The Good Shepherd (2006)

The Good Shepherd (2006) (Blu-Ray) (*)

Out of Stock

Screened, competed or awarded at:
Berlin International Film Festival
Edgar Allan Poe Awards
Oscar Academy Awards
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
Danish ( Subtitles )
English ( Dolby Digital 5.1 )
English ( DTS 5.1 )
English ( DTS-HD Master Audio )
Finnish ( Subtitles )
Norwegian ( Subtitles )
Swedish ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
Denmark ( Blu-Ray/Region A/B/C )

Running Time:
168 min

Aspect Ratio:
Widescreen (2.35:1)

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access

Movie filmed in 2006 and produced in:
United States ( USA, Canada )

Directed By:
Robert De Niro

Written By:
Eric Roth

Actors:
Matt Damon ..... Edward Wilson
Angelina Jolie ..... Margaret 'Clover' Russell
Alec Baldwin ..... Sam Murach
Tammy Blanchard ..... Laura
Billy Crudup ..... Arch Cummings
Robert De Niro ..... Bill Sullivan
Keir Dullea ..... Senator John Russell, Sr.
Michael Gambon ..... Dr. Fredericks
Martina Gedeck ..... Hanna Schiller
William Hurt ..... Philip Allen
Timothy Hutton ..... Thomas Wilson
Mark Ivanir ..... Valentin Mironov #2
Gabriel Macht ..... John Russell, Jr.
Lee Pace ..... Richard Hayes
Joe Pesci ..... Joseph Palmi

Synopsis:

Laconic and self-contained, Edward Wilson heads CIA covert operations during the Bay of Pigs. The agency suspects that Castro was tipped, so Wilson looks for the leak. As he investigates, he recalls, in a series of flashbacks, his father's death, student days at Yale (poetry; Skull and Bones), recruitment into the fledgling OSS, truncated affairs, a shotgun marriage, cutting his teeth on spy craft in London, distance from his son, the emergence of the Cold War, and relationships with agency, British, and Soviet counterparts. We watch his idealism give way to something else: disclosing the nature of that something else is at the heart of the film's narration as he closes in on the leak.

The Good Shepherd, a chilly film about a spy trapped in the cold of his own heart, seeks to put a tragic human face on the Central Intelligence Agency. The story more or less begins and ends at the Bay of Pigs. In between there is a spicy, lively interlude in the 1930's at Yale University, where little boys are made of skull and bones and secret societies. Yale leads to World War II, cloak and dagger and a British spy cut from the same bespoke cloth as Kim Philby. Then it's over to Washington, where the citadels of power loom against the cheerless sky like tombstones. Written by Eric Roth and directed by Robert De Niro, 'The Good Shepherd' is an origin story about the C.I.A., and for the filmmakers that story boils down to fathers who fail their sons, a suspect metaphor that here becomes all too ploddingly literal

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 Office of Strategic Services (OSS, the predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency). While working there, his ideals gradually turn to suspicion influenced by the Cold War paranoia present within the office. Eventually, he becomes an influential veteran operative, while his distrust of everyone around him increases to no end. His dedication to his work does not come without a price though, leading him to sacrifice his ideals and eventually his family.

This product was added to our catalog on Monday 06 March, 2023.