The Good Shepherd (film)

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The Good Shepherd
Promotional Poster
Directed by	Robert De Niro
Produced by	Robert De Niro, James G. Robinson, Jane Rosenthal
Written by	Eric Roth
Starring	Matt Damon Angelina Jolie William Hurt Alec Baldwin Robert De Niro Billy Crudup Michael Gambon Timothy Hutton with Joe Pesci and John Turturro
Music by	Bruce Fowler, Marcelo Zarvos
Cinematography	Robert Richardson
Editing by	Tariq Anwar
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	December 22, 2006
Running time	168 minutes [1]
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	Under US $90 million [2]
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Good Shepherd is an Academy Award-nominated 2006 film directed by Robert De Niro (his second directorial effort after A Bronx Tale) and starring Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie, with an extensive supporting cast. The film was rated "R" for "some violence, sexuality and language" by the MPAA. Although it is a fictional film loosely based on real events, it is advertised as telling the untold story of the birth of counter-intelligence in the Central Intelligence Agency. It is a Morgan Creek Productions film distributed by Universal Pictures. The film's main character, Edward Wilson (played by Damon), is loosely based in part on James Jesus Angleton and Richard M. Bissell, Jr..

[edit] Plot

The movie begins in 1961 with Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) commuting to work. A young boy approaches him and asks for change for his dollar. Arriving at work he uses the serial number from the dollar to decipher a message, which sets the tone for the rest of the film.

The stage is set for the main plot of the movie which begins with the failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion due to an informer or leak of some kind. Later, a photograph and a recording on reel to reel tape are dropped off anonymously to Edward.

The narrative cuts to one of the many flashbacks of Edward's life, this time to 1939, where he is attending Yale and is asked to join the Skull and Bones Brotherhood. During a joining ritual he talks about witnessing his father (Timothy Hutton) commit suicide as a young boy, and hiding the suicide note from his family.

The narrative also introduces Edward's poetry professor Dr. Fredericks (Michael Gambon), who reads a poem that he says he is having trouble finishing, and Laura (Tammy Blanchard), a deaf student whom Edward starts dating. Fredericks makes sexual advances on Wilson; Wilson is asked by an American intelligence official to find out who Frederick's associates are in his pro-German groups, which the official believes are a cover for a Fascist spy ring. Wilson does so, and justifies it to Fredericks based on the fact that the poem was plagiarized, and so Fredericks betrayed him first.

Edward attends a Skull & Bones Society retreat on Deer Island in 1940 and meets Clover (Angelina Jolie) and General Bill Sullivan (Robert DeNiro), a powerful military intelligence official. Sullivan asks him to join the Office of Strategic Services and offers him a post in London.

Despite preferring Laura, Edward is forced into a hastily arranged marriage with Clover after her brother lets him know she is pregnant. During the reception, a man in uniform comes to see Edward and asks if he is still interested in seeing the world. He accepts and tells his new wife that he is to be sent off to England in one week, where he spends the next six years. He meets with British intelligence Officer Arch Cummings (Billy Crudup) and Richard Hayes (Lee Pace), and also Fredericks his old poetry professor who is to tutor him in espionage. His German role was, ironically, as a double-double agent.

The timeline then moves to post-war Berlin. Both the Americans and the Soviets are trying to gather as many German scientists as possible. At an old bombed-out church, Edward meets his Soviet counterpart, codename "Ulysses." Ulysses informs Edward that his Russian code-word is "Mother" and lauds Edward as what Ulysses sees as a formidable adversary. Edward is shown interviewing potential German informants with the aid of a female German translator. This translator wears what appears to be a hearing aid device which seems to intrigue Edward and perhaps reminds him of Laura. The translator later cooks for Edward and the two have a sexual encounter. However, following the encounter Edward notices that the translator has removed her hearing aid and appears not to need the device which now appears to be a piece of spy equipment. The next scene shown is one of the German translator being shot. The shooter is not shown but the next scene shows Ulysses finding the presumed hearing aid inside of his teapot.

Edward returns home and 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 that she no longer goes by "Clover" and is now Margaret. She further asks that the two sleep in separate beds until they get to know one another again. Margaret informs Edward that her brother John was killed in Burma in 1944. Both Margaret and Edward acknowledge that they have engaged in infidelity during their long separation. Sullivan approaches him to help form a foreign intelligence organization and wants Edward to work with Hayes and under Allen.

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 a "vivid imagination" and that he is just a civil servant at the trade office.

