I really didn’t expect De Niro to use his accumulated power for more than ten years on a spy movie. I always feel that gangster movies are more in line with his way. His virgin director work "A Bronx Tale" is a gangster movie. , And received a lot of praise.
But he did so, and he also had this "The Good Shepherd" (Secret Agent). The nearly three-hour movie provides a relatively complete description of the life of Edward Wilson, the founder of the CIA.
The movie is mainly composed of two clues and parallel narratives. One is in 1961. Edward, who has been the backbone of the CIA, encountered the biggest setback of his career and the CIA-the Bay of Pigs incident. In order to find the traitor, he and other CIA personnel carried out an investigation and analysis operation. Another story line is made up of Edward's memories. It tells that Edward joined the Skull and Bones when he was in school at Yale University in 1939, and entered the CIA step by step, and eventually became an excellent spy. Both story lines develop linearly in their respective chronological order. However, the real story is a suspenseful story about the finding of a traitor, and the memory is a paragraph summary of Edward's first half of his life; in the end, the two clues overlap in time, all mysteries are solved, and the movie ends.
The problem with the film is that the clues of the memories are too scattered. The director added a lot of information to try to introduce from all sides how Edward grew from a young man who lost his father to a wise, cold, and ruthless agent. The huge amount of information does make the characters more plump and three-dimensional, but it also brings up the problem of unclear themes and unorganized. Coupled with the relatively slow and lengthy narrative rhythm, the audience's interest in receiving has already been exhausted in the long narrative process. At the same time, the movie involves too many characters and useless plots, making the viewing process extremely difficult, and often confused by some inexplicable plots and characters. A good movie should use the simplest plot to provide the largest amount of information and unlimited thinking possibilities, rather than the most complicated plot to provide a relatively small amount of information.
Compared with memories, the actual passage is much simpler and clearer. It just captures the handling of the Bay of Pigs incident and describes the process of investigating traitors and inner activities of the protagonist Edward. This episode contains a strong thrilling and suspenseful element, which aims to illustrate the particularity and danger of the work of the CIA. It should also be the main highlight of the movie. The director gave me a strong feeling of pulling away in the plot setting. In addition to the parallel interspersed with the memory passages, it greatly strengthens the suspenseful taste of the movie, but the whole process always feels too smooth, there is no flash of surprise, but every time it provides some new clues, and the source of the new clues It is not the witty response and calm analysis of the agents, but more from the use of high-tech equipment and repeated investigations, so the surprise of detection is greatly weakened.
The director explained in detail the cause of the protagonist Edward's character. Witnessing his father's suicide when he was a child can be said to be the biggest reason for the formation of Edward's character afterwards. The phrase "Your father's loyalty has some problems." should be the inner shadow that Edward can't erase. It is exactly this incident. This allowed him to become a loyal and supreme agent, and even gave up his love, family, and his son. To understand at this point, although the subsequent plot is very cumbersome but basically negligible, all events are formed and happened under this psychological influence.
At the same time, another reason that inspired his loyalty and coldness was to join the Skull and Bones. As the most well-known mysterious organization in the United States, this organization has a very prominent background and mysterious legends. Bush and many prominent figures in American politics are members of this organization, making it a very mysterious and powerful organization that manipulates American politics. The CIA’s biggest crisis, the "Bay of Pigs Incident," was also planned by the organization. It is precisely because of being a member of this organization that Edward entered the important institution of the CIA, and many things happened afterwards under the control of other members of the Skull and Bones, and Edward was often suspected of being manipulated.
The decryption of the Skull and Bones is also a major attraction of this film. In the description of the film, the mysterious and powerful of the Skull and Bones is better demonstrated. A humiliating initiation ceremony is also a kind of loyalty to members. Guarantee that the weekly meeting represents unity and strong control. Even before the meal, you must first chant the slogan, and then thank God, just as Angelina Jolie’s role said, "The rules of the society are first, God second". This shows the organization's control over members.
De Niro originally wanted to invite Leonardo DiCaprio to star in Edward, but DiCaprio missed the show due to schedule issues, and Matt Damon recommended himself to participate in the show, and also asked to join him. And Angelina Jolie, and De Niro’s old partner Joe Spacey also came to make a friendly cameo. De Niro's appeal in Hollywood is evident. However, the participation of big names is not necessarily a good combination. Matt Damon's interpretation of the role is extremely calm and introverted. Although the movie has some thrills, Damon's role has always been hidden behind thick glasses, with a lot of scholarly elegance. The overly restrained performance combined with the dull plot and the director's steady performance makes the movie more dull. And Angelina's role is basically reduced to a vase. As a victim, she has never played more, and can only vaguely remember her roar. The more anticipated John Tetoro did not leave a deep impression, and De Niro and Spacey were basically guest appearances in small roles. The only thing that impressed was the old Soviet spy in the film, a kind of strange cunning.
In order to be loyal, Edward even killed his son's lover. However, at the end of the film, Edward finally opened his father's suicide note and found that his father's suicide was because he had given up too much affection for the country. He hoped that Edward could have a good family and love his wife and children. At that moment, there was a kind of unspeakable pain.
As an actor, De Niro has received too much praise and applause. However, as a director, he thinks there is still a long way to go.
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