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The Good Shepherd (film)
Encyclopedia
The Good Shepherd is a 2006 spy film directed by Robert De Niro
and starring Matt Damon
and Angelina Jolie
, with an extensive supporting cast. Although it is a fictional film loosely based on real events, it is advertised as telling the untold story of the birth of counter-intelligence
in the Central Intelligence Agency
. The film's main character, Edward Wilson (portrayed by Matt Damon), is loosely based on James Jesus Angleton
and Richard M. Bissell
. This was Joe Pesci
's first film appearance after his six year hiatus from acting between 1999 and 2005.
are dropped off anonymously at the home of Edward Wilson (Matt Damon
), a senior CIA officer, after the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion
of Cuba
fails due to an undisclosed leak. While riding to work on the bus, Edward is approached by a young boy who asks if Edward has change for a dollar. Upon arriving at work, Edward's assistant checks the serial number of the dollar against a long list of serial numbers assigned to various code names and confirms that Edward has been given a dollar from "Cardinal". The movie then flashes back to 1939.
In 1939 Edward is at Yale University
and joins Skull and Bones
, a secret society that grooms future U.S. leaders. He is compelled to disclose a secret as part of his initiation: he reveals that as a young boy he discovered the suicide note left by his father, Thomas (Timothy Hutton
), although he says he never read it. After the ceremony, a fraternity brother tells him that Edward's father, an admiral
, was to be chosen as Secretary of the Navy, until his loyalties were questioned. Afterwards Edward is recruited by an FBI agent Sam Murach (Alec Baldwin
), who claims that Edward's poetry professor, Dr. Fredericks (Michael Gambon
), is a Nazi spy, asking Edward to expose his professor's background as well as implying that the Professor is homosexual: Edward's actions result in Dr. Fredericks' forced resignation from the university.
Edward begins a relationship with a deaf student named Laura (Tammy Blanchard
), but while on Deer Island
, Edward meets and is later aggressively seduced by Margaret 'Clover' Russell (Angelina Jolie
), his friend's sister. General Bill Sullivan (Robert De Niro
) asks Edward to join the OSS
, offering him a post in London
.
Later while Edward and Laura are at the beach, Clover's brother, John, privately reveals that Clover is pregnant with Edward's child and asks him to "do what is expected." Laura, an able lip-reader
, sees and walks away. Edward marries Clover. At the wedding reception Edward accepts an offer of a position in the London OSS office from General Sullivan, requiring him to be in England in one week, leaving his newlywed wife. In London he meets his former professor Dr. Fredericks, who is actually a British intelligence operative who had sought to infiltrate a Nazi organization while at Yale, causing the American authorities to suspect that he was a Nazi spy. Despite this, Fredericks recognized Edward's gifts and recommended that he be trained in counter-espionage in London.
An intelligence officer in the British SOE
, Arch Cummings (Billy Crudup
), tells Edward that Fredericks' indiscriminate homosexual relationships pose a security risk; Edward is asked to deal with his mentor, but Fredericks refuses the chivalrous suggestion to protect himself by returning to teaching. He says he will understand if Wilson wants to "tie his shoe" (a signal to watchers that the meeting went badly). Edward delays, prompting Fredericks to kneel down and tie Edward's shoe for him. As their meeting ends, he advises Wilson to "quit... while you still have a soul", leaves, and is brutally killed, his body being dumped into the Thames
.
The time shifts to post-war Berlin
, where the Allies
and the Soviets
, in a race for technological superiority, are trying to recruit as many German scientists as possible. Edward encounters his Soviet counterpart, codenamed "Ulysses", who praises Edward. They plan an exchange of scientists — the Soviets asking for German Nazi and Slavic
scientists, while the Americans seek Jewish scientists.
Edward is assisted by an interpreter, Hanna Schiller (Martina Gedeck
), who wears what appears to be a hearing aid. After Edward learns from his son during a rare phone call home that Clover is having an affair, he accepts Hanna's invitation to dinner at her home, and sleeps with her. While they are making love, Edward realizes that Hanna can hear without the use of her hearing aid, exposing her as a Soviet operative. She is killed and Ulysses is notified by her hearing aid being planted in his teapot.