Edward then is given an assignment to interview Valentin, a Russian requesting asylum and claiming to be a high ranking official who knows Edward's counterpart in the Soviet government, Ulysses. Edward attends a production of The Cherry Orchard with Valentin who claims it is a bad translation. It is at the theater that Edward encounters Laura, his college sweetheart. Laura admits to dreaming of what their lives would have been like together. They return to her house and end up sleeping together. Soon after, Clover is sent pictures depicting Laura and Edward during their romantic encounters. Clover loudly interrupts a S & B party throwing the pictures at Edward. Edward breaks a date with Laura by sending his assistant to return a cross he'd kept of hers when they were college sweethearts. This act perhaps confirms that he reciprocated her strong feelings for him which have remained over the years, yet suggests their continued separation is a cross they must bear.

Edward visits Edward, Jr. at Yale. He tells his father he has been approached by the 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. Edward and Margaret have an argument over the issue, adding to their highly conflicted relationship, which Edward soon reveals that his son was the only reason why they had married. Edward Jr. joins the CIA after Edward refuses Margaret's request to have his application denied. At yet another S&B party on Deer Island we learn that Margaret's father (a US Senator) has died and that Margaret is going to Arizona to live with her mother. During this same S & B party, Edward has a discussion with Hayes regarding the upcoming Bay of Pigs Invasion. Edward Jr. overhears the discussion, and Edward tells him that he cannot repeat what he overheard to anyone.

Time passes. After analyzing the photograph and tape that had been dropped off anonymously at Edward's house earlier in the movie, the CIA officials make a number of findings. The photo depicts a Caucasian man and an African woman. They can deduce that there are three church belfries, the ceiling fan is of Belgian origin, the window curtains have a baobab tree design and the design of the stone balustrade on the balcony. They are unable to identify a blurred item on the nightstand which they feel might be significant. Over time they discern more details from the audio tape. They distinguish church bells, a plane flying overhead, the woman's French accent, and the use of "cochinos", the Spanish word for "pigs". They also determine that the track has been tampered with to make some of the dialogue indiscernible. From these clues, they figure it is possible for the photo to have been taken in three places, all in Africa, one of those places being Leopoldville, in the Congo.

Edward goes to the Congo and tracks down the room. Edward realizes it is Edward, Jr. that is in the film because the object they couldn't identify was a container holding the ship that Edward had made for his son. Ulysses has apparently been awaiting Edward's arrival at the scene of this recording. Ulysses plays the recording of the liaison that's been the focus of the analysis. This time, however, the audio clearly allows one to hear Edward, Jr. relate the information he overheard at the earlier S & B meeting to his female companion. Ulysses informs Edward that the African woman was a Russian spy who has now apparently fallen in love with Edward's son. Ulysses encourages Edward to commit treason by spying for the Russians for the sake of his son's safety. Edward confronts Edward, Jr., and his son tells him that he is in love with this woman and that they are getting married. Edward tells him she is a spy, but he won't believe his father and leaves.

In the next scene, Edward reveals Valentin as a spy for the Russians after finding evidence in the binding of the book Ulysses by James Joyce. This discovery also leads to Cummings' demise as a co-conspirator of Valentin', as Cummings is shown in an earlier scene giving this book to Valentin as a seemingly benign, clever gift that refers only to Valentin's knowledge of Ulysses, the Russian spy. As Arch and Edward speak over the phone after Valentin's cover is blown, Edward says "You were right. You will die alone without any friends.", to which a visibly affected Arch hangs up.

Edward is shown in a public scene with Ulysses where he declines the offer to run counter-intelligence for the Russians. Ulysses notes that Edward does not want his son's fiancée to become a part of the family and that "neither of us can trust her." Edward offers the dollar bill from the opening scene to Ulysses' aide, saying "it's a cardinal rule to be generous in a democracy." Perhaps he is betraying the aide as the CIA spy codenamed "Cardinal" and repaying the debt he owes Ulysses for ending Edward Jr.'s dangerous engagement. In an alternate interpretation of this scene, Edward returns the dollar bill from the opening scene to Ulysses' aide, thereby confirming the aide's recruitment as a double agent for the CIA, right under Ulysses' nose. In the opening scene, Edward's assistant had stated "Cardinal is interested."

Edward convenes with Margaret and Edward, Jr. in the aforementioned Congolese room prior to the wedding ceremony. Sensing the tension, Edward, Jr. offers to pour champagne for them. His parents both toast to Edward, Jr.'s happiness.

