FemaleFirst.co.uk: DVD: The Good Shepherd [DVD] [2006]

The Good Shepherd [DVD] [2006]
enlarge	Director: Robert De Niro Actors: Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Alec Baldwin Studio: Universal Pictures UK Category: DVD List Price: ~~£19.99~~ Buy Used: £0.99 as of 21/11/2009 21:44 GMT details You Save: £19.00 (95%) New (30) Used (50) from £0.99 Seller: zoverstocks Rating: 44 reviews Sales Rank: 20976 Format: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL Languages: English (Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired), Spanish (Subtitled), Bulgarian (Subtitled), German (Subtitled), English (Original Language), Spanish (Dubbed), German (Dubbed) Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over Region: 2 Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 Number Of Discs: 1 Running Time: 160 Minutes Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2 Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6 EAN: 5050582483901 ASIN: B000PMGRM8 Theatrical Release Date: 2006 Release Date: June 18, 2007 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days


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Editorial Reviews: Amazon.co.uk Review A complicated movie about the Central Intelligence Agency and its agents, iThe Good Shepherd/i isn't your typical spy movie. Though it stars Matt Damon (iThe Bourne Identity/i films) and Angelina Jolie (iMr. Mrs. Smith, Lara Croft/i franchise)--actors with considerable experience in the action-espionage genre--iThe Good Shepherd/i requires that they play more subdued and (much less interesting) characters here. The movie focuses on the career or Edward Wilson (Damon), a privileged Yale graduate who goes on to help found the CIA. He is a quiet, serious, and guarded man, even in the most intimate moments with his civilian wife (Jolie, in a role that wastes her talent). Set against a backdrop of real-life events such as the Bay of Pigs, iThe Good Shepherd/i is meticulous in creating a realistic timeframe. The film gets a jolt of excitement when Robert DeNiro (in his first directing role since 1993's iA Bronx Tale/i) peppers the screen with appearances by Joe Pesci, Alec Baldwin, and William Hurt. But those moments are too infrequent. At 157 minutes long, the film is crammed with many factual details, but the characters are shortchanged when it comes to development. Viewers have to wonder why anyone, much less someone like Wilson who has everything going for him, would devote his life to a thankless job that brings so little happiness to himself and his family. iThe Good Shepherd/i is an ambitious but flawed film. The actors do a formidable job with a well-intentioned but meandering script. However, we meet so many characters and learn so little about each that it's difficult to drum up much empathy for any of them. i--Jae-Ha Kim/i

Customer Reviews: Showing reviews 1-5 of 44 1 2 3 4 5 6 ...9 Next » Long, complex and compelling. Rewards careful watching October 17, 2007 Hooligween (Kernow, Great Britain) 20 out of 22 found this review helpful If you ever wondered how the CIA came to be, and who formed the fledgling organisation, then this is a fascinating movie. Like the novels of Robert Littell, it goes into the hidden depths of the intelligence network and examines how it formed in the aftermath of WW2, who started to work for it, and how the Company took over their lives. br / br /Yet although The Good Shepherd is about what became a massive organisation, it's told as a very personal story. We follow Matt Damon's novice agent as he becomes an influential character, hovering on the edges of historical disasters and triumphs. We see how his life is dominated by the CIA and its secrets; how the war separated him from his wife and how his paranoia pushes them further apart. br / br /Angelina Jolie is excellent as his wife, by the way. (If you doubt her acting ability then check out Girl Interrupted). She even ages through the decades of the story with some credibility. br / br /Robert De Niro is the director of the film and he appears in it briefly (with a scary example of what diabetes can do to you!). There's a great supporting cast overall, but Damon takes the real credit. His character couldn't be further away from the action man Jason Bourne, and is entirely believable. br / br /In the end, the ultimate CIA man has to make the ultimate decision. Does he betray his country or his grown up son? It's a painful and shocking ending to a long but well measured film. br / br /Don't watch this if you're looking for James Bond thrills, but give it a go if you enjoy Le Carre-style spying. At the very least it sheds light on how good people end up doing bad things to protect the country they love. At best, it's an entralling evening's entertainment. THE BEST VIEW OF CIA LIFE AND HISTORY EVER MADE May 28, 2007 J. Powell (United Kingdom) 19 out of 24 found this review helpful Please ignore the negative reviews on here! The people reviewing this film were obviously looking for the usual espionage thriller with guns, explosions and car chases, e.g The Bourne Supremacy. Well, you are not going to find that style of