A Bit Long But Demonstrates DeNiro's Strength As a Filmmaker

Rating: 9/10 (18 November 2007)

Joseph Palmi: Let me ask you something... we Italians, we got our families, and we got the church; the Irish, they have the homeland, Jews their tradition; even the n_ggers, they got their music. What about you people, Mr. Wilson, what do you have?
Edward Wilson: The United States of America. The rest of you are just visiting.
There's something about the C.I.A. I find so damn intriguing. Maybe it's the secretiveness, the espionage, the danger -- I don't know, it just seems so --- cool. After the release of the powerhouse revival of the Bond series, 'Casino Royale' I was all pumped to see De Niro's second film 'The Good Shepherd' surrounding the birth of the C.I.A. There have been so many movies released about the C.I.A. in recent years -- Spy Game, The Recruit, Mindhunters, etc. -- but 'The Good Shepherd' proves to be better than all of them. It's an intense, intricate and beautifully-made film, that has very few flaws. The only unfortunate thing about 'The Good Shepherd' is the fact it was released in 2006 -- a year filled to the brim with impeccable movies, forcing this great but not great enough film to be lost in the shuffle and stand a chance at little to no awards recognition.
Matt Damon is the star of the film playing the cold and composed C.I.A. man Edward Wilson. Damon perfectly captures the part with a brilliantly subtle performance that is his best work yet. In my mind, he should receive an Oscar nomination, but seeing how much competition there is this year, I highly doubt that will happen, at least not for this movie (I think he has a better chance going supporting with 'Departed'). The rest of the cast is hardly given enough chance to shine with roles ranging from 25 minutes on screen to 2 minutes on screen. Angelina Jolie, who has probably the biggest part of the rest of the cast, is decent as Clover, Wilson's wife, but nothing special. William Hurt and Robert DeNiro are spectacular as ever, as are Alec Baldwin, Michael Gambon and Billy Crudup. Tammy Blanchard impressed me with a short role as Damon's cute little deaf love interest, and it was nice to see Pesci acting again even if he was only on screen for 2 minutes. By the way, Pesci owns those two minutes.
The real treat of the film is DeNiro as the director. Here DeNiro provides us with breathtaking work that we'd expect from acclaimed veteran filmmakers like Scorsese, Spielberg or Kubrick. It seems as though every shot of the film is perfectly captured with a sense of gloominess that perfectly sets the tone for this somber epic tale of loyalty, betrayal and sacrifice in the name of one's country. Eric Roth, the co-screenwriter of Munich, Forrest Gump and The Insider, provides a screenplay that is for the most part great, but could have been shorter. In my mind, although many will disagree, 'The Good Shepherd' could have been about 10 - 15 minutes shorter and it still would have been just as powerful, but that's just a small complaint to go along with my numerous compliments.
All in all, 'The Good Shepherd' is definitely worth catching in theaters if you think you can handle a two hour and fifty-five minute movie that isn't Lord of the Rings. For all of you expecting this movie to have all this action and violence in it -- you got the wrong the movie. 'The Good Shepherd' doesn't use explosions and blood to entice it's viewers, it uses realism and intelligent plot twists. Grade: A-