Later, Edward, Jr. and the wedding party are at the church awaiting the bride's arrival. Simultaneously, the woman boards a small plane with a wedding dress in hand. Halfway through the flight, the crew opens the door and throws the bride out of the plane. Edward, arriving late to the church, informs his son of the death of his fiancée. Edward Jr. reveals that she was pregnant. Margaret is quick to accuse Edward of playing a role in the death; Edward emotionally embraces his son after learning his son's future bride was pregnant.

Upon returning home, Edward opens his father's sealed suicide note, which reveals that his father was a traitor, and burns it.

The film ends with Edward at the new CIA headquarters where he will be the head of counter-intelligence and his fellow Skull and Bones classmate, Hayes, will be CIA director.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Production

De Niro directs Jolie and Damon on the set of The Good Shepherd

Eric Roth wrote the screenplay in 1994 for Francis Ford Coppola and Columbia Pictures. Coppola left the project because he could not relate to the characters finding them "unemotional" (although he retains credit as co-executive producer). Wayne Wang was set to direct but management changes at Columbia ended Wang’s involvement and Philip Kaufman was the next person set to direct but he eventually left the project. When it moved to MGM, John Frankenheimer signed on to make the movie and wanted Robert De Niro to star. Unfortunately, Frankenheimer died in 2002 and at the same time De Niro was developing his own spy story. According to producer Jane Rosenthal, this has been Robert De Niro's pet project for nine years, but it proved difficult to produce in a pre-9/11 world and had to compete with his busy schedule as an actor. The actor said in an interview, “I had always been interested in the Cold War. I was raised in the Cold War. All of the intelligence stuff was interesting to me.”^[1]

De Niro wanted to do a film about the CIA from the Bay of Pigs to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Roth’s script ended just after the Bay of Pigs. They ended up making a deal: Roth would write up De Niro’s idea into a screenplay if the actor would direct his existing script. If The Good Shepherd proved to be a commercial success then their follow-up would be De Niro’s pitch. The project subsequently moved to Universal Pictures where producer Graham King agreed help finance the $110+ million budget. He had a deal with Leonardo DiCaprio who was interested in playing the film’s protagonist Edward Wilson. De Niro planned to shoot the movie in the fall of 2004 but DiCaprio couldn’t do it then because he was making The Departed for Martin Scorsese. King left with him and so did his financial backing. King told Daily Variety, "If the marketplace got better, I'd love to make this movie. It's one of the best scripts I've ever read (but) you can't make the movie for any less than we have it budgeted for. I certainly wouldn't disrespect Bob (De Niro) by getting him to cut the budget of the film." On November 20, 2004, Variety magazine reported that Matt Damon agreed to star as Wilson and James Robinson’s Morgan Creek Productions agreed to help finance the film with a budget under $90 million which meant that many of the principal actors, Damon included, would have to waive their usual salaries to keep costs down. Principal photography began on August 18, 2005 with shooting taking place in New York City, Washington D.C., London and the Dominican Republic.

De Niro wasn’t interested in making a spy movie with flashy violence and exciting car chases. “I just like it when things happen for a reason. So I want to downplay the violence, depict it in a muted way. In those days, it was a gentleman’s game.”^[1] He and Roth were also interested in showing how absolute power corrupted the leaders of the CIA. Early on, De Niro said in an interview, “they tried to do what they thought was right. And then, as they went on, they became overconfident and started doing things that are not always in our best interests.”^[1] In order to achieve authenticity, he hired ex-CIA operative Milt Bearden (who worked for the agency for 30 years) as the film’s technical advisor.

The music for the film was by Bruce Fowler and Marcelo Zarvos. They replaced James Horner, who left the project due to creative differences.^[2]

Edward Wilson, the character played by Matt Damon, is based at least in part on James Jesus Angleton, the long-serving director of the CIA's counter-intelligence staff who also fell victim to intense paranoia during his career, and covert operations specialist Richard Bissell.^[1] Bill Sullivan, the character played by Robert De Niro, is based on William Stephenson and William Joseph Donovan. William Hurt's character Phillip Allen is likely based on former CIA Director Allen Dulles, while Lee Pace's character Richard Hayes shares some similarities, including a similar name, to Dulles' eventual successor Richard Helms, and the character Arch Cummings bears some similarities to Kim Philby. The character Yuri Modin shares similar characteristic to supposed Soviet defector Anatoliy Golitsyn.