After six years in London, Edward returns home to a distant Clover, who now prefers to be called Margaret. Edward presents his son with a miniature model ship inside a glass watch-casing. Margaret explains that her brother was killed in the war; she also confesses that she previously had a brief relationship with another man. When she asks if he had any relationships, Edward replies that "it was a mistake." General Sullivan approaches Wilson again to help form a new foreign intelligence organization - the CIA - where Wilson will work with his former colleague, Richard Hayes (Lee Pace
), under Phillip Allen (William Hurt
). Edward accepts, hiding the details of his position from everyone but Clover/Margaret. Allen discloses his love of Swiss chocolate, prompting Edward to later ask Murach if the FBI has any information on Allen: the resulting file intimates that Allen holds substantial funds in Swiss accounts.
Edward's first assignment deals with coffee in Central America where the Russians are trying to gain influence. Edward spots Ulysses in the background of footage of the country's leader, but doesn't disclose this. Another agent is sent covertly as a representative of the Mayan Coffee Company; Edward warns him not to wear his Yale class ring. Edward arranges for airplanes to fly over and release locusts during a public event where the Russians (including Ulysses) are present in order to intimidate the Central American leader. Edward later receives a can of Mayan Coffee presumably from Ulysses, containing the severed finger, and Yale class ring, of the American agent. Wilson and Clover go to a Christmas party with their son, who wets himself, out of a heightened state of fear resulting from his fragmented awareness that his father is involved in dark secrets.
A Russian requesting asylum
and claiming to be high-ranking KGB man Valentin Mironov, who knows Ulysses, is interviewed by Edward. Edward is fully convinced of his honesty. While attending the theater with Mironov and Cummings, Edward encounters his former sweetheart, Laura. They leave the theater separately, meet at a restaurant and rekindle their old romance.
Sometime later, Margaret anonymously receives photos of Laura and Edward getting into a taxi together and kissing. A distraught Margaret confronts him. Edward ends the relationship with Laura by returning her jeweled crucifix, which he had kept from their college romance days.
Then a Russian defector
appears, claiming that he is the real Valentin Mironov, and that the other man actually is Yuri Modin, a KGB
operative working for Ulysses. Edward does not believe him, and agents beat and torture the man, and administer liquid LSD
because of its alleged truth serum
properties. Despite the combined effects of drugs and torture, the second defector insists that he is the true Mironov. He further ridicules his interrogators for their need to believe in the myth of Soviet power which he calls a "great show" and "painted rust". Realising that he will never be believed, the defector hurls himself through the window to the pavement several stories below. The first man claiming to be Valentin Mironov, who has watched the entire ordeal together with Edward, then offers to take LSD to prove his innocence, but Edward doesn't think it's necessary.
Edward visits his son, Edward Jr., at Yale, where he has also joined the Skull and Bones society and has been approached for recruitment by the CIA. Margaret pleads with Edward to persuade their son not to accept, but Edward Jr. joins anyway, believing it will bring him closer to his loving, but distant, father. This widens the rift between Edward and Margaret. Later Edward Jr. overhears Edward and Hays discuss the upcoming Bay of Pigs invasion; Wilson suspects that Edward Jr. may have overheard the conversation and warns his son to be silent. Margaret moves to her mother's home in Arizona.
The film returns to the recording dropped off at the beginning of the movie. After analysis of clues such as the ceiling fan's brand name and the church bells and other sounds heard on the tape, CIA specialists deduce that the photograph may have been taken in Leopoldville
, in the Congo
. Edward goes there and finds the room. He realizes that the photograph and tape are of his son Edward Jr. when he sees the model ship in the glass watch-casing on the nightstand; its blurred image was the one object in the photo that the CIA team was unable to identify. Ulysses is there and plays Edward an unedited version of the tape, revealing Edward Jr. repeating to his lover, a Soviet spy, the classified information he overheard his father discussing. Thus the Cubans and Soviets learned of the upcoming CIA landing at the Bay of Pigs. Ulysses encourages Edward to spy for the Soviets in exchange for them protecting his son. Edward is non-committal, however; he confronts his son, who says that he is in love with the woman and plans to marry her. His son refuses to believe that she is an intelligence agent.
