The Good Shepherd (2006)
Edward Wilson, the only witness to his father's suicide and member of the Skull and Bones Society while a student at Yale, is a morally upright young man who values honor and discretion, qualities that help him to be recruited for a career in the newly founded OSS. His dedication to his work does not come without a price though, leading him to sacrifice his ideals and eventually his family.
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Very Cool!!!
Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .
it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.
Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
The story sounds good and full of promise. Somebody in the CIA leaked the Bay of Pigs plans to Castro. I'm in! That should easily fill 90 mintutes. Instead, it's just a series of random flashbacks about Edward. I wish it had stuck to the story. Oh well
Friend or foe, the O.S.S. will know. This is a brilliant depiction of the early days of the Central Intelligence Agency, through the eyes of a sinister and yet highly astute man, Edward Wilson played by the very intelligent Matt Damon. Damon's Harvard Ivy League education certainly didn't dampen his ability to play a Yale - Skull and Bones Society member recruited by an even more powerful agency in its inception.This is not a film for the impatient or weak and it's not a film for anyone lacking the historical knowledge of the era. There's nothing funny about it, it's deep, multi-layered and complex. It's morally challenging and through the eyes of Wilson you'll find yourself living through a dark period of deceit and espionage, you may have to watch this one twice.With an amalgamated A-list cast every performance is superb. There's a haunting feel to the film, an eerie and elusive plot that makes the viewer work hard to comprehend and appreciate it.-Eric Statzer
Just a quick observation (correction) on the synopsis for The Good Shepherd. In the past I could have posted this in our discussion forum that was taken away from us by the management. I still miss it. The author of the synopsis repeatedly used the term "videotape" in describing the recording that Edward Wilson finds in an envelope as opposed to the "audiotape" that was actually delivered. "Videotapes" in a home consumer format did not exist back in 1961. Prerecorded two-inch size videotape had to be played on an industrial sized Ampex VRX-1000 Mark IV four-head video playback system with additional stationary heads for the sound track. There is even a scene of Edward Wilson playing the "audiotape" on a reel-to-reel player. That's my 2 cents.
I was a very late getting around to watch to this. I had heard all the rave reviews and thought it was going to be an epic. I decided to see it on VOD over the holiday. Boy, I wish I hadn't. This was a huge disappointment. It was an over-long boring watch. Yes it was stylish, yes it had a great impressive cast, yes, it had great acting, yes it was beautifully filmed and yes it had a huge budget, but it was over-inflated and self indulgent. The characters were one-dimensional and lifeless. The plot was dense and over-complicated. It was difficult to watch, like wading through treacle. Never once did it draw me in. I was not gripped by any part of the plot and I hardly managed to get through it. Matt Damon is a great actor, but his character remains blank and dull and too young to be convincing in this. I just was left feeling blank myself.