The Birth Of The C.I.A

Rating: 10/10 (20 September 2012)

The Good Shepherd is a spy film directed by Robert De Niro.It has an ensemble cast Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie, with an extensive supporting cast namely: William Hurt,Alec Baldwin,Billy Crudup,Michael Gambon,Timothy Hutton,Joe Pesci,John Turturro and Robert De Niro himself. Although it is a fictional film loosely based on real events, it is advertised as telling the untold story of the birth of counter- intelligence in the Central Intelligence Agency. The film's main character, Edward Wilson is loosely based on James Jesus Angleton and Richard M. Bissell.
In 1939, Edward Wilson is a young man with a bright future ahead of him -- he's a top student at Yale and the protégé of one of the school's leading English professors, Dr. Fredericks. But Wilson's life changes dramatically when he's invited to join Yale's powerful secret society, Skull and Bones. Through his Skull and Bones connections, Wilson meets Sam Murach, an mysterious FBI agent who asks Wilson to investigate charges that Fredericks is a Nazi sympathizer working with the German government. Later, at a Skull and Bones party, Wilson is introduced to Clover Russell, the sister of one of his classmates and the daughter of a powerful politician; their one-night stand leaves Clover pregnant, and Wilson must leave the woman he loves, Laura , to wed Clover and give their child a name. Shortly after their wedding, thanks to his work with Murach, Wilson is invited to join the Office of Strategic Services, a military intelligence organization organized by Bill Sullivan, and Wilson accepts. Through World War II, Wilson serves with the OSS, and learns he can trust no one in the game of international espionage, which helps make him little more than a stranger to his wife, his son, and his few friends. As the OSS evolves into the Central Intelligence Agency after the war, Wilson becomes party to America's darkest and most dangerous secrets, and in the wake of the futile Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, Wilson is forced to make a terrible choice between the security of his nation and the safety of his family.
The Good Shepherd is a remarkable study of the corrosive effects of fear and power on an establishment insider who puts duty above all else.This is a cool-headed thriller and a richly detailed character study that traces the birth and evolution of America's foreign espionage bureaucracy.Also,despite of being ambiguous and astonishingly thorough tragedy, it shows that emotions as human as any errors can undermine intelligence and questions whether God and country alone can be enough for a man's soul.