Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Matt Damon | ... | Edward Wilson | |
Angelina Jolie | ... | Margaret 'Clover' Russell | |
Alec Baldwin | ... | Sam Murach | |
Tammy Blanchard | ... | Laura | |
Billy Crudup | ... | Arch Cummings | |
Robert De Niro | ... | Bill Sullivan | |
Keir Dullea | ... | Senator John Russell, Sr. | |
Michael Gambon | ... | Dr. Fredericks | |
Martina Gedeck | ... | Hanna Schiller | |
William Hurt | ... | Philip Allen | |
Timothy Hutton | ... | Thomas Wilson | |
Mark Ivanir | ... | Valentin Mironov #2 | |
Gabriel Macht | ... | John Russell, Jr. | |
Lee Pace | ... | Richard Hayes | |
Joe Pesci | ... | Joseph Palmi |
Laconic and self-contained, Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) heads C.I.A. covert operations during the Bay of Pigs. The agency suspects that Fidel Castro was tipped, so Wilson looks for the leak. As he investigates, he recalls, in a series of flashbacks, his father's death, student days at Yale (poetry; Skull and Bones), recruitment into the fledgling O.S.S., truncated affairs, a shotgun marriage, cutting his teeth on spy craft in London, distance from his son, the emergence of the Cold War, and relationships with agency, British, and Soviet counterparts. We watch his idealism give way to something else: disclosing the nature of that something else is at the heart of this movie's narration as he closes in on the leak. Written by <jhailey@hotmail.com>
Excellent.
The good shepherd is an excellent film. The reason this film was dubbed the "Godfather of spy movies" is because ala the "Godfather" De Niro uses real life situations involving the CIA and blends them together creating a story around the lead character played by Matt Damon. In addition,several great performances in character parts complement Damon's performance, notably Michael Gambon and John Turturro were both superb. You shouldn't view this film expecting to be blown out of your seats, it is deep, and requires strict attention to detail. My wife and I viewed this film in a packed movie house and we were very certain that half the people in the audience didn't understand or appreciate what they had just seen. I am not saying you need to be of great intellect to enjoy this film, but one of the things De Niro manages to do is bring back a thinking man's drama that is often not seen in today's attention deficit, shoot them up, bang bang movies. This film makes it obvious that Directors Bertolucci and Leone have left a huge impression on De Niro and the result is a movie that both would be proud of.