In this fictionalized account of actual events, DeNiro begins his dramatization of the founding of the CIA with the 1961 failed Bay of Pigs, Cuba invasion, which precipitates a search for the mole who shared State secrets. Through a series of flashbacks marked by textual hints that signal periodic shifts, the creation of the American intelligence service is told through the prism of a Yale Bonesman Edward Wilson (Matt Damon).  

Based on long-time CIA counterintelligence honcho James Angleton, but essentially a composite of many real-life agents, Edward Wilson is a patriot born of wealth and privilege who evolves into Big Brother, tending to an ever expanding sphere of operatives, defectors and covert ops.  Initially, an upstanding fellow for whom truth and integrity are core principles, Edward sets upon a path that perverts his soul as he becomes a man for whom deception is his stock and trade.  Damon embodies Wilson in a nuanced manner that effectively captures the character’s shift from a preppy poet with a hint of individualism to a desensitized orchestrator of cointel programs devoted to protecting America from its perceived threats.

Shepherd also stars Angelina Jolie as Clover (aka Margaret) Wilson, Edward’s spouse although not his soulmate.  Stepping out of type and shedding her über persona, Jolie portrays a pampered and free-spirited Senator’s daughter who corrals Wilson into marriage.  Jolie’s performance is subtly impressive as a rejected and unloved wife that over time is beaten down by her husband’s disinterest and the weight of aristocratic expectation.

Damon and Jolie’s performances in Shepherd are supported by an excellent ensemble that includes Alec Baldwin, Billy Crudup, Michael Gambon, William Hurt, Joe Pesci, John Turturro and director DeNiro.

A highly-acclaimed actor, DeNiro’s direction of Shepherd is overly detailed to the point of distraction.  Thankfully, the film’s score enlivens this dense telling of the CIA’s creation.  A few nip tucks would have improved the film’s pacing.  Eric Roth’s screenplay at times devalues the narrative as trite spy speak is peppered throughout the film in a manner that provokes an eye-roll here and a stomach-churn there.  Nevertheless, the film, which eschews the voluptuous bombshells, high tech gadgets and pyrotechnics of the espionage genre, is ultimately an intellectually stimulating character driven look at America’s clandestine agency. M

December 2006

MoQuotable(s)

Difficulty Playing Such a Stoic Character?

I was nervous about that. I think with another director I would have given into my fear, indicated more, pushed it more and been a little more over the top. The reality was that [Robert DeNiro] insisted on absolute emotional honesty and subtlety all the time…. Bob was insistent on absolute naturalism and realism.  He would say, “Play the scene for its absolute honesty, moment to moment. Don’t worry about anything else.” 

  Matt Damon (December 8, 2006)

Why E-Dub So Reserved?

The guy should be subtle. He’s the head of counter-intelligence. What’s he going to do, tell you how he’s feeling? It makes total sense when you think about it. He should be reserved and he should be emotionally distant, because it’s very dangerous for him to be any other way.

  Matt Damon (December 8, 2006)

 

Is E-Dub a Ruthless SOB with No Sense of Humor?

Well, nobody sees themselves as ruthless. Look at it from his point of view. Look at the stakes of the game he’s playing.  You’re talking about the middle of the Cold War. In his mind, he’s doing things to stop huge conflagrations. It’s like World War III is going to happen if he doesn’t do what he has to do. Tough choices have to be made. He’s ‘the good shepherd’ and he’s taking care of his flock. He’s sacrificing, essentially, his own soul to make those decisions.

  Matt Damon (December 8, 2006)

Familiarity with Secret Society Rites of Passage?

I was in the Delphic Club at Harvard. I did see some of that although it had changed. Now with Skull and Bones, for instance, the new generation has debunked everything because now there’s a lot of writing about Skull and Bones. Starting with around my generation, people stopped taking all that stuff quite so seriously. Whereas in 1939, it was of the utmost important. But nowadays, all of those secrets are kind of out in the open. Skull and Bones is co-ed now.

  Matt Damon (December 8, 2006)

Opinion on Life Through The Prism Of Secrecy?

In these times, it’s an interesting discussion to be had. I wouldn’t want to point [the discussion] too much. Bob DeNiro does point out and Gus Van Sant has said this to me many times, “You have to let a movie find its own metaphors and you have to let an audience do that…”  I don’t think there is only one answer. I think in the day and age that we live in where we see the foundations of our democracy being gnawed away at by secrets and by things happening in secret, I think it’s good that there is a movie out there where that can be a topic of discussion. 

  Matt Damon (December 8, 2006)

Of Clover aka Margaret?

I see Clover, in the end, as being as strong as a woman could be at that time. I liked that there were many things about her that were broken. Often, I don’t get to play that role. That’s why it took a while for Bob [DeNiro] to decide that I should play the part. Margaret is subservient, vulnerable and very broken. As an actress, it’s a great challenge. As a woman, there are certain things in my life that I do feel strong about. Yet, there are pieces of me that are broken.