film at all. This is real life CIA stuff. This movie is not a thriller, its real, the story of the faceless, cold and detached lives of the powerful men who really run International Politics and The United States, the Central Intelligence Agency. The Good Shepherd is a rarity these days, as it has a beguiling and intelligent plot, which may require some to watch it two or three times. This is always the mark of a great movie for me. br / br /This film is an excellent study of the sad and rather tragic life of a foremost CIA operative/Director of Plans/Chief of Station, not the usual tired cliche movie-fodder field agent (i.e Spy). Here is a man high up in the Agency hierarchy, dedicated to his job and country above all things, even his own family and happiness. br /Though the main story is the birth of the CIA, the story predominantly and often disturbingly, looks at a man's private life and also his one true passion - protecting and defending his country at all costs. The lead charcter is a cold, highly intelligent calculating schemer, always one step ahead and aloof from anyone who dares get near him, except one girl, his teenage sweetheart. His aloof, cold, unemotional character is absolutely perfect for intelligence, but hell for his family life...ultimately leading to dire consequences. br / br /People like the lead character in the film (played by Matt Damon) made the CIA the most powerful organisation on the Earth, and due to this cold skill and dedication, nobody even knows just how much the CIA influences our politics and lives. These are secret people with secret lives, that's the whole point. Like the film, Intelligence is all understated and anonymous, otherwise it wouldn't work and achieve its objectives. You get a really strong sense of the life of the CIA and its workers during this film. This is a work of immense power and subtlety, like the field of intelligence work itself. br / br /If you understand and appreciate the history of the CIA, you will recognize the charcters portrayed in this film (all are loosely disguised fictional pseudonyms for real people involved in the conception of the CIA after WWII). The film looks at real events and you will probably need to understand the history of the USA and the CIA a little bit to appreciate what the films main thesis is. If you don't you will struggle a bit, which is why some reviewers and movie-goers probably criticized the film - they didn't fully understand it in it's historical context. br / br /Without giving too much away, the film is both a charcter study of one man and of the Agency itself, from his enrolment in the Agency, through the second World War, Cold War and Bay of Pigs Invasion, culminating in his elderly years as a senior CIA man at the end of the 1960's, he observes the changing times and rules of espionage and arrives at the end of an era as intelligence work moves to become the vanguard of computers and technology. Spies and espionage are no longer the work of secret agents and microfilms, but I.T specialists and analysts in offices. Life has changed, but his work is accomplished at horrible costs. The plot is thick with possibilities and twists as the chronology jumps back and forth over time and place, and the viewer is never spoon-fed any solutions, making this highly appealing to all who read spy novels and history and take an interest in intelligence work. br / br / It is a fairly dark film and the sacrifices and experiences of the job examined are a shock at times. This makes the film quite disturbing viewing, but always incredibly real and authentic. The quiet subtle dialogue and acting performances lend the power to an already entrancing plot, with a fantastic mood of light, sound and colour which is used excellently. The performances are also excellent from vastly experienced and talented actors, including great turns from terrifc actors like Damon, John Turturro, Robert De Niro and Michael Gambon. br / br /This movie will make you appreciate just what the CIA was and continues to be, an immensely powerful organisation that (Like the lead role in the film) we will never truly know or understand fully, yet with a constant grip on the lives we lead, every hour, every day. br / br /A quote from a scene in the film sums it up perfectly. Damon meets a Mafia KingFish to plan the assassination of Castro. The mafia boss (played by Joe Peschi in a brief cameo) notices the different cultures in America by stating- br /"We Italians, we got our music, our Church, our organisation. The Jews have their money and businesses, even the niggers...they got their music. What do guys like you have? What do you really have"? br / Damon replies quietly to the Mafia Don...."Well, we have the United States of America, the rest of you, everyone else is only here because we let you. You're all just visiting". very subtle film, has to be watched a few times January 8, 2008 Dr. Jonathan Dando (France) 4 out of 5 found this review helpful Like many people, I started watching this film because I like spy films and the cast of this one was excellent. Like many people, the first time viewing left me a little exasperated, because