Ray Pride

A WASP Godfather, "The Good Shepherd," directed with restraint by Robert De Niro from Eric Roth's brilliant screenplay about the origins of modern spycraft, has a patience and command that accrues to a devastating conclusion. It draws on a number of notorious incidents involving American spies, but primarily works in roman à clef territory by basing the story's Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) on OSS-man-turned-CIA-architect James Jesus Angleton. Explicit also is the influence of Yale and its Skull & Crossbones secret society, to which George H. W. Bush and William F. Buckley, both later CIA agents, belonged. Henry Luce, George W. Bush, members of the Heinz family and John Kerry are also Bonesmen. (There's a knowing subplot involving Nazi sympathizers that coincides with members who had companies confiscated in World War II for trading with the enemy.) Working in the density of the best spy novels, and criss-crossing almost twenty-five years of history, encompassing World War II, the reconstruction of Europe and 1961's Bay of Pigs fiasco, Roth is comfortable in LeCarre territory, and Damon's performance is worthy of comparison to those of Alec Guinness in similar roles. While the near-autistic reserve of Wilson's intent powers of observation may put off some viewers--Damon, often shielded behind large horn-rims, is playing the most passive of characters--yet the power of the central dilemma grows from the analysis of how power can emanate more from concealment than display. While he's a star-crossed double in "The Departed," in "The Good Shepherd" he is the cipher who will kill you without a glimmer of hesitation. De Niro's film might have gained from greater momentum as the picture moves past its second hour, but it's still a fascinating, fully inhabited world, never descending to mere conspiracy theory. With John Turturro, William Hurt, Angelina Jolie, Michael Gambon, Billy Crudup, Timothy Hutton, Joe Pesci, the great Alec Baldwin and De Niro. Nicely designed by Jeannine Oppewall, shot by Robert Richardson ("JFK"); inventively scored by Marcelo Zarvos and Bruce Fowler. 156m. 2.39:1 anamorphic widescreen.

"The Good Shepherd" opens Friday.

(2006-12-19)

Also by Ray Pride

Tip of the Week
Nick Nolte invests himself fully, boozily into another valuable, leonine role, as Ray Cook, a high school baseball umpire in his sixties who gets a second chance at fatherhood with a symbolic son
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Sentence Life
Since Richard Ford's 1986 "The Sportswriter," a slyly witty Frank Bascombe novel has followed at intervals of a decade, with 1995's "Independence Day" and now "The Lay of the Land"
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Gone Green Again
Gibson, like George Lucas, is the most independent of filmmakers, self-financing to the tune of "it's my dime, give me your dollars."
(2006-12-05)

Tip of the Week
In the midst of a welter of holiday advance screenings, the boldest breath of fresh air for me these weeks may be Chris Hefner's truly memorable "Birdcatcher," a super-8 originated collation of images that make Hefner Chicago's own cinematic apocryphalist after the style of Winnipegger Guy Maddin
(2006-12-05)

One Long Movie
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Tip of the Week
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School of Cock
(2006-11-20)

Tip of the Week
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Children Afraid of the Night
(2006-11-14)

Craig, Daniel Craig
(2006-11-14)

Tip of the Week
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A Chicago Like No Other
(2006-11-07)

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