The Good Shepherd (film)

Development

Robert De Niro directed the film and produced it in conjunction with James G. Robinson and Jane Rosenthal. Eric Roth originally wrote the screenplay in 1994 for Francis Ford Coppola and Columbia Pictures.^[6] After reading Norman Mailer's Harlot's Ghost, Roth became intrigued by the relations among the people who created the CIA.^[7] Coppola ultimately departed from the project, citing his inability to relate to the main characters because of their lack of emotion, but is credited as co-executive producer.^[6] Following Coppola's departure, Wayne Wang was tapped to direct, but was in the midst of pre-production location scouting when personnel changes in Columbia's production department ended his involvement.^{[citation needed]}

Columbia's new production team opted to give Roth a list of directors from which to choose, including Philip Kaufman. Kaufman and Roth worked together on the project for a year, overhauling the story's narrative structure and changing it from linear to its final non-linear approach in which the film moves backward and forward in time. Kaufman believed that change would "give it a more contemporary feeling" and helped provide a more cohesive narrative context. He also thought that it provided subtext for the characters' motivations.^[8] But, neither this partnership nor the project as conceived survived another dramatic shake-up at the studio. The new studio head halted production because he did not want to make a spy film outside the action genre.^{[citation needed]}

The project languished until John Frankenheimer signed to make the film, with MGM agreeing to purchase the rights. He wanted De Niro to star since they had just worked well together on Ronin. De Niro had been developing his own spy story about the CIA from the time after the Bay of Pigs Invasion to the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and agreed to appear in the film.^[8]

During pre-production in 2002, Frankenheimer died. According to producer Jane Rosenthal, the film had been De Niro's pet project for nine years, but it proved difficult to produce prior to 9/11 and had to compete with the actor's busy schedule in films. The actor said in a 2006 interview just before the film was released, "I had always been interested in the Cold War. I was raised in the Cold War. All of the intelligence stuff was interesting to me."^[2] De Niro and Roth had made a deal; if the actor would direct Roth's existing script, Roth would develop De Niro's concept as a screenplay. If The Good Shepherd was commercially successful, their follow-up would be De Niro's 1960s-to-1989 pitch.^[6]

De Niro took the project to Universal Pictures, where producer Graham King agreed to help finance the $110 million budget. Initially, they had a deal with Leonardo DiCaprio, who was interested in playing the film's protagonist Edward Wilson.^[2] De Niro planned to begin production in early 2005, but DiCaprio had to back out because of his scheduling conflict while filming The Departed for Martin Scorsese.^[6] At this point, King and his backers left the project.^{[citation needed]}

De Niro approached Matt Damon, who was also appearing in The Departed but whose time was less than DiCaprio. De Niro would have to wait only six months to do the film with him.^[2] Initially, Damon had to turn down De Niro's offer because he was scheduled to shoot Steven Soderbergh's The Informant!. However, after Soderbergh agreed to a delay, Damon could sign on to star as Edward Wilson. James G. Robinson's Morgan Creek Productions agreed to help finance the film with a budget under $90 million. Many of the principal actors, Damon included, would have to waive their usual salaries to keep costs down.^[2]

De Niro was not interested in making an action spy movie: "I just like it when things happen for a reason. So I want to downplay the violence, depict it in a muted way. In those days, it was a gentlemen's game."^[2] Both he and Roth were also interested in showing how absolute power corrupted the leaders of the CIA. Early in production, De Niro said in an interview, "They tried to do what they thought was right. And then, as they went on, they became overconfident and started doing things that are not always in our best interests."^[2]

In preparation for the film, De Niro watched spy films like The Spy Who Came In From the Cold and The Third Man, and the Smiley's People miniseries.^[9] He also hired retired CIA officer Milton Bearden to serve as a technical adviser on the film. They had initially worked together on Meet the Parents, in which De Niro played a retired CIA officer.^[10]

Bearden agreed to take De Niro through Afghanistan to the north-west frontier of Pakistan and into Moscow for a guided tour of intelligence gathering. Damon also spent time with Bearden, visited several of the locations depicted in the film, and read several books on the CIA.^[11] Bearden ensured that the historical aspects were correct even as they were hidden by a fictional approach.^[10]

Filming

Principal photography began on August 18, 2005, with shooting in New York City; Washington, DC, London; and the Dominican Republic. Jeannine Oppewall, who had already been nominated for three Academy Awards for her work, was assigned as art director for The Good Shepherd. She earned a fourth Oscar nomination for Best Art Design on this film.^[11]

She conducted such extensive research for the film that her notes filled ten to twelve 6-inch-thick (150 mm) three-ring binders. It took her a week to organize the number of set locations because of the numerous settings in the script, which included Cuba, Léopoldville, London, Guatemala, Moscow, New York City and New Haven.

