A Lonely and Friendless Man Bred by His Own Fabrication and Lies

Rating: 10/10 (25 December 2006)

I've been really picky with movies as time has gone on, sort of being less generous with how I rate movies that I see. The more of an authority on something you are, the more critical and knowledgeably harsh you can be. The last movie I saw, and I see at least about ten or fifteen new ones every week, that I would rate 10 out of 10 that I'd seen for the first time I saw October 6, and that was The Departed, and even though I rated it 10 out of 10, I still have had to learn to live with the original score, which is fine but so light for such a heavy film and kind of a waste of Howard Shore. I'd commented here on IMDb for The Graduate and Raging Bull, but both I'd seen before. I've finally seen another one for the first time that I cannot help but rate that high, and that is The Good Shepherd. It is fantastic.
I guess it's no wonder why Robert De Niro is, as a director, possibly one of the finest of the past half-century. Yes, he's that good. I think it's because ever since 1967, he's been taking direction from nearly every legend there is. When he was barely making it in the late '60s, early '70s, he was working with De Palma, then he got with fellow Italian-who-grew-up-on- the-streets Scorsese, and also worked with Alan Parker, of course Coppola, Bernardo Bertolucci, Sergio Leone, Michael Mann, Michael Cimino, Tarantino, John Frankenheimer, Alfonso Cuaron, Ron Howard, snitch-but-good-director Elia Kazan, et al. For almost 50 years, he's been constantly watching it done by the best. If you think about it, he's learned the best way you can.
The cinematography is perhaps the best I've seen all year. Somehow, the film captures atmosphere and holds it, never letting it escape for one second, and slowly it segues from atmosphere to atmosphere, subtly changing not its mood but its feeling for its surroundings, almost as if we are actually there standing with the characters. The slow, patient musical score never falls into the trap every other espionage film falls into, letting the orchestral music become tainted by electronic noises and techno beats, to the point where it's nothing but a violin or two and a cello repeating a few catchy bars while the drum machine takes over. The Good Shepherd has an emotional, elusive symphonic underscoring. The script is extensive, extremely subtle, and rich in its drawing of its characters.
The film's star, Matt Damon, continually proves himself to be one of his generation's finest actors. He never takes a wrong step, or at least he hasn't for a very long time. Just this year, he matched and paralleled his co-star in The Departed, and almost precisely a year ago he was, to my surprise, a highlight of Syriana. Even though he's made some roles his own and has really impressed before in films such as The Talented Mr. Ripley and Rounders and I've never had a bias towards him for any reason, I simply nearly always would prefer to see another actor in his place. He's never stricken me as a particularly deep individual, thus I always see Matt Damon rather than the role being played by Matt Damon. However, he is really beginning to grow on me. His performance here in The Good Shepherd is one for the books. He becomes the shelled, withdrawn yet completely assured man that he plays.
Angelina Jolie may give her finest performance in this film, her character so deeply sympathetic to us. Crudup in his seeming new wave of clean-cut refined roles, De Niro himself playing an unusually humble and minimal character, and even Joe Pesci in a return from eight years off screen in a scene as an Italian-American, are all very convincing performances and very very high points their careers.