own viewing. Therefore this won't be a detailed review but rather a generalized look at a intricately made film.
The movie starts in 1961 as the failure during the
Bay of Pigs Invasion is witnessed and a then an anonymous photograph with a reel to reel tape surfaces that leads to suspicion of an insider. Then the story jumps back to 1939 as the journey of Edward Wilson unfolds. Wilson (
Matt Damon) understands the value of secrecy; discretion and commitment to honor have been embedded in him since childhood. He is an eager, optimistic student at Yale who harbors a tragic past. Shortly after his recruitment to the school's
Skull and Bones secret society (a brotherhood and breeding ground for future world leaders), he is asked to spy on his mentor Dr. Fredricks (
Michael Gambon) who seems to be a Nazi sympathizer. Also while studying in the library, he meets Laura (
Tammy Blanchard), a deaf student whom he starts to build a natural connection. He is then is approached by FBI agent Sam Murach (
Alec Baldwin) to spy on Fredricks due to the professor's alleged connections. He reluctantly does as asked out of his loyalty to his country, causing the professor to resign.
In 1941 upon graduation, Wilson is approached by General Bill Sullivan (DeNiro, in a small yet important role) at a Skull and Bones meeting on Deer Island. It is there that Wilson also meets Clover (
Angelina Jolie), a sister of a fellow classmate and S&B member as well as a Senator's daughter. A seemingly unlikely attraction is instigated by Clover, who seems a little off as she forces herself on Wilson. Edward is then shown on the beach with Laura, who he has been romantically involved with. Clover's brother informs Edward that his sister is pregnant and suggests that he 'do the right thing' and marry her. Edward is too late to block Laura from reading his lips, allowing her to find out the news.
He does what he believes to be the right thing and marries Clover and is almost immediately sent off to England during WWII on an assignment from Sullivan, where he spends the next 6 years.
While in
London, he meets with British intelligence Officer Arch Cummings (
Billy Crudup) and Richard Hayes (
Lee Pace), a fellow S & B and classmate. He is then to be tutored in espionage by a seasoned pro, his old poetry professor, Fredricks. Edward apparently ruined 2 years of undercover work being done by his professor by his previous rookie spy work.
Wilson's acute mind, spotless reputation and sincere belief in American values render him a prime candidate for a career in intelligence, and he is soon recruited to work for the OSS (the precursor to the CIA) during WWII. As one of the covert founders of the CIA, working in the heart of an organization where duplicity is required and nothing is taken at face value, As his methods are adopted as standard operating procedure, Wilson develops into one of the Agency's veteran operatives, all the while combating his KGB counterpart. However, his steely dedication to his country comes at an ever-increasing price. Not even his wife Clover or his beloved son can divert Wilson from a path that will force him to sacrifice everything in pursuit of this job.
Upon his return home, Wilson's idealism is steadily eroded by a growing suspicious nature, reflective of a world settling into the long paranoia of the Cold War. He meets his son, Edward, Jr. for the first time. He gives him a ship he made and put in what looks like a glass watch casing. His wife informs him she is no longer Clover but now prefers to be called Margaret. She asks him to sleep in different beds until they get to know one another again. Six years is a long time. Sullivan approaches him to help form a foreign intelligence organization and wants Edward to work with Hayes and under Phillip Allen (
William Hurt), a S&B elder.
As life continues, his son grows up and his relationship with his wife continues to grow more distant. When his wife has friends over for dinner, they ask if he really works for the CIA. Edward replies that his wife has an overactive imagination and that he is just a civil servant. Jolie handles her role well as the frustrated wife closed off by a man full of secrets and paranoia.
Wilson is then given an assignment interviewing a Russian named Valentin (
Oleg Stefan) requesting asylum and claiming to be a high ranking official who knows Edward's counterpart in the Soviet government. Edward attends a production of
The Cherry Orchard with Valentin, who claims it is a bad translation. It is at the theater that Edward runs into Laura again. They return to her house and end up sleeping together.
After Margaret finds out about the affair, the dysfunctional family attends the annual S& party on Deer Island where Edward has a discussion with Hayes regarding the upcoming Bay of Pigs Invasion. His son overhears the discussion, and Edward tells his son (now a young adult) he cannot repeat what he overheard to anyone. Wilson later visits Edward Jr. at Yale. He tells his father he has been approached by the OSS agency looking for young recruits and he wants to sign up. Edward tells his son it's a difficult life and tries to talk him out of it. But Edward Jr. is adamant as he so desperately wants to be like his father since he never received the love he needed from him.
