The Good Shepherd

Posted by Brian C. Gibson (brian@filmschoolrejects.com) on April 3, 2007

Based partly on the life of one of the founding fathers of the CIA, James “Jesus” Angelton, The Good Shepherd follows Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) through a thick fog of deception and suspicion. When a man who loves and serves his country with pride is forced to make a decision that would effect both the fates of his personal life and of his country, he must decide where his loyalty resides.

The Good Shepherd is not only good, it is one of the year’s best films. When a film has a cast that can fill seats, a good story, and a director that can put the pieces together you get a film like this. Just looking at the film’s roster makes you want to see it, but whether or not it is good or not is another story. Earlier this year there was another film All The King’s Men that had a cast that just screamed Oscar, but thankfully there have been a few other films since that have cast a very large shadow over the undeserved hype that the afore mentioned film may have received. This film may not win everything, or even anything for that matter, but deserves to be in the ranks of the 2006’s 5 best films.

Rarely behind the camera, Robert De Niro summons knockout performances from his ensemble cast and delivers one of the years best films. Not much can be said for what De Niro could have done better, but one thing that I found to be a bit overdone was the film’s 2 hour 40 minute runtime. One storyline could have been completely cut from the film without affecting the plot and saved the film maybe another 20-30 minutes. Another aspect of the film that I did not particularly enjoy was the performance and storyline concerning Angelina Jolie. I found her character to be haggard, unnecessary and over the top. In the end though, other than the butt-numbing runtime, the film was great entertainment and a good look into our country’s earliest forms of defense.

Matt Damon has displayed performances in the past that have given him attention, but none that truly have shown anything different from the smile and face that have made him famous. Dazzling us with his performance in The Departed, Damon takes his craft to the next level and sells his performance all the way to the credits. An unflinching and rock solid performance from Damon anchored this film, and should have given all the other Oscar hopefuls a late run for their money in 2006.

I have been anticipating this DVD for quite some time and I do have to say that I am a bit disappointed. A film with so much history and source material must have had much more beneath the surface other than 16 minutes of deleted scenes. I would have enjoyed some type of elaboration on the quarter century that the film’s subject encompasses. I would have at least been somewhat more appeased by just a trailer, but hopefully Universal will be expanding this film into some type of special edition to offer more supplements.

Read more articles by Brian C. Gibson