Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: The Good Shepherd (2006)

2/29/2020

The Good Shepherd (2006) - De Niro's CIA drama excels

♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Period Movie of the Year

A piece of Matt Damon's bespectacled profile superimposed with the insignia of the CIA are the main visual elements on this sparse, seriousness-indicating poster for Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd

Wilson aka. 'Mother' becomes the newly begun Central Intelligence Agency's eminence during WWII, but following the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba in 1961, Wilson is confronted with his late father and his own worst sides.

The Good Shepherd is written by Eric Roth (The Horse Whisperer (1998)) and directed by great New-Yorker filmmaker Robert De Niro (A Bronx Tale (1993)), who here takes up extensive duties as co-producer, director and co-star.
The film is a unique tale of the US and USSR intelligence agencies, as the Cold War got underway, and their mutual dependence, built around a human drama. That drama doesn't throw around grand gestures, but it comes with an eerie finale, SPOILER as Wilson gets his son's fiancée thrown off a plane.
Matt Damon (The Bourne Identity (2002)) gives one of his career's best performances as an understandably dumb bastard (Wilson), and the rest of the fine cast are also impressive. Ann Roth's (Hope Springs (2012)) costumes are very well done, and some of writer Roth's lines spouted by Damon's cowboy-like spy come off with sparks.

Related posts:

Robert De Niro: The Irishman (I Heard You Paint Houses) (2019, VOD) - Scorsese's great gangster epic of growing old and death (co-star)
Silver Linings Playbook (2012) - Tender moments, great De Niro in uneven romantic dramedy (co-star)

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
15 Minutes (2001) or, Bad Cynics in New York City (co-star)
Cop Land (1997) - Stallone faces corruption and turns in some good acting in fine crime drama (co-star)
Casino (1995) - Scorsese's sumptuous Vegas gangster tale has the wingspan of a Greek tragedy (co-star)
Cape Fear (1991) - Scorsese adds lots of stuff to remake but loses the balance (co-star)
Backdraft (1991) - Ron Howard's giant, stupid Chicago-set firefighter movie (co-star)
Angel Heart (1987) - Parker's stylish devil-lurking holds limited punch (co-star)
The Deer Hunter (1978) - Cimino's great, colossal Vietnam epic (star)

Watch a German language version trailer for the film here

Cost: Reportedly around 90 mil. $
Box office: 100.2 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.11 times its cost)
[The Good Shepherd premiered 11 December (New York) and runs 167 minutes. The project was begun in 1994 for Francis Ford Coppola. Other talents who were near it include Wayne Wang, Philip Kaufman, John Frankenheimer, Graham King and Leonardo DiCaprio. The 110 mil. $ budget was cut down to "under 90", necessitating Damon and other stars waive their usually higher salaries. Still Angelina Jolie (Salt (2010)) was reportedly paid a hefty 8 mil. $ for her performance. De Niro traveled to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Russia to Moscow as research, as well as studied CIA history. Shooting took place in the Dominican Republic, London, England, New York, Connecticut and Washington DC from August 2005 - January 2006. The film opened #4, behind fellow new release Night at the Museum, holdover hit The Pursuit of Happiness and new release Rocky Balboa, to a 9.9 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 3 weeks in the top 5 (#4-#5-#5) and grossed 59.9 mil. $ (59.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 5 mil. $ (5 %) and Italy with 4.1 mil. $ (4.1 %). The film was nominated for the Best Art Direction Oscar, lost to Pan's Labyrinth. It won the Silver Bear prize at the Berlin International Film Festival. It was lambasted by CIA historians for its veracity. De Niro expressed ideas to make two sequels to the film; since 2012 a TV-series spin-off has been brewing at Showtime, with De Niro in talks to direct the pilot. De Niro has not returned as a director since but returned as an actor in Stardust (2007). Damon returned in Ocean's Thirteen (2007); Jolie in A Mighty Heart (2007). The Good Shepherd is rotten at 55 % with a 6.14/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Donald Sutherland has passed away

Born in Canada, Sutherland battled polio as a child. His first credit was in Suspense (1963, TV-series) and his first film was The Castle of the Living Dead (1964). Later credits in his remarkable career include The Saint (1965-66), The Dirty Dozen (1967), M*A*S*H (1970), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Klute (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), 1900 (1976), Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Ordinary People (1980), A Dry White Season (1989), JFK (1991), Outbreak (1995), Fallen (1998), Virus (1999), Fierce People (2005), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Lord of War (2005), The Hunger Games (2012), The Undoing (2020, miniseries) and many more. He passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Roger Corman has passed away

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Corman had a sprawling, intellectually hungry life as a youth and young man before arriving with his first film in 1955, Five Guns West. He would follow that with titles such as Apache Woman, It Conquered the World, Attack of the Crab Monsters, Teenage Cave Man, A Bucket of Blood, House of Usher, The Little Shop of Horrors, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Intruder, The Raven, The Terror, The Masque of Red Death, The Tomb of Ligeia, The Wild Angels, The Trip, Bloody Mama and many more. As a producer he was behind almost 500 films. Arguably among the most important filmmakers of the 20th century, Corman passed away at age 98. R.I.P.

William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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2/29/2020

The Good Shepherd (2006) - De Niro's CIA drama excels

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