  Angelina Jolie (December 8, 2006)

Getting the Gig?

Bob DeNiro needed to understand that I really knew her and would play Clover accurately. He’s very specific about every detail of this film. He cares about it a lot. I’m a very modern woman. I’m thought of in a very modern way. In the beginning, Clover is very light and silly in a way that I usually don’t portray. A lot about her was something that Bob couldn’t obviously see that I was capable of doing. I think he had to know that I understood Clover. We talked about it a lot to make sure he did.

  Angelina Jolie (December 8, 2006)

Any Deep, Personal Connection to Clover?

Yeah, that kind of feeling alone. I didn’t necessarily feel that in a marriage per se.  But in my life, I’ve often felt it. Clover is surrounded by a lot of secrets, a lot of quiet, a lot of people just accepting. And as much as she’s broken, she’s the only person that is desperate to scream out and to try to get some reaction - something honest. I’ve done that in my life a lot. I tend to want to be that person. I would start drinking or something terrible if I were in a situation where I was surrounded by lies, quiet or secrets. It’s just not a real life.

  Angelina Jolie (December 8, 2006)

Difficulty Playing a Rejected, Unloved Wife?

Well, I do have two divorces [laughs]. But I’m still good friends with them. So, it’s okay.

 

I think it’s easier to play that kind of role when you do have a balanced home. I think if I did have alcoholism in my personal life, or my mother, or somebody close to me, it might have been a much more uncomfortable experience. That kind of relationship with a man - I’ve never had that in my life because I’ve always married artists. They are a very talkative, very expressive breed. It was bizarre, but that was part of the character because she did feel lost and she did feel trapped and confused.

  Angelina Jolie (December 8, 2006)

Shepherd’s Allure?

What DeNiro has done here, with Eric Roth, is taken you back to an America that a lot of us don’t remember - how America Incorporated really worked.  Imagine…the CIA Director is one brother, the Secretary of State is another brother, the guys at the National Security Council all went to Andover with the same bunch and the guys that ran the newsrooms were snapping each other with wet towels in prep school. That was a different America and a different CIA and I think DeNiro captures it.

  Milt Bearden (December 8, 2006)

The Good Shepherd – Fact or Fiction?

Almost every specific instance in this film actually happened sometime between 1946 and the end of the Cold War.  The film is fiction and that is the reason Bob and Eric have been able to get closer to the essential truth of the era because they were not bound by the limitations of the docudrama form.  They were liberated from an attempt to be precise, but it all happened. It’s faithful to the ethos and the culture of these people at that time.

  Ambassador Richard Holbrooke (December 8, 2006)

Film Cred?

I tried to make [the film] as believable as possible. There was also this mythology supporting it. It’s not literally what occurred, but I wanted to make it as credible and real as possible.

  Robert DeNiro (December 8, 2006)

The Good Shepherd the “Preppy” Godfather?

There is a comparison. I was concerned that the film not have certain direct parallels. But how could it not. One is about that secret society and this is about another type of secret society, but very Americana. One of the best lines in the movie to me is in the Joe Pesci scene where he says, “What do you people have?” and Matt Damon says, “The United States of America. The rest of you are just visiting.”

  Robert DeNiro (December 8, 2006)

Indictment of WASPs?

I never thought of it that way.  I look at The Good Shepherd as the WASP Godfather. I wrote it for Francis Coppola originally. It’s a saga. But the truth is, these are the people who have run those organizations in this country. It’s not that I made it up. It’s the legacy of the people who ran the agency. These people went to Yale, most of them went in to Skull and Bones and the CIA was sort of their private club. That’s how they looked at it.

  Eric Roth (December 8, 2006)

Contemporary Relevance?

I know I am supposed to say I think it’s relevant. I don’t know if it is relevant. It happens to become relevant, in certain ways, because of what’s happening and all the attention to the CIA in general. The only direct thing is the Abu Ghraib-type interrogation scene…. That scene was so simple, effective, powerful and horrible.

  Robert DeNiro (December 8, 2006)

Modern CIA Distinctions?

I think it’s the same. The only thing that has changed is the technology. I’m not sure the ethos is much different. That’s what I find interesting about the Good Shepherd since I wrote this before any of the modern Iraq stuff happened. This is about a culture that leads to secrecy and I think it’s all still true. Whatever you like and don’t like about the CIA, the peoples’ lives are what they are. They are not allowed to talk about what they do, which then becomes a problem within a marriage.

