The Good Shepherd – In the spy business absolute trust is impossible. “Friends can be enemies, and enemies can be friends.” (But who is the enemy? Who are friends?) The movie begins with the Bay of Pigs fiasco in Cuba in April 1961; but Edward Wilson’s story evolves from his attendance at Yale in 1939 when he (Matt Damon) enters Skull and Bones, falls in love with Laura (Tammy Blanchard) but marries the daughter of Senator Russell, Margaret (Angelina Jolie), after she becomes pregnant, and gets recruited by General William Sullivan (Robert De Niro, who also directed) for counter-insurgency in the nascent CIA, taking him to London in 1941 a week after his wedding and then to Berlin in 1945, leaving his wife and unseen son for six years.

Just as he can never regain Laura, he cannot recover his personal life. Nearly everyone significant with whom Wilson comes into contact, professionally and privately, gets victimized, including his son. His unloved wife Margaret comments at a Skull and Bones dinner that the Agency comes first for him, then God; unsaid is that everyone else is farther down the list. As a consequence, especially after the Bay of Pigs, Wilson’s loyalty to the Agency begins to fray. 

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in video and/or DVD format, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2007 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

Patrick Ivers can be reached via e-mail at .