The Good Shepherd

When you sit on the edge of the chair in a movie which has no action, no ghosts, no romance or no thrill then it is the indicator of the fact that the movie is strongly gripping because of its acting, plot and characters.

Similar was the case with The Good Shepherd. Directed by the legendary Robert De Niro, the movie is story revolving around the life of a CIA agent. The plot has two timelines. One during the world war II and the one depicting the events during the political conspiracies in Cuba in early 1960s. It is not a movie which you would want to watch with a flippant mood, a pitcher of coke and popcorn. No, this movie is very serious and it keeps you literally on the edge of your chair.

Although the movie is slow paced, you would not want to miss any series of events in the movie because if you did, you will be cut off from the movie. I had tough time catching all the dialogues and also keeping up with unfolding of the seemingly disconnected events. But it all makes sense in the end when the director starts to put pieces together on the board.

The character of Edward Wilson played by Matt Damon is quite intriguing. His personality is shown to be extremely introvert. He is shown to sacrifice everything he loved for the sake of serving his country yet you will not hear any patriotic belaboring from him. He silently conveys his commitment and dedication to his country through his work. There are some brilliant dialogues in the movie. For example,

"Let me ask you something... we Italians, we got our families, and we got the church; the Irish they have the homeland, Jews their tradition;... What about you people, Mr. Wilson, what do you have?"

"The United States of America, the rest of you are just visiting."

This dialogue really hits you hard if you are also a 'visitor' of this country like me. But it shows the kind of spirit that an american national has for their home country. Only if we had shown this spirit to all the invaders of our nation, we would have been a different country today.

Angelina Jolie is wasted in the movie. And so is Robert De Niro himself. Matt Damon literally shadows all the other actors in the movie. This movie is definitely a defining role for his acting career.

Watch the movie if you really want to know the other side of CIA story.