The Good Shepherd

By: Major Issues

Director: Robert De Niro
Cast: Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Alec Baldwin, Robert De Niro, William Hurt, Joe Pesci
Rating: 2 out of 5
 
I’ve been hearing rumors that a lot of other so-called movie reviewers are canning The Good Shepherd, saying it’s slow and boring and doesn’t have any action.

Well allow me to let you ladies in on a little secret. This movie is about the CIA. The number one rule of the CIA is to say nothing. Name, rank and serial number people! That’s all! That's the guiding principal of the world of espionage, cloaks and daggers, and subterfuge. What did you lolly-gaggers want them to do, produce a tell-all film on the inner workings of America’s secret service? Why don’t we just hand all of our secret files over to the Russians? And while we’re at it, why don’t we just invite the Chinese to celebrate their New Year’s Eve on the White House lawn?

Slow and boring? Believe it or not soldiers, war isn’t always about loud music, meeting new people, blowing up buildings, and air strikes, goddamit!. None of that can help until the well connect folk at army intelligence – read CIA – have done their work to tell us which direction to go in, and who to shoot at.

If they weren’t there doing their patriotic duty, then we might not even have an enemy to fire upon.

Sure, there are a bunch of pen-pushing, panty-wearing nancy-boys wandering around the halls of CIA HQ who have never seen the business end of bayonet, let along stood neck deep in Bangkok mud while having one thrust into your gizzards on a full belly. Hell, they’ve probably never even seen a landmine let alone trod on way on the way to the latrine. But that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve the respect and admiration of us all for the work they do.

If you want to see action aplenty, and limbs being blown off, and hand-to-hand combat, then grab one of the Bourne movies and knock yourself out. But if you want to see the truth of men sacrificing their marriages and their children’s upbringing in order to protect the freedom and liberty that you take for granted then see this film.

Espionage is slow, methodical, disciplined work, and I’ll puke up if I read another review that casts a shadow of doubt about the entertaining nature of a film that captures that truth so realistically.

Thank God for men like Matt Damon who would never paint secret agents as action heroes.
 
Verbatim:
Richard Hayes: “Someone once asked me, Why don't they put a 'the' in front of CIA? And I said to him, do you put a 'the' in front of God?”

In a word: Mum