All our dirty secrets start here. The Good Shepherd.

The Good Shepherd (2006) Directed by Robert De Niro From the novel by Eric Roth

Joseph Palmi: “You're the guys that scare me. You're the people that make big wars.”
Edward Wilson: “No, we make sure the wars are small ones.”

Edward Wilson (Mat Damon) is a poet at Yale, a member of the Skull and Bones. He is a particular favorite of one of his professors, Dr. Fredricks (Michael Gambon). There is a moment when Dr. Fredricks offers to take their relationship to an entirely different level. Wilson says he needs to go…Fredricks covers by reading him a section of a poem he is writing.

Edward locates the poem…in a published book.

Later, he is asked by Sam Murach (Alec Baldwin) to spy on his professor’s social gatherings…Nazi mongering. He does, obtaining information that has his professor retiring almost immediately. When confronted on what he had done to deserve this, how could he betray him like this? Edward answered. “You knew that poem was Stickley. You were my teacher…My Teacher! You betrayed me first.”

And here is the crux…did he mean the plagiarism, or did he mean coming onto him? That is the tone of the movie. Nothing has one meaning. It is all nuances. And considering the reserved and repressed emotions of the protagonist, you have to pay attention. In the words of his Russian counterpart, Ulysses, “Hello, I believe you know me as Ulysses. Do you know what our code name is for you... it's "Mother". Yes, they said you were the quiet type. But your silence speaks volumes, what is the saying? "Your silence is deafening," yes that is it. You will be a great adversary Mother, hopefully for many years.”

Edward falls in love with a deaf girl, Laura (Tammy Blanchard) but at a party for the Skull and Bones is seduced by Clover Russell, (Angelina Jolie). They have sex once, but as we all know, that can be quite enough. Clover gets pregnant.

There is no doubt about what Edward will do, and they are married. On their wedding day, Edward receives his orders to ship out to Europe to be part of the newly forming OSS. He leaves one week later.

In England, his teacher is…Dr. Fredricks. In the Doctor’s own word, “No hard feelings…it isn’t personal.”

Six years later, Edward comes home, and meets his son.

The movie requires attention. Not only is it subtle, and the hero reserved to the point of inscrutability, it jumps in time. It starts with the beginning of the end. It features flash backs. The relationships he has with fellow spies particularly precipitates these time shifts. Things interrelate.

Edward is included in the formation of the CIA. Even though in America, there is a distance with his family.

Years pass. His son, Edward Jr. (Eddie Redmayne) Edward is one of them men involved in planning the attack on the Bay of Pigs. It is obvious there is a leak. It is his job to find it.

There is a real temptation to discuss this film in detail…but it is impossible to do so with out spoiling the ending. Instead, I want to discuss the other reviews of this film.

I was shocked. I loved this movie. I was practically the only one. There are some reviews (and comments) out there by people I really admire. Boring. Slow. Unemotional. Confusing.

I didn’t find it that way at all. Complex, deliberate, repressed and convoluted, that is the way I would describe it.

I think you have to be a fan of history, and a fairly astute judge of character to really get this movie. It is not celluloid popcorn, entertainment for the masses. It aims higher.

Please don’t think I am doing an “I didn’t like your review, so I’m writing a better one.” I would NEVER do that. But I think they are selling this film short. It is wonderfully complex on many different levels, and reveals the depths of the duplicity of this world and the pervasive price it extracts on people.

And the price they extracted from the rest of us. I opened with a quote between Edward Wilson and Joseph Palmi, and I’ll close the same way.

Joseph Palmi: “Let me ask you something... we Italians, we got our families, and we got the church; the Irish, they have the homeland, Jews their tradition; even the n!ggers, they got their music. What about you people, Mr. Wilson, what do you have?”
Edward Wilson: “The United States of America. The rest of you are just visiting.”