Movie Review: The Good Shepherd (2006)

The human costs of spookdom (7/10)

Candidly, I was looking for a damning expose of the most ‘successful’ secret society of the 20th century, the CIA (the Cartel’s Insulation Agency).  And we do get some of that.  Robert DeNiro, playing the General “Wild Bill” Donovan originator of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) which became the CIA, says:

“I deeply worry about the agency becoming not the eyes and ears of the country but its heart and soul.”

On another note, just as the CIA controls the mainstream media, or Government(s) Propa- ganda Network (GPN)—ref. Carl Bernstein’s famous 1977 Rolling Stone article, “The CIA and the Media,”—’Intelligence’ pretty much owns Hollywood as well. [Not to say a few exceptions or embarrassments to the premier security state tool of the ruling families don’t slip thru from time to time.]

The story centers on the Matt Damon character, Edward Wilson, who becomes the prototypical CIA agent, then the leader of Agency operations.  We open with footage of the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, compromised by an intelligence leak.  Wilson’s career being in jeopardy, he endeavors to find the source of the leak.

As the main story moves along in the present (the early 1960s), the movie flashes back to key points in his life.  In the early 1920s, his father (Timothy Hutton) implores the boy Edward to always tell the truth.  When Edward leaves the room, his father proceeds to shoot himself, leaving a note; Edward quickly reenters the room before the adults arrive and secrets the note away. Continue reading