The Good Shepherd is an historical film about the origins of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the United States of America (US). The CIA is 60 years old this year. It is a mixed product of World War II and the start of the "Cold War" against the Soviet Union and the spread of communism. The need for an "enemy" to justify the huge expenses on military software and hardware that was believed to keep the economy ticking required an intelligence apparatus to sustain the Establishment. Who better to form such a megalith but the old boys who graduate from Yale University and were fine, young upright members of the Skull and Bones.
As Bonesmen they knew, one and all, the importance of secrecy, the unity of WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants) and trust, but to never trust others. America belongs to the WASPs and "Italians, Jews, Irish and blacks - are mere visitors". The first step was to serve in the Office of Strategic Services (the name for the intelligence service of the day) during World War II, under the sponsorship of Senator John Russell Sr (Keir Dullea) and General William Sullivan (director Robert De Niro's acting role in this movie) the fathers of the OSS and then the CIA, and the leadership of Philip Allen (William Hurt), then later to join the CIA. The present president of the US (George W Bush) was a Bonesman at Yale.
The film opens with one of the CIA's great failures: the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in early 1961. Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) has led the operation.
Its failure is blamed on a leak to the Russians that led the Cubans know where the invaders were landing.
The movie then moves backwards and forwards in rapid sequences. In 1926, when he was six, Edward was the first to find his dead father. He pocketed the suicide note and kept it unopened, being afraid of the truth and able to lie - a life of devious uptightness had begun.
The film returns frequently to events in 1939 before the war, when Edward was a student at Yale, had a love for poetry, his initiation into the secret society, followed by his betrayal of the two people he was closest to.
In his first act of espionage, at the request of the FBI, he targets his professor of poetry, Dr Fredericks (Michael Gambon) and gets him deported and causes his demise. Edward has made a close friendship with a young woman from outside his circle, Laura (Tammy Blanchard), but in 1940 at Deer Island in Maine where the clan meets, he is seduced by a Bonesmate's sister, Margaret "Clover" Russell (a frustrated Angelina Jolie) and finds he has to "do the right thing" and marry her, for the sake of their unborn son. He still owes Laura a date at the beach. He ignores the advice, "Get out while you still have a soul". It is fathers who fail their sons in this film.
Edward soon leaves for his OSS service, starting in London during the Blitz and later in Berlin after the fall, and is away for six years. During his years in Europe he acquires a loyal assistant Ray Brocco (John Turturro).
His teacher in London in spycraft is Dr Fredericks and in Berlin he becomes friends with the famous Russian double agent, Valentin Mironov No. 1 a.k.a Yuri Modin (John Sessions) whose controller in Moscow is Ulysses a.k.a Stas Siyanko (Oleg Stefan). Mironov's father was a famous cellist and he plays the violin, but only Tchaikovsky can attest to who he really is.
Edward meets another double agent in London, Arch Cummings of MI5 (suggested by Kim Philby, acted by Billy Crudup) and becomes friends with him too.
They converge again in Washington, DC. Beginning in 1958, Edward discovers that he is also being spied on.
Any move beyond the ordinary is observed and recorded, with photographs and tapes sent to him. The mood is one of repressed paranoia. After the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion he becomes obsessed with items placed at his door, eventually traced to a capitol city in French West Africa, and to his son, Edward Wilson Jr (Eddie Redmayne) who has gone to Yale, becomes a Bonesman, and now a CIA agent, saying to his father: "I want to make you proud of me." But Edward already knows, from his days in Berlin, that to fall in love with a Russian agent places her life on the line.
De Niro previous directorial role was 14 years ago with A Bronx Tale (1993). In The Good Shepherd he directs a sober film, in muted colours, that takes itself very seriously. Edward, as played by Matt Damon, is a snub-nosed and usually very silent company man, lacking humour, who rarely smiles, with his vulnerability hidden deep within him (no Jason Bourne).
There is little poetry left, but he does make models of sailing ships to be erected inside bottles, a skill that doesn't seem to release his own tautness.
The Good Shepherd is two hours and 50 minutes long. It is in English, but is delivered in hushed whispers. It is directed by De Niro to a masterly script is by Eric Roth who modelled Edward Wilson on two original CIA agents, James Jesus Angleton and Richard Bissell (Angleton was head of counter-intelligence from 1954-1974).
The cinematographer is Robert Richardson; the editor is Tariq Anwar; and the music is by Bruce Fowle and Marcelo Zarvos. Look for it. [email protected]
