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The
Good Shepherd To
me, the CIA has a bit of a mysterious veil over it, glamorized
by Hollywood, and criticized by the public as being another
ineffective government agency for various reasons. All I
have ever known of them is that they exist, they're secretive,
and they don't work within the United States, or at least
they're not supposed to. And I will admit to not having
any more curiosity about the subject, as American history
usually isn't that interesting to me.
The
Good Shepherd is interesting. In fact, it's utterly
fascinating, and while I know parts of the movie have been
touched up by the brush of Hollywood, it's still a fairly
accurate look at the origins of the CIA and of one of it's
founders. And while names have been changed, and parts of
the story fictionalized, there is still enough of the truth
in Good Shepherd to make even the most reluctant
historian sit up and pay attention.
The
story circles on Edward Wilson, a high man in the CIA, though
we never know what his exact position is. When we first
enter the film, the Invasion of the Bay of Pigs has just
failed, due to an information leak. We see Wilson attempting
to find the leak, and in the process, see how his history
in the intelligence game played out through his life.
From
his induction into the secret Skull and Bones society of
Yale University and his hasty wedding to Clover Russell
(Angelina Jolie), to his almost immediate departure to London,
to learn the arts of intelligence from the British. We see
how he became one of the founding members of the CIA, and
become more invested and devoted to the intelligence department,
while at the same time growing more and more distant from
his family and his personal life.
Robert
De Niro has made an excellent film, worthy of praise. The
Good Shepherd is a riveting, yet quiet portrayal of
some of the darker aspects of recent American history. And
while it does tell a story, it's not structured the way
we often get our tales. This is a biography of sorts so
rather than a major climax at one point, instead the entire
film is a constant peak, watching the life of a man consumed
by secrets, as he lives out twenty years of the worlds most
tumultuous history.
A lot
of that history is show in cut scenes and archive television
footage and radio broadcasts, and this brings a great sense
of realism to the film. Scenes of JFK's speeches, and audio
of them too, plus footage of the wreckage that was Berlin
after the war, and of the Bay of Pigs 20 years later, just
punctuate what was happening in the world, and why the CIA
was formed.
One
of the major factors of this film is the silence. It's an
incredibly quiet film, possibly echoing some of the characteristics
of the man whose life we're watching. Sirens, and tape machines,
environmental noise and radio broadcasts are the soundtrack
to The Good Shepherd. There isn't really a score,
just the words of the film, and the stunning performance
of Matt Damon as Edward Wilson.
Wilson
is supposed to be partially based on previous CIA directors,
and if they were anything at all like the character Matt
Damon plays, they were frighteningly intelligent and devastatingly
cold men. Damon's Wilson is quiet, almost withdrawn. He
has such a quiet solidness to him, while at the same time,
managing to be unremarkable.
Even
as a younger, more awkward Wilson, all of these traits still
show, though emotions still seem to break though when he
is with his early girlfriend Laura (Tammy Blanchard), one
of the few people who manage to humanize him. Wilson hardly
ever cracks a smile (except for a brief moment, and it's
a worthy moment), and is accurately described as humourless.
But that lack of humor, the complete lack of visible emotion,
makes Wilson so compelling to watch, and puts Damon up amongst
the ranks of the best actors. The Oscar buzz for him is
completely valid.
Damon
is such a focus of the film, it's easy to miss out on the
other performances sprinkled through the two and a half
hour movie. De Niro himself, playing General Bill Sullivan,
is a great character, and feels like a working man surrounded
by the privileged high society, being one of the few characters
to curse during the movie, and it's startling when he does.
Part of the fascination of Good Shepherd is how
civilized all of it seems to be on the surface, how calmly
everything is taken by Wilson and others, even when he's
watching a man be tortured right in front of him.
Alec
Baldwin and Michael Gambon both have great turns in this
film, Baldwin as an FBI agent, who does favors for Wilson,
and Gambon as a wonderful teacher of spycraft. Angelina
Jolie deserves a mention too, for a strong performance of
a woman who is almost a single mother, but for the husband
she lives with.
It's
a story that draws you in, and doesn't let you go until
the credits started rolling. And it's not just entertainment,
it's almost art.
Rating:
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