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The Good Shepherd
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 The Good Shepherd Production NotesTagline: Edward Wilson believed in America, and he would sacrifice everything he loved to protect it.
The tumultuous early history of one of the most covert and powerful government agencies in the world is viewed through the prism of one man's life in the espionage thriller "The Good Shepherd," starring Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie, directed by Robert De Niro.
James Wilson (Matt Damon) understands the value of secrecy, discretion and commitment to honor, which have been embedded in his soul since childhood, when he was the sole witness to his father's suicide. As an eager, optimistic student at Yale, he is recruited to join the sacrosanct Skull and Bones fraternity, a brotherhood and breeding ground for future world leaders. Wilson's acute mind, spotless reputation and sincere belief in the American way of life render him a prime candidate for a career in intelligence, and he is soon recruited to work for the CIA during its WWII infancy.
While working within the very heart of an organization where duplicity is required and nothing is taken at face value, James' idealism is soon replaced by a growing suspicious nature, reflective of a world settling into the long paranoia of the Cold War.
As his methods are adopted as standard operating procedure, Wilson develops into one of the Agency's veteran operatives, all the while becoming more firmly entrenched in his mistrust of everyone. His myopic dedication to his work comes at an ever-increasing price and eventually forces him to sacrifice everything in pursuit of his job, costing him his innocence and, finally, his family as well.
Production Information
“The Good Shepherd is a fictionalized version of history which is accurate in almost every incident. But because the filmmakers are liberated from trying to be faithful to the tiny details, they’ve come a lot closer in many ways to capturing some essential truths about this extraordinary period of intelligence, counterintelligence, betrayal and espionage during the Cold War…
There’s no way to understand the present without understanding how we got there. And The Good Shepherd tells us.” —Richard C. A. Holbrooke, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, 1999-2001
The untold story of the birth of the Central Intelligence Agency—viewed through the life of one man who believed in America and would sacrifice everything he loved to protect his country—is told in The Good Shepherd, an epic drama that features an allstar cast under the direction of Academy Award winner Robert De Niro.
Damon plays Edward Wilson, a patriot who understands the value of secrecy—discretion and a commitment to honor have been embedded in him since his tragic and childhood. As an eager, sensitive student at Yale in 1939, he is recruited to join the secret Skull and Bones society, a tightly knit brotherhood that serves to develop future world leaders. Wilson’s acute mind, spotless reputation and sincere belief in American values render him the prime candidate for an intelligence career by those who monitor the newest recruits.
The idealistic young man is recruited to work for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the CIA, during WWII. It is a decision that will alter the course of his life and change the geopolitical shape of our times as Wilson and his fellow secret group members come to create the most powerful covert agency in the world.
As one of the founders of the CIA, working in the heart of an organization where duplicity is required and nothing is taken at face value, Wilson’s idealism is steadily eroded by his growing suspicious nature, reflective of a world settling into the long paranoia of the Cold War. As his methods are adopted as standard operating procedure, Wilson develops into one of the Agency’s veteran operatives, all the while combatting his KGB counterpart in a global chess match.
But Wilson’s steely dedication to his country comes at an ever-escalating price. Not even the growing concern of his wife, Margaret “Clover” (Jolie), and his beloved son (Redmayne) can divert Wilson from a path that will force him to sacrifice everything in dedication to his job.
Nasty Little Secrets: De Niro Uncovers the CIA
Since the early 1990s, actor/director/producer Robert De Niro has been researching the subject of what would become his second directorial effort following 1993’s acclaimed film A Bronx Tale. “Bob has always had an interest in foreign policy and the way that we gather intelligence,” relates Tribeca Films and The Good Shepherd’s producer Jane Rosenthal.
However, the Academy Award-winning actor was not interested in directing the standard fare of a spy-game fantasy. He wanted to make a film that would showcase the actual underpinnings of intelligence services and uncover how these largely anonymous men have controlled our world, at both personal and professional costs.
A friend who was aware of De Niro’s interest in the CIA introduced him to Milt Bearden, a retired 30-year veteran of the CIA who would become the lead technical advisor on the film. The former agent, who ran the CIA’s operations in Afghanistan in the mid-1980s, agreed to take De Niro across Europe and Asia on an educational journey to explore the hidden realms of intelligence gathering.
From the corners of Afghanistan to the northwest frontier of Pakistan—and off into Moscow—De Niro and Bearden traveled extensively to inform the veracity of what De Niro wanted to explore on film. In his travels with Bearden and in their research together, De Niro became privy to information with which few laypersons are entrusted.
“Bob now probably has a better feel for people in the CIA—my generation or the one before—than anybody I’ve seen that was never in the world itself,” notes Bearden.
The author of several books about the CIA, Bearden explains how he is able to share closely guarded details about the United States intelligence operations without sacrifice to the men and women actively serving. “My rule is: ‘Don’t do anything that hurts anybody or puts anybody in danger, and don’t do anything that makes the job harder for anybody who’s still trying to do it,’” he shares.
De Niro’s continued fascination about intelligence gathering would gestate for several years before he was sent a copy of The Good Shepherd—an original script about the early years of the CIA by screenwriter Eric Roth—which dealt with the same issues that were intriguing the director. For the project, De Niro was offered a starring role.
Remembers Rosenthal, “Bob immediately said, ‘Not only do I want to do this, but I want to direct it.’”
The writer, whose resume includes such popular and critically celebrated works as Forrest Gump, The Insider, Ali and Munich, had created a story that wove elements of an exciting spy thriller into the everyday lives of the CIA members who created the agency. “Eric is the best writer working today,” Rosenthal compliments. “It was his look at the internal workings of the CIA that we responded to.”
Roth was interested in an earlier time period than De Niro had been researching with Bearden, but the two quickly found common ground. “I’ve been intrigued by the CIA and how it formed,” says the writer. “This agency was started with literally 17, 18 people, and has ended up with 29,000 today.”
Framing his story with key events in the CIA’s history—beginning the screenplay at the height of the OSS during World War II and closing the timeline with the CIA’s failure to accomplish its crucial mission at the Bay of Pigs in 1961—Roth’s script examined the lives of the men who formed our nation’s modern-day intelligence service.
“I researched people who went into the early years of the CIA and where they came from,” Roth says. “It was traditionally Yale and Skull and Bones.” Almost exclusively, white male Ivy Leaguers of a patrician class—considered the best and the brightest that the U.S. had to offer—ran the government arm.
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Socialite Clover (Angelina Jolie) and dashing young OSS spy recruit Edward (Matt Damon) in The Good Shepherd.
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