Our tastes in films are different, Kenji, but that's what makes the world go round.
Here's my review which I posted on this board back when I saw the film in the theater:
I recommend "The Good Shepherd," a somewhat flawed telling of the creation of the CIA. It is overly long. I was aware of the length of the film as I watched it, which is not a good sign. But, in spite of its length, I was pulled in and it didn't let me go. Given that the story is about a cold, tight-lipped, unfeeling character with an absence of morals who helped co-create the CIA, it's a testament to DeNiro's direction that I remained interested.
Matt Damon managed to find some slight wiggle room within his tightly buttoned down performance, so that while his character gives away nothing, we are able to see something working within. What we see is not pleasant. He's a man so dedicated to his job and his sense of protecting America for Americans and from anyone else, that he's absolutely at ease with needing to give up his family and all close ties. In fact, any close tie becomes a liability in his trade, and throughout the movie I was filled with foreboding about what would happen to anyone in Damon's life.
What little openess there is in Damon's character (a tragic incident early in his life sets him up as a secret keeper) becomes increasingly pinched as his circle of trust decreases until he has only himself in his closed off, emotionally truncated world. What a horrible way to live. He's warned to get out while he still has a soul.
There are cameos galore, Keir Dullea, for instance (whom I haven't seen in years) plays Angelina Jolie's father, a role with no lines. Jolie is miscast but does what she can with her underwritten character. I've become very fond of watching Alec Baldwin and William Hurt in juicy supporting roles, and I was rewarded in this film.
The movie is set up as a series of flashbacks taking place from the vantage point of Spring, 1961 and the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Many reviewers have written that the flashbacks were disorienting and unnecessary. I didn't think so. You do have to stay alert to follow the film, but what's the problem with that?
Damon's character is known as "Mother" to the Russians. His Russian counterpart is known as "Ulysses" to the Americans. Their relationship over the years is the best part of the film. Interestingly, neither one ages over the 20+ years covered in the film. Everyone else does, but not those two.
The CIA seems to have had its beginnings in the Skull and Bones Society, a super secret fraternity at Yale based in homoerotic hazings and a profound sense of WASP superiority. In fact, I actually had the thought that all those white guys looked alike. There is a great line that Damon says to Joe Pesci's Italian mob character whom Damon is trying to recruit to help him prior to the Bay of Pigs invasion. I won't repeat the line here so you'll hear it fresh should you see the film. But suffice it to say, Damon's character is driven to do what he does buttressed by the thought that America really belongs to him and his fellow WASPs.
It's a long, dark, cold film about a cold, dark subject peopled with cold, dark hearted characters. Overall, I think it succeeds.
Reading is freedom.
The mind soars, no earthly cares,
no limitations.
A Maggers Haiku, 2005
Years ago my mother used to say to me... "In this world, Elwood, you can be oh so smart or oh so pleasant."
Well, for years I was smart.
I recommend pleasant.
You may quote me.
Elwood P. Dowd