Edward exposes Valentin as Soviet spy Yuri Modin after finding evidence of his true identity in a book given to him by Arch Cummings, who is thus exposed as a co-conspirator. Cummings flees to the USSR. After meeting Ulysses in a museum and refusing to betray his country, Edward explains that as the Soviets have won in Cuba it is not necessary to hurt his son. Ulysses notes of Edward Jr.'s fiancée: "neither of us can be sure about her", and asks Edward, "You want her to be part of your family, don't you?" Later, Ulysses' aide asks him for change to purchase his daughter a souvenir from the gift shop. Edward asks how much it is, and hands him a one dollar bill, commenting that a cardinal rule of democracy is generosity, thus confirming that the aide is Edward's defector in place.
Edward and Margaret arrive separately in the Congo for Edward Jr.'s wedding. His fiancée travels on a small plane to the ceremony but mid-flight is thrown out of the plane. When she fails to arrive at the church, Edward informs a worried Edward Jr. that his fiancée is dead. Edward denies any responsibility when Edward Jr. asks; Edward is visibly affected when Edward Jr. reveals that his fiancée was pregnant.
Edward meets with fellow Skull and Bones classmate Hayes (loosely based on Richard Helms
) at the new CIA headquarters still under construction. Hayes tells him that Allen is resigning under a cloud of financial improprieties (after receiving copies of the Swiss accounts delivered in a chocolate box), and that the President has asked him to be the new Director. The President has directed him to do some "housecleaning" and he tells Edward that he needs someone he can trust, saying, "after all, we're still brothers" and that Edward is the "CIA's heart and soul". He then tells Edward he will be the first head of counter-intelligence. Edward notes the inscription on the new marble wall of the CIA lobby: "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:32)".
Edward is then shown pulling from his home safe the suicide note that his father, Thomas, had left and in which his father's words, only now read by Edward, reveal that he had betrayed his country. He left loving words for his wife and son, particularly urging the latter to grow up to be a good man, husband and father and to live a life of decency and truth. Edward burns the note.
The film ends with Edward leaving his old office and moving to his new wing in the CIA.
wrote the screenplay in 1994 for Francis Ford Coppola
and Columbia Pictures
. Roth read Norman Mailer
's Harlot's Ghost
and became intrigued with the people who built the CIA. Coppola left the project because he could not relate to the characters due to their lack of emotion (although he retained a credit as co-executive producer). Wayne Wang
was set to direct and even conducted some location scouting but management changes at Columbia ended his involvement. The new administration gave Roth a list of directors to choose from and one of them was Philip Kaufman
. He felt that Roth's script, whose original structure was linear, should go back and forth in time to "give it a more contemporary feeling". Kaufman and Roth worked on the project for a year and then the management changed at the studio again. The new studio head had no interest in spy films unless they could get a movie star like Tom Cruise
to appear in the film. The project languished until John Frankenheimer
signed on to make the film with MGM agreeing to purchase the rights. He wanted Robert De Niro to star, having just worked together on Ronin
. De Niro had been developing his own spy story about the CIA from the Bay of Pigs Invasion to the fall of the Berlin Wall
in 1989 and agreed to appear in the film. During pre-production in 2002, Frankenheimer died. According to producer Jane Rosenthal
, this had been Robert De Niro's pet project for nine years, but it proved difficult to produce in a pre-9/11 world and had to compete with his busy schedule as an actor. The actor said in an interview, “I had always been interested in the Cold War. I was raised in the Cold War. All of the intelligence stuff was interesting to me”. De Niro and Roth ended up making a deal: Roth would write up De Niro's idea into a screenplay if the actor would direct his existing script. If The Good Shepherd proved to be a commercial success then their follow-up would be De Niro's pitch.
