DVD Release Date:  April 5, 2007
Theatrical Release Date:  December 22, 2006 (wide)
Rating:  R (for some violence, sexuality and language)
Genre:  Drama, Romance, Thriller
Run Time: 167 min.
Director:  Robert De Niro
Actors:  Matt Damon, William Hurt, Angelina Jolie, John Turturro, Tammy Blanchard, Billy Crudup, Robert De Niro, Lee Pace, Eddie Redmayne, Tim Hutton

“Never trust anyone.”  “The truth shall set you free.” 

These are the two contradictory admonitions that echo throughout director Robert De Niro’s excellent film, “The Good Shepherd.”  But which is actually true?

Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) is a successful undergraduate at Yale during the 1930s.  Recruited by the ultra-secret Skull and Bones society, Wilson joins but is surprised by the group’s occult-like initiation ceremony – which involves nudity, humiliation and the required revelation of a secret.  Wilson plays along, however, and cinches everyone’s admiration by sharing how he witnessed his father’s suicide then covered it up.

Wilson is then approached by an FBI agent and asked to spy on a favorite professor, Dr. Fredericks (Michael Gambon).  He hesitates, but convinced that Fredericks is fronting a Nazi group, Wilson agrees and proves himself quite adept at the task.  The ensuing revelations force Fredericks out of his job – and lead Wilson straight to Senator Bill Sullivan (De Niro), another Skull and Bones “brother” who offers him an espionage job.

Somehow, the stoic, unemotional Wilson manages to fall in love with another undergraduate (Tammy Blanchard), a soft-spoken deaf woman.  He allows himself to be seduced by the beautiful Margaret (Angelina Jolie), sister of a Skull and Bones brother, however.  The one-time incident leaves Margaret pregnant, so they marry, but Wilson immediately accepts orders to serve abroad. 

During the next decade, Wilson grows from a man who is reluctant to betray a friend to one who can watch brutal torture of an innocent man.  He eventually becomes a man to be feared, and gains the admiration of a high-ranking Russian.  As the Cold War rages, moving steadily toward the Bay of Pigs – the film’s focal point – the two play a deadly game of cat and mouse.  Meanwhile, even as Wilson successfully navigates his career, his home life is steadily being eroded by his absence and coldness.

With echoes of “The Godfather,” De Niro’s film revolves around the creation of the C.I.A. in 1947, going back to the Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.), its forebear, during World War II.  It’s the WASP version of a Mafia film, where characters kill one another without a thought, and like “The Godfather,” it’s brutal – although De Niro handles the violence very tastefully.