its not the film you anticipated. br / br /The key point is that this is a film with renouned actors and actresses in the cast, not a film with special effects and explosions, and is therefore far more subtle and focused on dialogue/character interaction than providing viewer escapism. br / br /Character development and complexity matches that of the first Godfather film. Matt Damons performance and transformation from a shy student, with human values who has the capacity to love into an indifferent, manipulative and subtley deadly man with immense influence is similar to Pacino's, and equally as vicious. br / br /Whereas, Pacino's Michael Corleone has the capacity to destroy a family members life via murder, Damon's performance to portray the destruction of a family members life by indifference and inaction is more frightening. br / br /As his son becomes a CIA member, Damon's perspective of him fluctuates between that of a father and that of someone managing an asset and is pulled off exceedingly convincingly and scary. Specially considering that Damon gives an excellent portrayal of someone who thinks that once an asset has run out of usage (as defined by himself)it should be discarded like a dead battery. br / br /Damon and Turturro's on screen chemistry from Rounders continues, and Turturro becomes the Al Neri of this film, equally as indifferent as his boss and equally as focussed. br / br /Angelie Jolee's performance as the manipulative teenager transforming into a drowning wife, literally terrified of her husband is very rich. br / br /De Niro, Hurt, Gambon, Baldwin, Crudup, Hutton provide excellent depth to the film by offering more than supporting roles to the principals. Their characters are well developed, do not have ancillary roles, and each one has their own mini-story which further fleshes out the film, and makes the core story of hidden agenda's, corruption and treason very convincing. br / br /Overall, watch the film, and then watch it again. The film has been made in such a way, with such depth to the character that you can rewatch it and each time see it from a different perspective, specially if you change focus on each characters development by viewing. br / br / br /The film has the great potential to be a cult classic Not merely a film but a work of art February 10, 2008 Johannes Kiessling (Germany) 2 out of 2 found this review helpful "The Good Shepherd" is a masterpiece. If you go to the cinema expecting to see a James Bond film or Indiana Jones or some other mainstream movie, of course, you will be disappointed. As you would be if you visit an art gallery with the same attitude. "The Good Shepherd" is a work of art. It does what every good work of art should do: It makes you experience that which it is talking about and it leaves you puzzled and sends you home with a job of thinking to do. It is mostly a misunderstanding that sends you home looking at a Van Gogh or a Max Ernst thinking that you have seen a "lovely painting". If you think that, you might as well not have looked at it at all. Actually, it might take you years to really understand what you have seen. Similarly this film. You might have to watch it twice, you might need to read a couple of books, you might need to watch the (political) world for quite some time until you see the pieces fall into place and get an idea of the world you live in. You might even ask yourself how close "Edward Wilson" comes to a figure like Eichmann in expressing the "banality of evil" (Hannah Arendt). Maybe, as some critics say, Angelina Jolie in spite of acting brilliantly is just not the right actor for this film and timescale but maybe even that opens up a path to a connection with the present? In all, an ingenious film and whoever didn't like it should perhaps get back to his sofa with a six-pack and watch something else. Thoughtful, complex drama. March 20, 2008 CallyK (England) 2 out of 2 found this review helpful It is banal to say that 'the characters do not develop' Anyone who can say something like this about this thoughtful, intelligent film has clearly failed to grasp its essence. I found it intriguing, densely plotted and a complex insight into a character who ultimately finds himself isolated by the moral choices he has made. It offers a perceptive insight into what happens to the personality when an individual is obliged, through the obligations of a life founded upon secrecy and deceit, to be inauthentic and to lie in his personal life. And while the character may have made these choices for what he believed to be laudable moral reasons, he nonetheless finds himself at the end of the film caught in a terrible personal dilemma. I thought it was an extremely clever film, a deep and complicated depiction of a traumatised childhood and how this might compromise a person's psychological development. If you like films that make you think, then this is definitely one to watch. It bears repeated viewing to fully understand the complexities of plot and character and the careful and sensitive photography. Showing reviews 1-5 of 44 1 2 3 4 5 6 ...9 Next »

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