De Niro took the project to Universal Pictures
where producer Graham King
agreed to help finance the $110+ million budget. He had a deal with Leonardo DiCaprio
, who was interested in playing the film's protagonist Edward Wilson. De Niro planned to shoot the movie in early 2005 but DiCaprio could not do it then because he was making The Departed
for Martin Scorsese
. King left with him and so did his financial backing. De Niro approached Matt Damon, who was also doing The Departed but would be done earlier than DiCaprio and De Niro would only have to wait six months to do the film with him. Initially, Damon turned De Niro down because he was scheduled to shoot Steven Soderbergh
's The Informant!. Soderbergh agreed to delay filming and Damon agreed to star as Wilson. James Robinson's Morgan Creek Productions agreed to help finance the film with a budget under $90 million which meant that many of the principal actors, Damon included, would have to waive their usual salaries to keep costs down.
De Niro was not interested in making a spy movie with flashy violence and exciting car chases. “I just like it when things happen for a reason. So I want to downplay the violence, depict it in a muted way. In those days, it was a gentleman's game”. He and Roth were also interested in showing how absolute power corrupted the leaders of the CIA. Early on, De Niro said in an interview, “they tried to do what they thought was right. And then, as they went on, they became overconfident and started doing things that are not always in our best interests”. In preparation for the film, De Niro watched spy films like The Spy Who Came In From the Cold
, The Third Man, and Smiley's People
. He also hired retired CIA agent Milton Bearden
to serve as a technical adviser on the film. They had first worked together on Meet the Parents
where De Niro played a retired CIA agent. Bearden agreed to take De Niro through Afghanistan
to the north-west frontier of Pakistan
and into Moscow
for a guided tour of intelligence gathering. Damon also spent time with Bearden as well as visiting several of the locations depicted in the film and reading several books on the CIA. Bearden also made sure that the historical aspects were correct but fictionalized to a certain degree.
Principal photography began on August 18, 2005, with shooting taking place in New York City
, Washington D.C., London and the Dominican Republic
. Three-time Academy Award-winning art director
Jeannine Oppewall
was assigned art director for The Good Shepherd, which would eventually earn Oppewall her fourth Oscar nomination for Best Art Design
. She conducted a large amount of research for the film that filled ten to twelve 6 inches (152.4 mm) three-ring binders. It took her a week to organize the number of set locations due to the large amounts of settings in the script, which included Cuba, Léopoldville, London, Guatemala
, Moscow, New York
and New Haven, Connecticut
, among other places. Although the vast majority of the movie was filmed in New York, the only scenes that are actually set in New York were filmed at a house in the Long Island town, Manhasset. As a result, many sets had to be constructed under Oppewall's direction, including a Skull and Bones headquarters and the Berlin set, which was built on the Brooklyn Navy Yard
. The interiors of the CIA were built in the Brooklyn Armory, a large edifice built in 1901 for the United States Cavalry. She also visited the CIA's headquarters in Washington, D.C. and worked with Bearden to create sets for the CIA's offices, Technical Room and Communications Room. Since the lead character originally aspired to be a poet, Oppewall incorporated many visual poetic symbols into the film, including a large number of mirrors to represent the duplicity of the CIA, full rigged ship
s as symbols of the state and eagle
symbols, which were used in ironic situations such as suspect interrogations. Her team tracked down the right set dressings and also found authentic Teletype
machines, reel-to-reel tape recorders and radios used in the CIA during that time.
Edward Wilson, the character played by Matt Damon, is based at least in part on James Jesus Angleton
, the long-serving director of the CIA's counter-intelligence
staff who also fell victim to intense paranoia during his career, and covert operations specialist Richard Bissell
. Bill Sullivan, the character played by Robert De Niro, is based on William Stephenson
and William Joseph Donovan
. William Hurt's character Phillip Allen is likely based on former CIA Director Allen Dulles, while Lee Pace
's character Richard Hayes shares some similarities, including a similar name, to Dulles' eventual successor Richard Helms
. High-ranking British operative turned Soviet mole, Arch Cummings, bears some similarities to Kim Philby
(who fled to the USSR after being exposed and spent his last years friendless and mired in alcoholism). The character Yuri Modin shares similar characteristics to Soviet defector Anatoliy Golitsyn
, and the character of Dr. Ibanez bears some similarities to Jacobo Arbenz.
