The Good Shepherd-Tend to this Flock ***

Rating: 8/10 (6 June 2007)

Robert De Niro directs and co-stars in this memorable film dealing with the birth of the CIA and one member's eventual disillusionment with the top secret organization.
Both Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie give career performances in this film. With his thick glasses, Damon is a powerful figure in a restrained performance as a CIA agent who sacrifices his life for working for the famous agency. Jolie has never been better as the neglected wife that he had to marry when he got her in trouble.
Detailing the rise of the agency as World War 11 was about to begin, we see with the effective use of flashbacks, the Kennedy debacle at the Bay of Pigs and going back to 1939 as war breaks out in Europe and a covert group is needed and assembled.
We have a terrific supporting performance by Michael Gambon, as a supposedly Nazi sympathetic British college professor who is a double agent but is put to death because of his homosexual activities being viewed as a threat.