The Good Shepherd

How did I miss this movie?! For some reason, despite an Oscar nomination, a great cast and Robert DeNiro as director, The Good Shepherd missed my line up of movies when it was in the theatres. Last week I happened upon it on HBO and became enthralled immediately.

The movie was long, nearly three hours, but was completely captivating due to its excellent acting, interesting plot material and adequate screen writing. When this movie came out it was advertised as a history drama about the start of the Cold War and the CIA. It is much more than that.

In fact, The Good Shepherd follows Matt Damon's character, Edward Wilson, from childhood and through his career in the Foreign Service during World War II and then into his role as counter-intelligence operative during the Cold War. Wilson is loyal to his wife, his son and his country; he murders, tortures and deceives wantonly and without conscience if such actions are in the interest of these charges. The good shepherd indeed. Angelina Jolie, as his wife Margaret, is amazingly believable as a Connecticut daughter of privilege.

The underlying theme of the movie, however, is more fundamental than a simple history pic about spooks and bad guys. This movie is actually the WASP version of The Godfather. Really. Loyalty and family and "doing the right thing" are emphasized above all else, much like Mario Puzo's 1969 novel and subsequent movie starring Marlon Brando about the New York mafia. The good shepherd is no less than a blond-haired blue-eyed capo regime.

The thematic scene in this movie has Joe Pesci making a cameo appearance as an aging mobster, ala Sam Giancana, who was apparently expelled from Cuba after Castro's revolution. He is being recruited by Matt Damon's CIA character Wilson in a plot to overthrow the Castro regime. Appalled that he would be expected to do the CIA's bidding and that Wilson threatened to export him back to Italy, Pesci's character Joseph Palmi says,

Who are you people? We Italians have our families and the Church, the Irish have their homeland, the Jews have their traditions, even the ni&&ers have their music. What do you have?

Edward Wilson, in a stoic, matter of fact way, intones, "Mr. Palmi, we have the United States of America. You people are all visiting."

And that is the entire point of the movie. The governmental, political, military and clandestine infrastructure of this nation was established for the service of the white majority. Historically, all other ethnic and racial groups exist only at the discretion of this establishment.

Much has evolved in the nearly fifty years since that scene supposedly took place, but the fact remains that the mindset of the aristocracy has not changed. Edward Wilson was a member of Yale's Skull and Bones, as were many of his friends and colleagues at CIA-- an apparent reference to our current president and many of the extant political power-brokers.

The Good Shepherd is an excellent movie with an enduring message as well as a cautionary tale. To limit its message as merely a depiction of the early CIA misses the strong underlying themes of entitlement and purpose of the majority race as well as loyalty, family and service. Leave it to DeNiro to direct such a tour de force.

Studio advertising and movie trailers did not do adequate service promoting this flick. If I had known the fundamental motif, I would have willingly shelled out $8 to watch in the theatre.

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