In May, 2007, CIA's historians publicly released an article referencing the film's depiction of the OSS and CIA, and discussing factual details surrounding the actual persons on whom some of the film's characters were based. The article also addressed inaccurate but enduring beliefs that Yale's famous secret society Skull and Bones
was an incubator of the U.S. Intelligence Community.
Oscar-winning actor Joe Pesci
appears in one scene as a Mafia boss ("Joseph Palmi") who, it is implied in the film, is a fictionalized composite of Santo Trafficante Jr. and Sam Giancana
(in one scene it is mentioned that Castro has seized "three of [Palmi's] casinos and thrown him out of Cuba
." In fact, Castro did nationalize several casinos owned by both Chicago and Florida organized crime interests). The CIA recruited such mafiosi for multiple assassination attempts against Fidel Castro. The story thread, however, is not fully developed in the film. Also, this marked Pesci's return to acting after an eight-year absence from the screen following Lethal Weapon 4
.
and Marcelo Zarvos
. They replaced James Horner
, who left the project due to creative differences.
The violin solo is an extract from Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto In D
though this is misattributed to Marcelo Zarvos on the soundtrack CD.
failure as the result of a leak within the CIA.
James K. Galbraith
wrote that the Taylor Report on the invasion confirmed the existence of a leak:
reporting that 90 out of the 167 reviews they tallied were positive, for a score of 54% and a certification of "rotten" (according to the website's criteria). Metacritic
reports the film has an aggregate metascore of 61/100 ("Generally favorable reviews"). In her review for The New York Times
, Manohla Dargis
wrote, "The Good Shepherd is an origin story about the C.I.A., and for the filmmakers that story boils down to fathers who fail their sons, a suspect metaphor that here becomes all too ploddingly literal", but praised De Niro's direction: "Among the film’s most striking visual tropes is the image of Wilson simply going to work in the capital alongside other similarly dressed men, a spectral army clutching briefcases and silently marching to uncertain victory". Kenneth Turan, in his review for the Los Angeles Times
, praised Matt Damon's performance: "Damon, in his second major role of the year (after The Departed
) once again demonstrates his ability to convey emotional reserves, to animate a character from the inside out and create a man we can sense has more of an interior life than he is willing to let on".
Time
magazine's Richard Corliss also gave Damon a positive notice in his review: "Damon is terrific in the role-all-knowing, never overtly expressing a feeling. Indeed, so is everyone else in this intricate, understated but ultimately devastating account of how secrets, when they are left to fester, can become an illness, dangerous to those who keep them, more so to nations that base their policies on them". In his review for The New York Observer, Andrew Sarris
wrote, "Still, no previous American film has ventured into this still largely unknown territory with such authority and emotional detachment. For this reason alone, The Good Shepherd is must-see viewing". USA Today
gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "What makes the story work so powerfully is his focus on a multidimensional individual—Wilson—thereby creating a stirring personal tale about the inner workings of the clandestine government agency". Entertainment Weekly
gave the film a "B" rating and Lisa Schwarzbaum praised De Niro's direction and Damon's performance, noting the latter's maturation as an actor.
Newsweek
magazine's David Ansen
wrote, "For the film's mesmerizing first 50 minutes I thought De Niro might pull off the Godfather
of spy movies ... Still, even if the movie's vast reach exceeds its grasp, it's a spellbinding history lesson". However, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone
magazine opined, "It's tough to slog through a movie that has no pulse". In his review for the Chicago Sun-Times
, Jim Emerson wrote, "If you think George Tenet
's Central Intelligence Agency was a disaster, wait until you see Robert De Niro's torpid, ineffectual movie about the history of the agency". Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian
gave the film two out of five stars and criticized Damon's performance: "And why is Damon allowed to act in such a callow, boring way? As ever, he looks like he is playing Robin to some imaginary Batman at his side, like Jimmy Stewart and his invisible rabbit. His nasal, unobtrusive voice makes every line sound the same".
In 2007, the cast of The Good Shepherd won the Silver Bear of the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival
for outstanding artistic contribution. It was the only American entry in 2007 to win a prize at the festival.
De Niro said he would like to make two sequels to The Good Shepherd, one bringing the action forward from 1961 to 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall
, the other following its protagonist, Edward Wilson, up to the present day.
