The Good Shepherd dir. by

2 March 2007


Genre:
Script:
Cast: , , ,
Setting: ,
Rated :

Image Hosted by ImageShack.usThis is the story of Edward Wilson, a man who has believed in the United States of America all his life, who has always done what he thinks is right, a spy, a husband, a father. The story of the emergence of the CIA, of the Cold War, of Castro and Cuba, of relationships and love and loyalty and family. Of secrets and lies, or truth and betrayal.

Surely with all that going on it should have been a good, film?
Not so much. My god! was I ever bored sitting through this. The character of Edward Wilson was not a verbose one, which is fine, if you get across that there is something going on underneath the quiet. Not here. Damon came across as merely dumbstruck. There was never any real indication of his abilities as a spy, just a lot of him standing there, silent.

And at 167 minutes long, you really should have someone that the audience can engage with. Whether to root for, or despise, or just be interested in. I didn’t care about any of what was going on. The only thing that maybe worked, was the sense that in the end it was all worthless. The Cold War, the espionage, which side you were on — it all meant nothing. But that wasn’t pushed enough either. Instead it came across as a boring, boring film. Occasionally while watching I did think to myself, oh that’s a nice shot, but nice shots don’t make a film. And neither do attempts to mean something. Your film has to either entertain, or have meaning. This had neither.

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4 Responses

  1. Alan says:

    You know, when I first heard about this film I thought it was a really exciting idea. The emergence of the CIA is a fascinating subject. But from the various reviews I've seen of it, combined with the length, I'm not sure I'll even bother going to see it.

  2. Fence says:

    Alan, I thought, like you, that it was a great idea. And I still think that the birth of the CIA would make a great film, but this isn't a great film, and you are better off missing it.

  3. Sally says:

    I think the filmmakers were trying to duplicate the "Bourne Identity" and "Bourne Supremacy" with "The good Shepard".

  4. Fence says:

    If so Sally they really, really failed :) but they are totally different films so I'm not sure that is what they were going for.