Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 33 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 137 Ratings

  • Starring: Angelina Jolie, Matt Damon, Robert De Niro
  • Summary: The tumultuous early history of the Central Intelligence Agency is viewed through the prism of one man's life in this espionage drama. (Universal Pictures)
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 33
  2. Negative: 0 out of 33
  1. A remarkable study of the corrosive effects of fear and power on an establishment insider who puts duty above all else.
  2. While a bit unwieldy at nearly three hours and at times slow going, the film is absolutely fascinating for anyone who shares De Niro's passions.
  3. The most interesting thing about The Good Shepherd is how hard the filmmakers work not only to demystify the agency, but also to strip it of its allure, its heat.
  4. Reviewed by: Kim Newman
    60
    Well-crafted and well-acted, but ever-so-slightly worthy and strangely unaffecting. Given the track record of the CIA, it probably ought to be angrier.

See all 33 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 52 out of 83
  2. Negative: 19 out of 83
  1. The Good Shepherd is very much a difficult film to understand. At first glance, it is over 2 and a half hours of boring, sluggish history tracing the early history of counterintelligence within the CIA. But upon second glance, the film emerges as something quite different. Is it at all entertaining? No. Is it at all thrilling? For brief moments. But all in all, the film is not meant to be entertaining or thrilling. It is meant to be what film once thrived to be: pure art. It becomes difficult when first seeing this film to see the artistic majesty because most of us have become accustomed to watching a monkey throw **** on a wall and then calling that art. The Good Shepherd becomes like the Mona Lisa, but we must first remember that the Mona Lisa is art and **** on a wall is just **** on a wall. Then we see that this film is perfect because it is art, a true artistic piece of cinema. Expand
  2. PunguinYoga
    8
    This is a movie for adults. I don't think it's supposed to be a burlesque, as most movies about spy craft are. Espionage is probably dull and unglamorous for the most part. Surely some of the other reviewers don't think James Bond is real, do they? A man like that should be killed by his own people in five minutes for drawing attention to himself! Anyway, I enjoyed this and I just bought a new copy for only $6 at the local Kroger's. What a pleasure to see an understated movie about anything. Expand
  3. PatC.
    7
    A laborious but undeniably intelligent expose of the career path of a counterintelligence operative.
  4. KlunkoJ
    4
    The Good Shepherd certainly isn

See all 83 User Reviews

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