Although the vast majority of the movie was filmed in New York, the only scenes set there were filmed at the Kirby Hill Estate, on Long Island. As a result, many sets had to be constructed under Oppewall's direction, including a Skull and Bones headquarters and the Berlin set, which was built at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.^[11] The interiors of the CIA were built in the Brooklyn Armory, a large building constructed in 1901 for the United States Cavalry. She visited the CIA headquarters in Washington, DC, and worked with Bearden to create sets to portray CIA offices and its Technical and Communications rooms.

Because the lead character, Edward Wilson, originally aspired to be a poet, Oppewall incorporated many visually poetic symbols into the sets of the film, including numerous mirrors to represent the duplicity of the CIA, full-rigged ships as symbols of state, and eagles, used ironically in complex situations such as suspect interrogations. Her team tracked down furnishings for sets and found authentic Teletype machines, reel-to-reel tape recorders, and radios that were used in the CIA during that time.^[11]

Music

The music for the film was largely composed by Bruce Fowler and Marcelo Zarvos. They replaced James Horner, who left the project for creative differences.^[12]

The violin solo is an excerpt from Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto In D. The soundtrack CD mistakenly attributes the solo to Marcelo Zarvos.^{[citation needed]}

Box office

The Good Shepherd was released on December 22, 2006, in 2,215 theaters, grossing $9.9 million in its opening weekend. Ultimately, it grossed $100,266,865 worldwide.^[13]

Critical response

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 56% based on 172 reviews, with an average rating of 6.14/10. The site's critics consensus states: "Though ambitious and confidently directed by Robert De Niro, The Good Shepherd is ultimately a tedious drama that holds few surprises and succumbs to self-seriousness."^[14] At Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 61 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[15] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on a scale of A+ to F.^[16]

In her review for The New York Times, Manohla Dargis wrote, "The Good Shepherd is an original story about the C.I.A., and for the filmmakers that story boils down to fathers who fail their sons, a suspect metaphor that here becomes all too ploddingly literal". She praised De Niro's direction: "Among the film's most striking visual tropes is the image of Wilson simply going to work in the capital alongside other similarly dressed men, a spectral army clutching briefcases and silently marching to uncertain victory".^[17]

Kenneth Turan, in his review for the Los Angeles Times, praised Matt Damon's performance. "Damon, in his second major role of the year (after The Departed) once again demonstrates his ability to convey emotional reserves, to animate a character from the inside out and create a man we can sense has more of an interior life than he is willing to let on."^[18]

Time magazine's Richard Corliss also gave Damon positive notice: "Damon is terrific in the role—all-knowing, never overtly expressing a feeling. Indeed, so is everyone else in this intricate, understated but ultimately devastating account of how secrets, when they are left to fester, can become an illness, dangerous to those who keep them, more so to nations that base their policies on them."^[19]

In his review for The New York Observer, Andrew Sarris wrote, "Still, no previous American film has ventured into this still largely unknown territory with such authority and emotional detachment. For this reason alone, The Good Shepherd is must-see viewing."^[20]

USA Today gave the film three stars out of four and wrote, "What makes the story work so powerfully is his focus on a multidimensional individual—Wilson—thereby creating a stirring personal tale about the inner workings of the clandestine government agency."^[21]

Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "B" rating, and Lisa Schwarzbaum praised De Niro's direction and Damon's performance by noting the latter's maturation as an actor.^[22]

Newsweek magazine's David Ansen wrote, "For the film's mesmerizing first 50 minutes I thought De Niro might pull off the Godfather of spy movies ... Still, even if the movie's vast reach exceeds its grasp, it's a spellbinding history lesson."^[23]

However, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine observed, "It's tough to slog through a movie that has no pulse."^[24]

In his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Jim Emerson wrote, "If you think George Tenet's Central Intelligence Agency was a disaster, wait until you see Robert De Niro's torpid, ineffectual movie about the history of the agency."^[25]

Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian gave the film two stars out of five and criticized Damon's performance: "And why is Damon allowed to act in such a callow, boring way? As ever, he looks like he is playing Robin to some imaginary Batman at his side, like Jimmy Stewart and his invisible rabbit. His nasal, unobtrusive voice makes every line sound the same."^[26]

In a retrospective review, cultural analyst Todd In The Shadows rated the film one out of five stars and wrote, "I truly believe, deep in my soul, that this is the most boring movie ever made."^[27]

Accolades

In 2007, the cast of The Good Shepherd won the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution at the Berlin International Film Festival. It was the only American entry in 2007 to win a prize at the festival.^[28]

It was also nominated at the 79th Academy Awards in the category of Best Art Direction (Jeannine Oppewall, Gretchen Rau and Leslie E. Rollins).^[29]