Robert De Niro sat at the feet of Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese, and learned his lessons well.
De Niro’s second directing effort, “The Good Shepherd,” draws on the violent Americana of Coppola’s “The Godfather” and the repressed, brutal formality of Scorsese’s “The Age of Innocence” to great effect. Lies, half- truths, misleading silences and steel-clad secrets accumulate in “The Good Shepherd” like so much rust on the ship of state, or on the vessel of family.
Within minutes of the opening in this powerfully long movie, everyone involved is corroding from deception. Far more clearly than he accomplished in his screenplay for “Munich” last year, writer Eric Roth works with De Niro to show how a lie infuses politics with the personal.
“Are you asking me to spy?” Matt Damon’s incredulous college student demands of Alec Baldwin, playing an FBI agent.
“I’m asking you to be a good citizen,” Baldwin responds, smiling ever so slightly.
Later, Michael Gambon’s British spymaster confides in Damon’s American ingenue with the diction and regret of a shadow diplomat. “I hope you’re lucky enough to meet someone you trust,” Gambon says. “I regret to say I haven’t.”
Like Scorsese and Coppola, De Niro’s name and talent draw the best in the business to his productions. Matt Damon stars as Edward Wilson, a fictional character whose life provides the framework for a thoroughly researched history of the Central Intelligence Agency and America’s Cold War spy network. Angelina Jolie plays his wife, left at home and in the dark.
De Niro brings his own star turn as a well-intentioned, surprisingly progressive founding father of the agency: “I worry about concentrating too much power,” he warns his newly recruited Ivy League graduates. “I want it to be America’s eyes and ears, not its heart and soul.”
More stars: Billy Crudup, William Hurt, Timothy Hutton, Joe Pesci, John Turturro. “The Good Shepherd” deserves its own category for the 2007 best supporting actor.
Roth’s screenplay works where “Munich” did not, by giving the killers enough benefit of the doubt. “Munich” couldn’t decide if it was on the side of the Israeli assassins or the Palestinian terrorists they pursued. In “The Good Shepherd,” Roth decides he is on the side of the spooks for trying to do the right thing, while still leaving room to doubt that so many lies will amount to a lasting peace – for nation or family.
“The Good Shepherd” poses both the pride and the pitfalls of this patriotism in a scene where Damon, seeking information, tries to tap the knowledge of an Italian mob kingpin played by Pesci. The racist Pesci isn’t impressed by the whitebread, college-boy demeanor of Yale alumni Damon. The Italians have their families, the blacks have their music, the Irish have their homeland. What do your people have, the mobster sneers?
“The United States of America,” the reluctant patriot responds. “The rest of you are just visiting.”
This sense of ulcer-inducing dedication to a cause gives “The Good Shepherd” a backbone, even as the plot relentlessly exposes CIA abuses and fiascos. From sparring with the Russians in viewers Berlin to covering up the messes left by the Bay of Pigs, “The Good Shepherd” warns us to be careful what we ask for when we send covert warriors into undercover battles on our behalf.
De Niro and Roth take their time – nearly three hours – because they are trying to show Wilson’s personal story alongside his public duties. Damon’s Wilson gives up the love of his life (Tammy Blanchard) to marry a senator’s daughter he made pregnant (Jolie), then gives her up when the newly created CIA calls him abroad. Played in a near-depressive state by Damon, Wilson carries his sense of doom on to the next generation as his grown-up son (Eddie Redmayne) also signs up for duty with “the Company.”
Like so many big-ticket movies released this holiday season, “The Good Shepherd” goes on at least 20 minutes too long and offers four endings when one would do. But I forgave the length as a flaw of ambition, and can only admire De Niro and Roth for demanding their movie tell an imperfectly whole story rather than a truncated trifle.
Reach Michael Booth at mbooth@denverpost.com; try the “Screen Team” blog at denverpostbloghouse.com.
“The Good Shepherd” | *** 1/2 RATING
R for violence, language, adult subject matter, some nudity|2 hours, 45 minutes|DRAMA|Directed by Robert De Niro; written by Eric Roth; starring Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, William Hurt, Tammy Blanchard, Robert De Niro, Alec Baldwin, Billy Crudup and Michael Gambon|Opens today at area theaters.
