The Good Shepherd, 2006, Angelina Jolie, Matt Damon
The Good Shepherd is an Academy Award-nominated 2006 film directed by Robert De Niro (his second directorial effort after A Bronx Tale) and starring Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie, with an extensive supporting cast. The film was rated "R" for "some violence, sexuality and language" by the MPAA. 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. It is a Morgan Creek Productions film distributed by Universal Pictures. The film's main character, Edward Wilson (played by Damon), is loosely based in part on James Jesus Angleton and Richard M. Bissell, Jr.. William Hurt's character, Phillip Allen is based on Allen Dulles, and General Bill Sullivan, played by Robert De Niro, is loosely based on Major General William Joseph Donovan.
The film received mixed reviews with the review tallying website rottentomatoes.com reporting that 89 out of the 160 reviews they tallied were positive for a score of 56% and a certification of "rotten" (according to the website's criteria).
Time magazine said Matt Damon "is terrific in the role — all-knowing, never overtly expressing a feeling. Indeed, so is everyone else in this intricate, understated but ultimately devastating account of how secrets, when they are left to fester, can become an illness, dangerous to those who keep them, more so to nations that base their policies on them." David Ansen in his Newsweek wrote, "For the film's mesmerizing first 50 minutes I thought De Niro might pull off the The Godfather of spy movies... Still, even if the movie's vast reach exceeds its grasp, it's a spellbinding history lesson."
Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly praises De Niro's direction and Damon's performance, noting the latter's maturation as an actor. She gives the movie a grade of "B" .
However, Elizabeth Weitzman of the New York Daily News wrote, "If the lives of CIA spies are really this dreary, they may as well keep their secrets to themselves," and Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine opined, "It's tough to slog through a movie that has no pulse."
Public reaction was more positive, with members of the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com), giving the movie an average score of 7.0 out of 10 from 19,635 ratings.
In 2007, the cast of "The Good Shepherd" won the silver bear of the prestigious Berlin film festival for outstanding artistic contribution. It was the only American entry in 2007 to win a prize at the festival. The film was also an Oscar nominee in 2007.Wikipedia