After the aforementioned photograph and tape is analyzing, the CIA officials make a number of findings. The decisions Edward has to make once these findings come to a more specific reality is staggering. It ultimately forces him to choose between the safety of his country and the life of his family. Here, the movie comes full circle. We see that the character of Edward Wilson falls even deeper into his stoic, cold and detached persona that has developed throughout the story. The outcome of Wilson's choices leaves you numb and shocked but not really too surprised.
The movie ends with Wilson and Hayes walking through what would eventually be the new CIA headquarters. That's exactly where DeNiro wants it. Apparently, he's has an interest in intelligence-gathering for some time and had his heart set on telling the story of the formation of the
CIA for quite a while. At nearly three hours, it may feel a bit too long. I'm usually the kind of guy who can care less what kinda length a movie clocks in at. But, here because this film is initially difficult to follow (think
"The Russia House", "Gorky Park" or even last year's excellent
"The Constant Gardener") it had my focus derailed a coupla times. Still, the story and characters did soon grow on me and the film became more compelling despite it's dryness at times.
Dense, politically-minded movies like this typically don't exactly set the box office afire, as evidenced by the recent grosses of last autumn's "The Constant Gardener" ($33 million), "Munich" ($47 million) and "Syriana" (just under $51 million). Even more comparatively, 2000's "Thirteen Days" took a direct pass at the high, inside drama of the Cuban Missile Crisis, but could only scare up $35 million theatrically. Star power doesn't necessarily sway folks who are maybe inclined to pay attention to international affairs and big-canvas political issues only every two years during an election cycle. They're frequently awards bait, yes, but these are shining examples of the types of adult movies which Hollywood generally loathes to make any more, owing to ample evidence in their difficulty to market and attract the same sort of upscale audience that, say, makes 40- to 54-years-olds the single biggest purchaser of music albums, responsible for around 20 percent of the marketplace.
The cast of the film is stellar and as it should be in a movie like this, there are no grandstanding performances though. Just good actors coming in and out of a complex story circling Damon. Damon does a great job. I've liked him since his small role in
"Courage Under Fire" and of course
"Good Will Hunting". He displays no Jason Bourne abilities in this role as it's all internal and nuanced. His role was originally to go to
Leonardo DiCaprio (who was busy filming "
Blood Diamond") but I'm glad it didn't. Although it's still kinda odd seeing Damon play a father, it woulda been even moreso seeing DiCaprio play poppa. On that note, I have to mention the great performance by
Eddie Redmayne as the adult Edward Wilson Jr. Other notable performances are
John Turturro who works with Damon in the OSS and then there's
Joe Pesci, who was last seen in 1999's
"Lethal Weapon 4" playing an informant.
Despite its
name cast and the De Niro's return behind the camera for the first time since 1993's heralded
"A Bronx Tale", this film doesn't necessarily look to be much different. Much like
";Munich" (no coincidence, given that they share screenwriter
Eric Roth, who co-scripted Spielberg's movie), the film takes a complex subject or set of issues and provides an angled illumination that doesn't easily let the viewer off the hook, but rather asks significant and probing questions about what values are immutable, what compromises necessary, what means justifiable.
"
The Good Shepherd" isn't a nail-biter or adrenalized drama, in other words. But it does feel both accurate in detail and, more importantly and impressively,
real in its enlightenment of the early Cold War struggle, and those who populated it. Edward sees himself as a product of these polarizing times - a protector of freedoms and American prerogative who nonetheless has to sometimes deal in unsavory shades of grey in order to accomplish his aims. As head of counterintelligence, his job is to penetrate enemy intelligence and alter our foes' perceptions of us from the inside out, all while the Soviet Union's KGB attempts to do the same thing to us.
This tightrope act is most tautly embodied in one plot strand involving a Russian defector, Valentin Mironov (
John Sessions). When another man also claiming to be Mironov eventually shows up, Edward must further reevaluate his judgments; he signs off on torturous methods, and his colleague Ray Brocco (Turturro) heads a brutal interrogation.
It's here, in Damon's quietly clenched jaw and dead eyes, that you see Edward's last bit of idealism mortally wounded by the pressing needs of practicality. It's throughout "The Good Shepherd" but mostly here that you understand the jarring, no-win scenarios that men like him face on a constant basis.