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
and starring Matt Damon
Matt Damon
Matthew Paige "Matt" Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting , from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck...
and Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie is an American actress. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and was named Hollywood's highest-paid actress by Forbes in 2009 and 2011. Jolie is noted for promoting humanitarian causes as a Goodwill Ambassador for the...
, with an extensive supporting cast. Although it is a fictional film loosely based on real events, it is advertised as telling the untold story of the birth of counter-intelligence
Counter-intelligence
Counterintelligence or counter-intelligence refers to efforts made by intelligence organizations to prevent hostile or enemy intelligence organizations from successfully gathering and collecting intelligence against them. National intelligence programs, and, by extension, the overall defenses of...
in the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
. The film's main character, Edward Wilson (portrayed by Matt Damon), is loosely based on James Jesus Angleton
James Jesus Angleton
James Jesus Angleton was chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's counterintelligence staff from 1954 to 1975...
and Richard M. Bissell
Richard M. Bissell, Jr.
Richard Mervin Bissell, Jr. was an American Central Intelligence Agency officer responsible for major projects such as the U-2 spy plane and the Bay of Pigs Invasion.-Early years:...
. This was Joe Pesci
Joe Pesci
Joseph Frank "Joe" Pesci is an American actor, comedian, and musician.He is known for playing a variety of different roles, from violent mobsters to comedic leads to quirky sidekicks...
's first film appearance after his six year hiatus from acting between 1999 and 2005.
Plot
A photograph and an audio recording on reel-to-reel tapeReel-to-reel audio tape recording
Reel-to-reel, open reel tape recording is the form of magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording medium is held on a reel, rather than being securely contained within a cassette....
are dropped off anonymously at the home of Edward Wilson (Matt Damon
Matt Damon
Matthew Paige "Matt" Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting , from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck...
), a senior CIA officer, after the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion
Bay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was an unsuccessful action by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba, with support and encouragement from the US government, in an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The invasion was launched in April 1961, less than three months...
of Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
fails due to an undisclosed leak. While riding to work on the bus, Edward is approached by a young boy who asks if Edward has change for a dollar. Upon arriving at work, Edward's assistant checks the serial number of the dollar against a long list of serial numbers assigned to various code names and confirms that Edward has been given a dollar from "Cardinal". The movie then flashes back to 1939.
In 1939 Edward is at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
and joins Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones is an undergraduate senior or secret society at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. It is a traditional peer society to Scroll and Key and Wolf's Head, as the three senior class 'landed societies' at Yale....
, a secret society that grooms future U.S. leaders. He is compelled to disclose a secret as part of his initiation: he reveals that as a young boy he discovered the suicide note left by his father, Thomas (Timothy Hutton
Timothy Hutton
Timothy Tarquin Hutton is an American actor. He is the youngest actor to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, which he won at the age of 20 for his performance as Conrad Jarrett in Ordinary People . He currently stars as Nathan "Nate" Ford on the TNT series Leverage.-Early life:Timothy...
), although he says he never read it. After the ceremony, a fraternity brother tells him that Edward's father, an admiral
Admiral
Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...
, was to be chosen as Secretary of the Navy, until his loyalties were questioned. Afterwards Edward is recruited by an FBI agent Sam Murach (Alec Baldwin
Alec Baldwin
Alexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin III is an American actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television.Baldwin first gained recognition through television for his work in the soap opera Knots Landing in the role of Joshua Rush. He was a cast member for two seasons before his character was killed off...
), who claims that Edward's poetry professor, Dr. Fredericks (Michael Gambon
Michael Gambon
Sir Michael John Gambon, CBE is an Irish actor who has worked in theatre, television and film. A highly respected theatre actor, Gambon is recognised for his roles as Philip Marlowe in the BBC television serial The Singing Detective, as Jules Maigret in the 1990s ITV serial Maigret, and as...
), is a Nazi spy, asking Edward to expose his professor's background as well as implying that the Professor is homosexual: Edward's actions result in Dr. Fredericks' forced resignation from the university.
