Welcome to the CIA

Rating: 10/10 (7 April 2007)

For years, I had read about the CIA's dirty tricks, but it never totally clicked in my mind what sort of people must work there. Robert DeNiro's "The Good Shepherd" shows what kind of people, and the movie does a masterful job at it.
We start in April, 1961, when the US is launching an the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. When the whole operation fails, agent Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) heads to the CIA headquarters to help investigate. From there, we see his life story. They begin with 1939 Yale, and his initiation into Skull and Bones (hmm, now who does that sound like?). While we see that it's a vile, disgusting society, it can't begin to prepare Edward for the intrigue in which he's about to get involved. This includes discrediting his literature teacher (Michael Gambon).
Despite his shotgun marriage to senator's daughter Clover Russell (Angelina Jolie), he immediately has to go to England to help them fight Germany. But when the war ends and tensions between the United States and Soviet Union arise, he sees it as his duty to help spy on the USSR. Moreover, Gen. Bill Sullivan (DeNiro) proposes a new agency to replace the Overseas Secret Service. So, the founding of the CIA in 1947 lays the ground work for sixty years of evil activity all in the name of national security.
But one of the ugliest things that the movie shows is Edward's relationship - or lack thereof - with his family. Practically ignoring his wife and son, he always comes across as totally soulless; then again, you have to be pretty soulless to work for the CIA. And in case it looks as though his son may have spilled a few secrets to a woman in the Congo...well, Edward has no limits. And his co-workers have no scruples about spying on him.
All in all, this is surely one of the best movies of 2006. Watching it, you may start looking around you, nervous about the people in your vicinity. It's that intense. When I first heard about what the movie portrayed, I got the feeling that it may have been loosely based on George H.W. Bush, although I then learned that he was never actually an agent. But overall, I definitely recommend this one.
Also starring William Hurt, Billy Crudup, Alec Baldwin, Hanna Schygulla, Keir Dullea and Joe Pesci (where have those last two been?).