Veteran actor Joe Pesci appears in one scene. This was his first film in eight years. His last was Lethal Weapon 4.

[edit] Critical reception

The film received mixed reviews with the review tallying website rottentomatoes.com reporting that 69 out of the 126 reviews they tallied were positive for a score of 55% and a certification of "rotten".^[3]

Time magazine's ^[4] said Matt Damon "is terrific in the role — all-knowing, never overtly expressing a feeling. Indeed, so is everyone else in this intricate, understated but ultimately devastating account of how secrets, when they are left to fester, can become an illness, dangerous to those who keep them, more so to nations that base their policies on them." David Ansen in his Newsweek ^[5] wrote, "For the film's mesmerizing first 50 minutes I thought De Niro might pull off the The Godfather of spy movies... Still, even if the movie's vast reach exceeds its grasp, it's a spellbinding history lesson." This last comment is interesting as there are many characters and related events in the movie which are dramatizations and/or amalgamations of real-world participants and places, and other participants and places shown are complete fiction.

However, Elizabeth Weitzman of the New York Daily News said, "If the lives of CIA spies are really this dreary, they may as well keep their secrets to themselves," and Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine says "It's tough to slog through a movie that has no pulse."

[edit] Factual and Production Errors

• In the scene where young Edward remembers the day of his father's suicide, he states that his father was an admiral. However the uniform shown is that of a Navy Captain.

• In the postwar Berlin scene that shows Russian soldiers raising the Soviet flag, the troops are shown carrying SKS rifles. This soon after the war the SKS would not have been in wide issue to ground troops (although all are shown carrying this particular rifle), instead they would still be carrying Mosin Nagant bolt action rifles, with a few troops being issued Tokarev semi-automatic rifles.

• The Army intelligence aide assigned to Edward Wilson soon after his initial arrival in London is wearing the uniform and insignia of a Tech Sergeant. He later says that he graduated from Fordham University and had been in the army for 5 years. It is highly unlikely for a university graduate who joined the Army at this time to only be a lower ranking non-commissioned officer, as opposed to a commissioned officer such as a Captain or Major. However, this could have conceivably been due to the fact that the aide is an OSS or Army intelligence minder with a poorly crafted fake identity. De Niro has hinted at this possibility in personal correspondence.
• In the scene where Damon's character is walking in the Congo in 1969, he passes a red Chevrolet with hubcaps that were not issued by Chevy until 1973.
• A prominently featured Finnish passport and driver's license include some questionable linguistic choices, which are here literally translated. The driver's license reads KANSAINVÄLINEN AJAMINEN PÄÄSTÄÄ ("international driving to allow"). It is from YHDISTETTY KANSA ("a people unified"), apparently a reference to Yhdistyneet Kansakunnat (Finnish for the United Nations). The license also reads: EI HYVIN PERUSTELTU KOTONA SUOMI ("not well justified at home Finland"). The passport includes the puzzling statement ESITYSTAITO LLA KANNATTAA ("presentation skill with is profitable").^[6]

• The scenes in war-time London show the characters walking outside at night under working street-lights, but London's streetlights were not turned on during war-time, in order to make it more difficult for German bombers to locate their targets.

• In the scene where Edward reveals Valentin to be a spy working for the Russians, there is a copy of Churchill, Taken From the Diaries of Lord Moran: The Struggle for Survival on the shelf alongside Joyce's Ulysses. While the scene is set in 1961, Lord Moran's book, which covers the life of Winston Churchill from 1940 to 1965, was not published by Houghton Mifflin until 1966.

• When the Valentin Mironov #1/Yuri Modin character first contacts Wilson's office in 1953 (film insert), one of the agents claims "man is senior officer KGB...", but the KGB was founded in March 1954 (former MVD, MGB, GPU).

[edit] Trivia

• The poem that Edward accuses his poetry professor of plagiarizing is the first stanza from "Song," by Trumbull Stickney, published in 1902.
• Filming places for this film includes Manhasset, New York (Long Island), NYC, Dominican Republic, and London.
• The codename for a United States spy in the Soviet Union was "Cardinal", the same codename of a high level Soviet officer who was working for the US government in Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan novel series.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Good Shepherd official site
• The Good Shepherd theatrical trailer at Apple.com.
• The Good Shepherd at the Internet Movie Database.
• The Good Shepherd Reviews at Metacritic
• The Good Shepherd at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Good Shepherd at Grace-Centered Magazine