 

I was always fascinated by the fact that this thing started with 15 to 20 people and now there are 30,000 people dedicated to secrecy. It’s not really meant to be a particular indictment of the CIA. There are factors in that. I think they’ve done a lot of good things. They were great during World War II as the Office of Strategic Services. They’ve probably saved our bacon in a few instances…some we’re not even aware of. It’s a very tricky combination of – wanting to be protected and yet not wanting it to be secret. But some things can’t be done without them being a secret. I don’t know the answer to that. I’m a civil libertarian. I’m probably on the side of getting my head blown off.

  Eric Roth (December 8, 2006)

The Nip Tuck?

I had to take a lot of stuff out, but I’ll put it in the extended version and some other ones in the DVD version. I’m happy with the version we have now. I think there might still be parts that are confusing. You don’t always have to have the answer to everything. There are certain trajectories, character-wise, that I took out so that we could focus on the other characters.

  Robert DeNiro (December 8, 2006)

Casting Matt?

I was originally going to do the film with Leonardo DiCaprio, but it didn’t work out schedule-wise. So, I went to Matt and he said he would do it. There are only a few actors I would do it with and Matt was one of them. I’ve been very lucky for him to come on board. He’s been just great on every level.

  Robert DeNiro (December 8, 2006)

 

Leonardo DiCaprio was going to do it, but had big scheduling problems and we had money available at a certain time and certain place. Matt had coincidentally read the script and he was in love with it.  I loved his performance because it is a harder performance than some of the more bravura ones. It’s harder to internalize some of this stuff. As part of internalizing it, he has to show that he has some sensitivity about it and that he may even know better. It’s a real complicated thing and it sneaks up on you. You see a character that starts out as innocent, but loses his innocence.

  Eric Roth (December 8, 2006)

 

Casting Angelina?

I was very lucky to get her. She expressed an interest. We had a few meetings. I knew that she had some real special feel for the part. She surprised me even more with what she did.

  Robert DeNiro (December 8, 2006)

 

Angelina was a little trickier because quite honestly, which I told her when we met, I didn’t believe her as a WASP. She’s sort of ethnic looking to me.  I don’t have a problem being honest with people. It was better that I was honest and she didn’t like me, than if she did a bad job and the movie was wrecked.  I’d rather go down that way. Being respectful, I think she’s a wonderful actress. But, I had somebody in mind who is very blonde…something like was done with Diane Keaton in the Godfather…. somebody a little blander.

 

Angelina sparked to it. She took it as a challenge. I felt she could act it, but I wasn’t sure it would be believable. I think she made it believable. I think she found it. I told her [so]. I sent her a huge thing of flowers. She made it what I didn’t think she could, not because of her acting abilities, but because just of the sense you have of her, plus of her persona and her publicity and this sort of vamp. But she’s a lot more serious and she found the dignity in the role. So it was an interesting combination because [Angelina] as a personality and as human being, I think she’s not a very repressed human being. I think – I don’t know her that intimately. On face value, she’s sure of herself. She does what she wants to do for herself. In that era and in those circumstances, women were very repressed.

  Eric Roth (December 8, 2006)

But Clover is Sexually Aggressive?

She’s sexually aggressive in a particular instance, but I think she’s taking her anger out. In another day and age, she could be Angelina Jolie and not be a repressed woman of the 1940s.

  Eric Roth (December 8, 2006)

Genre(s)

Drama, Espionage,, Thriller

Director

Robert DeNiro

Writer(s)

Eric Roth

Producer(s)

Chris Brigham

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Executive Producer

Francis Ford Coppola

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Executive Producer

Robert DeNiro

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Producer

Guy McElwaine

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Executive Producer

David C. Robinson

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Executive Producer

James G. Robinson

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Producer

Jane Rosenthal

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Producer

Rick Schwartz

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Executive Producer

Main Cast

Matt Damon

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Edward Wilson

Angelina Jolie

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Clover/Margaret Russell

Alec Baldwin

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Sam Murach

Tammy Blanchard

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Laura

Billy Crudup

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Arch Cummings

Robert DeNiro

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General Bill Sullivan

Michael Gambon

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Dr. Fredericks

William Hurt

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Philip Allen

Gabriel Macht

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John Russell, Jr.

Lee Pace

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Richard Hayes

Joe Pesci

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Joseph Palmi

Eddie Redmayne

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Edward Wilson, Jr.

John Turturro

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Ray Brocco

Other Crew

Robert Richardson

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Cinematographer

Tariq Anwar

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Editor(s)

Bruce Fowler and Marcelo Zarvos

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Music

Sig De Miguel, Amanda Mackey Johnson, Cathy Sandrich and Wendy Weidman

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Casting

Ann Roth

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Costume Design

Distributor

Universal Pictures

Release Dates

Filming Location(s)

• New York City, New York, USA

• Dominican Republic

• England, UK

• Greenwich, Connecticut, USA

• Long Island, New York

• Queens, New York City, New York, USA

• Tarrytown, New York, USA

• Washington, District of Columbia, USA

DVD Extras

Not Available

Official Site

The Good Shepherd