Zip.ca - The Good Shepherd

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The Good Shepherd

Edward Wilson believed in America, and he would sacrifice everything he loved to protect it.

An intense, thrilling, untold story of the birth of the CIA. One man’s unwavering loyalty to his country forces him to sacrifice everything and trust no one in a world of secrets, deception and murder to help create what would become the most feared and powerful covert agency in the world.

Critiques des membres

Rich Complex Spy Story - KevinJaques

Le Carré wrote several great spy novels. Slow and intricate. Seemingly cold characters stake their entire lives on their loyalties and theories.

The Good Shepherd is of that school. It is unfairly accused of being based on a true story. There is an allegation that the Matt Damon character is loosely based on James Jesus Angleton and Richard M. Bissell. But don't let that stop you. It's all about the story and themes, and not about some weird anecdote or hero-building.

Like the Smiley protagonist in the Le Carré novels, Matt Damon almost never says what he is thinking. It is revealed, gradually, by what he does, and by the events that only later make sense of what he did. For a much different novel of the same technique, check out "Shadow Of The Torturer", set in the far future.

It alludes to interesting true things. There was a secret society called "Skull and Bones" that did wind up involved with the early CIA. The British were masters of counter-intelligence. There was an intelligence leak involving the Bay of Pigs. However, the real life version of that is much different, though equally shocking and hard to understand. In real life, on April 29, 2000, the Washington Post reported the declassification in full of General Maxwell Taylor's June, 1961 special report on the Bay of Pigs invasion. It was finally revealed that the CIA Director, Dulles, knew that the Russians knew when the invasion was planned, but Dulles went ahead with the plan, not telling the President or the Cuban Exiles that made up the fighters. Did Dulles figure that his source in Russia (or his own leak) was more important than Cuba? Did he figure the President was leaky? Did he intend to coldly betray Kennedy and the exiles to further the CIA's position?

This complex movie offers lots to enjoy. The acting and direction are excellent. The mysteries and clues are fun. But there is also a theme that nobody can be trusted. That gets proved the hard way. Twice.

The Good Shepherd - Kingmeister

I saw this back in 2006 and thought it was pretty terrific. I liked Matt Damon's character and pretty much enjoyed the movie the first time I saw it.
They say you can never go home again and that's the way I feel about seeing this the second time around. Big gaps in the story telling; Edward's son was one large gap. He is 5-6 years old when Edward comes back from England and the next time you see a storyline about the son is when he is grown. The deleted scenes fill in the gap there. I found it long and made me wonder why would I watch it again? A director should not act in his whole film. Leave that to the actors. Really still like John Turitullo's role as Edward's right hand man. Really like the scene where he gives the cross back to the woman at the theatre. One of the best parts of the movie is when they interrogate the KGB officer through the K station and they are in New York. The scene of the interrogation is still shocking. The use of the dollar bill and the scripture on the wall are anachronistic. You look at Edward over the evolution of the movie and at the end when he is walking down the long corridor in the new CIA building you realize he has no soul left. As he told Paul Allen in the movie, "I am the gatekeeper".
One would wish that Matt's character had more dialogue; having a movie character silent through half a movie is very unusual. Usually a main character of a movie has a great deal more emotional and verbal depth to him. Edward always left me wondering and wanting more from him; in the deleted scene Edward and Clover have a confrontation in their bedroom and that is the most emotion you see out of him through the whole movie (and that scene didn't make the movie at all).There are some shining moments in this movie and some long moments. I was left hoping that certain characters would have died off sooner in the movie and revenge done sooner than later.

Don't be too harsh .. - m0xY

My best friend and I settled in to watch this having absolutly no idea how long the movie was. It's a two hour and forty minute investment, Lord of the Rings proportion here. The difference though is that where LOTR had entertainment all the way through for anyone (mainly because audiences got to know the fictional world of people all together at the same time), The Good Sheppard definitely makes assumptions about its audience.

The script without a doubt presupposes that whoever's watching has at the very least a vague idea of World War II history and American political history (particularly the 1960s). I must admit some bias in that I love politics, though it's not a necessity to watch. I believe it would just give you different perspective on the storyline.

In any event the first hour or so of the movie is background and introduction. Setup for the last hour and forty minutes which both my best friend and I agreed was the much better portion of the movie.

The stand out cast often helped the movie along, Damon actually impressed me for the number of "relationships" his character had to manage and the amount of time shifting he had to constantly keep in mind. This is also a different but well executed sort of role for Jolie to take on, granted she doesn't appear until later in the film and we were beginning to question if she really was in it (this was of course before we knew how much time there was in the movie left for her to surface in!).

All in all it was entertaining, I would watch it again, the same way I'd watch Di Vinci Code again just to wrap my head around it even more which would likely make it all the more better.

Critiques des membres Lire tous...

Rich Complex Spy Story - KevinJaques

The Good Shepherd - Kingmeister

Don't be too harsh .. - m0xY

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The Good Shepherd

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