The Good Shepherd

I went out yesterday and watched the movie The Good Shepherd and bumped into an acquaintance of mine from work near the restroom while she was waiting for her boyfriend who had to answer the call of nature.

I asked her about the movie and she was candid enough to say that she did not understand it at all. She maybe telling the truth for Robert De Niro’s movie about the birth of America’s foremost spy agency, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is not your typical spy movie.

It is a movie that left a lot of questions and delves on a lot of issues in passing that will left the casual viewer with no or limited knowledge about the history of the CIA and the circumstances around its formation to scratch their heads as they try figure out heads and tails of every scene.

To the uninitiated, the CIA was born out of the old Office of Strategic Services (OSS) of World War II then headed by the legendary Colonel Wild Bill Donovan who proposed to then US President Harry S. Truman to create an intelligence agency that will deal both in overt and covert operations for the United States which led to its establishment in January 1946.

Thus, the agency that would be responsible for fighting the United States government’s dirty war was born.

During its history the CIA was responsible directly or indirectly in maintaining that US Allies in the fight against communism would be supported militarily and financially by the United States where the dictum “I don’t care if he is a son of a bitch as long as he is our son of a bitch” was the norm when questions about the morality and soundness of supporting a particular dictator to stay in power as well as the toppling of governments that are against or perceived to be against the US and too- friendly with the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries like East Germany, Cuba and Bulgaria.

The movie has delved into the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and the disastrous 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion where Cuban exiles in Miami where trained and armed by the Firm but were abandoned to Fidel Castro’s forces when the plan proved unsuccessful and too hot to handle. They also mentioned in passing the unseen hand of the Office in toppling the new government of Chilean President Salvador Allende and installing their protégé Antonio Pinochet in office through military coup de etat where he would rule that South American nation with an iron hand for decades.

Air America, Iran- Contra, Low Intensity Conflict were just some of the things that the sinister minds of the people in Langley in Fairfax County, Virginia have concocted in its dirty war against the Evil Empire.

Even the agency’s use of the mob was shown when Wilson (Matt Damon) paid the Boss (Joe Pesci) a visit where he issued veiled threats that only reinforced the fact that they would leave no stone unturned when it comes to dealing with perceived enemies of the state.



The central theme of the movie was focused through the eyes and life of one man, the character Edward Wilson which was likely but loosely based on the life of James Jesus Angleton, the head of Counterintelligence at the Central Intelligence Agency from 1954 to 1974 who was played by Matt Damon as a stiff, cold, and calculating operative whose eyes were opened through the evil that men do and whose life was suck into the cloak and dagger world of espionage that characterize the Cold War; where revenge and betrayal were the name of the game; where there are no permanent friends but only permanent interests; where duplicity is a common trait; where family comes only second to his work and country; where the interest of the United Sates is paramount; where disinformation when handled correctly is power.

Young and promising Ivy League student Wilson was recruited at Yale by the secret society Skull and Bones where he was inducted into their world of secrecy whose members were a veritable who’s who in the elite circle of the government.

Bonesmen then and now are said to be so powerful that they have elected presidents, appointed supreme court justices, and count prominent business leaders among its members. Even George W. Bush, the current president, is said to be a member of this so-called fraternity in Yale.

Fast forward to his stint with the OSS and his years of training with the British spy agency where he learned and honed his craft under the watchful eyes of his old “professor” in poetry in Yale that he “betrayed” years earlier for being suspected as a German spy and Nazi recruiter in the US. He was compelled by an FBI agent (Alec Baldwin) to spy for him as a patriotic American citizen. The death of his erstwhile mentor at the hands of his colleagues was an eye opener for him that will guide his every move as he went further with his career in the clandestine world of espionage.


Many viewers and critics alike have found the movie wanting in action and fast-paced story-telling as would have been expected in a movie that deals specifically with the CIA. But the movie is not your typical slam- bang spy thriller but rather a deep and long dissection of the history the US foremost intelligence agency and the role of a certain kind of men in its birth, infancy and to what is now the largest and most sophisticated intelligence organization in the world.

In the end, you can only sympathize with these men and commiserate with their families who sacrificed everything so that America can sleep in peace knowing that there are a group of men out there watching and protecting her back.

The all star ensemble for this espionage- drama; from Matt Damon to William Hurt to Tammy Blachard to John Turturro to Alec Baldwin to Angelina Jolie were like every piece that Robert de Niro has put into place to complete the desired picture and they did deliver.



And on the lighter side, give me Angelina Jolie anytime, with her classic beauty on the screen and I will not complain enduring 160 minutes of sitting in a dark, musty theater. Ha-ha.

Again, if you're not familiar with History especially about the Cold War and other dark, cold spy stuffs, you may find this film tedious and boring.

You better watch Happy Feet, instead.