Edward begins a relationship with a deaf student named Laura (Tammy Blanchard
Tammy Blanchard
Tammy Blanchard is an American actress. She has worked primarily in films and television, making her professional start in the soap opera Guiding Light...
), but while on Deer Island
Deer Island (Thousand Islands)
Deer Island is one of the American Thousand Islands. It lies between mainland Canada and United States, within the Saint Lawrence River, close to Alexandria Bay, New York. It is owned entirely by the Russell Trust Association and is used as a Skull and Bones retreat.The island lies near Boldt...
, Edward meets and is later aggressively seduced by Margaret 'Clover' Russell (Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie
Angelina Jolie is an American actress. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and was named Hollywood's highest-paid actress by Forbes in 2009 and 2011. Jolie is noted for promoting humanitarian causes as a Goodwill Ambassador for the...
), his friend's sister. General Bill Sullivan (Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
) asks Edward to join the OSS
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...
, offering him a post in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Later while Edward and Laura are at the beach, Clover's brother, John, privately reveals that Clover is pregnant with Edward's child and asks him to "do what is expected." Laura, an able lip-reader
Lip reading
Lip reading, also known as lipreading or speechreading, is a technique of understanding speech by visually interpreting the movements of the lips, face and tongue with information provided by the context, language, and any residual hearing....
, sees and walks away. Edward marries Clover. At the wedding reception Edward accepts an offer of a position in the London OSS office from General Sullivan, requiring him to be in England in one week, leaving his newlywed wife. In London he meets his former professor Dr. Fredericks, who is actually a British intelligence operative who had sought to infiltrate a Nazi organization while at Yale, causing the American authorities to suspect that he was a Nazi spy. Despite this, Fredericks recognized Edward's gifts and recommended that he be trained in counter-espionage in London.
An intelligence officer in the British SOE
Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive was a World War II organisation of the United Kingdom. It was officially formed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton on 22 July 1940, to conduct guerrilla warfare against the Axis powers and to instruct and aid local...
, Arch Cummings (Billy Crudup
Billy Crudup
William Gaither "Billy" Crudup is an American actor of film and stage. He is well known for his roles as guitarist Russell Hammond in Almost Famous, Will Bloom in Big Fish, and Ashitaka in Princess Mononoke. He also starred in the 2007 romantic comedy film Dedication, alongside Mandy Moore...
), tells Edward that Fredericks' indiscriminate homosexual relationships pose a security risk; Edward is asked to deal with his mentor, but Fredericks refuses the chivalrous suggestion to protect himself by returning to teaching. He says he will understand if Wilson wants to "tie his shoe" (a signal to watchers that the meeting went badly). Edward delays, prompting Fredericks to kneel down and tie Edward's shoe for him. As their meeting ends, he advises Wilson to "quit... while you still have a soul", leaves, and is brutally killed, his body being dumped into the Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
.
The time shifts to post-war Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, where the Allies
Allies
In everyday English usage, allies are people, groups, or nations that have joined together in an association for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out between them...
and the Soviets
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, in a race for technological superiority, are trying to recruit as many German scientists as possible. Edward encounters his Soviet counterpart, codenamed "Ulysses", who praises Edward. They plan an exchange of scientists — the Soviets asking for German Nazi and Slavic
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
scientists, while the Americans seek Jewish scientists.
Edward is assisted by an interpreter, Hanna Schiller (Martina Gedeck
Martina Gedeck
Martina Gedeck is a German actress. She came to broader, international attention due to her roles in films such as Mostly Martha, The Lives of Others, and The Baader Meinhof Complex...
), who wears what appears to be a hearing aid. After Edward learns from his son during a rare phone call home that Clover is having an affair, he accepts Hanna's invitation to dinner at her home, and sleeps with her. While they are making love, Edward realizes that Hanna can hear without the use of her hearing aid, exposing her as a Soviet operative. She is killed and Ulysses is notified by her hearing aid being planted in his teapot.
