January 2, 2007 -- “The Good Shepherd” is typical Oscar-bait. Released late in the year with at least a half-dozen Oscar-winning or Oscar-nominated actors in key roles and directed by the iconic Robert De Niro, this is a very slick and classy production, dripping with talent and expensive production values. It is overlong and bit slow-moving, but is well-written and stuffed with an abundance of interesting characters. It depicts the cold, calculating, cruel world of spies during the first 15 years after World War II, leading up to the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency in the U.S. It is a world of betrayal, blackmail, murder and disinformation.

The main character is Edward Wilson (Matt Damon of “The Bourne Identity”), a man recruited into both Skull and Bones and the spy business while still in college. He excels at the cloak and dagger stuff and is assigned to work with British intelligence during the early days of World War II. Even though he is forced to participate in the murder of an old friend, he sticks with spy business. Meanwhile, his personal life is a mess. He is forced to marry a casual girlfriend who becomes pregnant, Margaret “Clover” Russell (Angelina Jolie of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith”). She becomes very unhappy in a loveless marriage. His son grows up to be emotionally stunted and gets into the spy business to impress his father, with tragic results.

Eventually, Edward is forced to make an Abraham-like choice to sacrifice a family member for the supposed good of the nation. Edward is shown to value the United States of America above all else, including God. This is explicitly stated several times in the film, twice by Edward's wife. This is the kind of patriotism seen in recent years, especially during the early days of the Iraq war when the war, President Bush, patriotism and a peculiar kind of murderous Christianity were intertwined into one indistinguishable political blob by the so-called “religious right.” This is illustrated in the film in a scene where Mafia boss Joseph Palmi (Joe Pesci of “Casino”) is being blackmailed by Edward into helping with the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.

Palmi says something like “The Italians have their faith and their family. The Irish have their homeland. The Jews have their traditions. What do you people have.” Edward replies, “We have the United States of America. The rest of you are just visiting.” This kind of end-justifies-the-means, my country right or wrong patriotism is very dangerous, because it can be used to justify anything. It has, in fact, been used to justify anything, up to and including mass murder.

When such ruthless amorality prevails, there are no heroes, but there are villains. One of the best villains in the film is a Soviet spy, Stas Siyanko, codenamed Ulysses (Oleg Stefan of “Megiddo: The Omega Code 2”). Edwards and Siyanko are almost evenly matched, but Siyanko manages to outmaneuver Edwards on several occasions. The two have a certain amount of respect for each other and eventually come to a kind of understanding in one of the film's pivotal scenes. It is almost as if the two are playing a game, a deadly game to be sure, but a game nonetheless. Perhaps it is the adrenaline rush from this high-stakes contest that makes Edwards so addicted to spying, but we are never sure. Edwards has a poker face and doesn't speak unless he has to. He keeps things bottled up inside. When he does show his emotions, it usually gets him into trouble. This film rates a B.

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Copyright © 2007 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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