The Good Shepherd (film)
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| This article or section contains information about one or more scheduled or expected films. The content may change as the film's release approaches and more information becomes available. | Image:Crystal Clear app aktion.png |
| The Good Shepherd | |
|---|---|
| Image:GoodShepherdBigPoster.jpg Promotional Poster | |
| Directed by | Robert De Niro |
| Produced by | Robert De Niro, James G. Robinson, Jane Rosenthal |
| Written by | Eric Roth |
| Starring | Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Alec Baldwin, Billy Crudup, Michael Gambon, William Hurt, Joe Pesci, John Turturro, Robert De Niro |
| Music by | Bruce Fowler, Marcelo Zarvos |
| Cinematography | Robert Richardson |
| Editing by | Tariq Anwar |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | Image:Flag of the United States.svg December 22, 2006 |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Budget | Under US $90 million [1] |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Good Shepherd is a 2006 film directed by Robert De Niro (his second directorial effort after A Bronx Tale) and starring Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, and De Niro himself, in addition to an extensive supporting cast. The film, which was rated "R" for "some violence, sexuality and language" by the MPAA, is advertised as telling the untold story of the birth of the Central Intelligence Agency. It is a Morgan Creek Productions production and will be distributed by Universal Pictures.
Contents |
[edit] Overview
[edit] Plot
| It isn't about dedication and loyalty, it's about belief in what we do. |
The value of secrecy -- commitment to honor and discretion -- has been embedded in Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) since childhood. As a dedicated, optimistic student at Yale University, he is recruited to join the Order of Skull and Bones, a secret society designed to breed the world leaders of tomorrow. Wilson's acute intelligence, immaculate reputation, and sincere belief in American values render him a prime candidate for a career in intelligence. During the Second World War, Bill Sullivan (Robert De Niro) recruits him to the new Office of Strategic Services, a precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency. As one of the Office's covert founders, duplicity is required of Wilson as he navigates a world where nothing can be accepted at face value.
Over his thirty-year career, Wilson's methods are adopted as standard operating procedure and he becomes a respected veteran in his field, but his idealism is eroded by a growing suspicious nature, reflective of a world settling into the long paranoia of the Cold War, and an escalating conflict with his volatile Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (KGB) counterpart. In the end, he sacrifices everything in the name of serving the country he loves, including his devoted wife Clover (Angelina Jolie), his children, and himself.
[edit] Taglines
- Edward Wilson believed in America, and he would sacrifice everything he loved to protect it.
- Edward Wilson believed in America enough to fight a new kind of war for what would become the most powerful covert agency in the world.
- For thirty years, he sacrificed everything, including himself.
- The true story of the birth of the CIA through the eyes of a man who never existed.
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Matt Damon | Edward Wilson |
| Angelina Jolie | Clover Wilson |
| Alec Baldwin | Sam Murach |
| Tammy Blanchard | |
| Billy Crudup | |
| Keir Dullea | |
| Michael Gambon | Dr. Fredericks |
| Martina Gedeck | |
| William Hurt | Philip Allen |
| Timothy Hutton | |
| Lee Pace | |
| Joe Pesci | Joseph Palmi |
| Eddie Redmayne | Edward Wilson, Jr. |
| John Sessions | Valentin Mironov |
| Oleg Stefan | |
| John Turturro | Ray Brocco |
| Robert De Niro | Bill Sullivan |
[edit] Trivia
- According to producer Jane Rosenthal, this has been Robert De Niro's pet project for nine years, but it proved difficult to produce in a pre-9/11 world and had to compete with his busy schedule as an actor. [2]
- Edward Wilson, the character played by Matt Damon, is based at least in part on James Jesus Angleton, the long-serving director of the CIA's counter-intelligence staff who also fell victim to intense paranoia during his career, and covert operations specialist Richard Bissell. [3]
- Initial Entertainment Group was once set to finance the film, but dropped out due to budgetary concerns. IEG executive Graham King told Daily Variety, "If the marketplace got better, I'd love to make this movie. It's one of the best scripts I've ever read (but) you can't make the movie for any less than we have it budgeted for. I certainly wouldn't disrespect Bob (De Niro) by getting him to cut the budget of the film." [4]
- James Horner left the project due to creative differences and was replaced by Bruce Fowler and Marcelo Zarvos. [5]
- Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon's co-star in The Departed, was once set to play Edward Wilson, but left the project. [6] It would have been DiCaprio's third film with De Niro, following Marvin's Room and This Boy's Life. It is the second time Damon has accepted a role DiCaprio once considered, after All the Pretty Horses.
- This is Joe Pesci's first film in eight years. His last was Lethal Weapon 4.
[edit] See also
- MID Foundation, who provided cultural consultancy and dialect coaching for The Good Shepherd.
