At the very end of Universal's The Good Shepherd trailer a subtitle appears: The Untold Story About the Birth of the CIA. Well, yeah...I guess. But Robert De Niro's spy drama is basically a psychological portrait of a generic workaholic, and the theme is about how an insatiable need for work, earnings, discipline and productivity has a way of eventually separating the workaholic from everything and everyone else. It's a portrait, in short, of tens of millions of people out there whose marriages are slowly dying on the vine, whose children are growing up alone, whose health is suffering because they eat obsessively and don't work out enough (if at all). That's the thread in this film. The late 40s to early '60s historical CIA stuff (i.e., the particulars about James Jesus Angleton, the real-life spook played in the film by Matt Damon) comes second.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on November 10, 2006 at 6:21 PM
comment #1
Arran
says ...
So, have you actually seen the flick Jeff? If so...any good?
Posted by Arran
at November 10, 2006 7:51 PM
comment #2
jeffmcm
says ...
How shocking that they didn't use the tagline "The true story of the guy in the cubicle next to you".
Posted by jeffmcm
at November 11, 2006 1:33 AM
comment #3
Jay T.
says ...
I'm glad to hear this... makes it sound more interesting (not that I wasn't interested before) - usually movies that use one story as the backdrop and are really about something else tend to be better than the more straightforward films.
Posted by Jay T.
at November 11, 2006 11:35 AM
comment #4
Larry
says ...
I'm with Jay T. I was afraid this would be the silly CIA portrait we see in every film, but what Jeff describes is potentially far more intriguing.
Posted by Larry
at November 11, 2006 8:37 PM