A review of “The Good Shepherd (currently showing on Netflix)
This 2006 movie is something of a cinematic curiosity since it has so much talent on both sides of the camera and yet the outcome is so disappointing.It purports to tell the story of the formation by the United States of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during the Second World War and its transformation into the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) as the Cold War took hold. Very loosely based on a number of real life American and Russian figures in the espionage world, its leading character is the upright, laconic Edward Wilson played by Matt Damon who does not seem to age in the two-decade narrative. The character is partly based on James Jesus Angleton, who was chief of counterintelligence for the CIA, and partly on covert operations specialist Richard Bissell.
There is so much talent here. The director is the acclaimed actor Robert De Niro (who has only directed one other film “A Bronx Tale) and he has a cameo role as the head of the OSS. As well as Matt Damon, others in the star-stunned cast list include Angelina Jolie, Alec Baldwin, William Hurt, Joe Pesci John Turturro and Michael Gambon. In spite of this, the film is over long, over complicated and just too leaden. So I cannot really recommend it; yet, if you’re a student of cinema, I think that you have to see it.