After six years in London, Edward returns home to a distant Clover, who now prefers to be called Margaret. Edward presents his son with a miniature model ship inside a glass watch-casing. Margaret explains that her brother was killed in the war; she also confesses that she previously had a brief relationship with another man. When she asks if he had any relationships, Edward replies that "it was a mistake." General Sullivan approaches Wilson again to help form a new foreign intelligence organization - the CIA - where Wilson will work with his former colleague, Richard Hayes (Lee Pace
Lee Pace
Lee Grinner Pace is an American actor. Pace has been featured in film, stage and television. He is known best for his starring role as Ned in the ABC series Pushing Daisies for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe award and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2008.-...
), under Phillip Allen (William Hurt
William Hurt
William McGill Hurt is an American stage and film actor. He received his acting training at the Juilliard School, and began acting on stage in the 1970s. Hurt made his film debut as a troubled scientist in the science-fiction feature Altered States , for which he received a Golden Globe nomination...
). Edward accepts, hiding the details of his position from everyone but Clover/Margaret. Allen discloses his love of Swiss chocolate, prompting Edward to later ask Murach if the FBI has any information on Allen: the resulting file intimates that Allen holds substantial funds in Swiss accounts.
Edward's first assignment deals with coffee in Central America where the Russians are trying to gain influence. Edward spots Ulysses in the background of footage of the country's leader, but doesn't disclose this. Another agent is sent covertly as a representative of the Mayan Coffee Company; Edward warns him not to wear his Yale class ring. Edward arranges for airplanes to fly over and release locusts during a public event where the Russians (including Ulysses) are present in order to intimidate the Central American leader. Edward later receives a can of Mayan Coffee presumably from Ulysses, containing the severed finger, and Yale class ring, of the American agent. Wilson and Clover go to a Christmas party with their son, who wets himself, out of a heightened state of fear resulting from his fragmented awareness that his father is involved in dark secrets.
A Russian requesting asylum
Right of asylum
Right of asylum is an ancient juridical notion, under which a person persecuted for political opinions or religious beliefs in his or her own country may be protected by another sovereign authority, a foreign country, or church sanctuaries...
and claiming to be high-ranking KGB man Valentin Mironov, who knows Ulysses, is interviewed by Edward. Edward is fully convinced of his honesty. While attending the theater with Mironov and Cummings, Edward encounters his former sweetheart, Laura. They leave the theater separately, meet at a restaurant and rekindle their old romance.
Sometime later, Margaret anonymously receives photos of Laura and Edward getting into a taxi together and kissing. A distraught Margaret confronts him. Edward ends the relationship with Laura by returning her jeweled crucifix, which he had kept from their college romance days.
Then a Russian defector
Defection
In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state or political entity in exchange for allegiance to another. More broadly, it involves abandoning a person, cause or doctrine to whom or to which one is bound by some tie, as of allegiance or duty.This term is also applied,...
appears, claiming that he is the real Valentin Mironov, and that the other man actually is Yuri Modin, a KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
operative working for Ulysses. Edward does not believe him, and agents beat and torture the man, and administer liquid LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
because of its alleged truth serum
Truth Serum
Truth Serum is an independent comic book series created, written and drawn by author Jon Adams.-Overview:Originally published as a mini comic in 2001 and given away for free, it appeared as a three-issue mini series published by Slave Labor Graphics in 2002...
properties. Despite the combined effects of drugs and torture, the second defector insists that he is the true Mironov. He further ridicules his interrogators for their need to believe in the myth of Soviet power which he calls a "great show" and "painted rust". Realising that he will never be believed, the defector hurls himself through the window to the pavement several stories below. The first man claiming to be Valentin Mironov, who has watched the entire ordeal together with Edward, then offers to take LSD to prove his innocence, but Edward doesn't think it's necessary.
Edward visits his son, Edward Jr., at Yale, where he has also joined the Skull and Bones society and has been approached for recruitment by the CIA. Margaret pleads with Edward to persuade their son not to accept, but Edward Jr. joins anyway, believing it will bring him closer to his loving, but distant, father. This widens the rift between Edward and Margaret. Later Edward Jr. overhears Edward and Hays discuss the upcoming Bay of Pigs invasion; Wilson suspects that Edward Jr. may have overheard the conversation and warns his son to be silent. Margaret moves to her mother's home in Arizona.
The film returns to the recording dropped off at the beginning of the movie. After analysis of clues such as the ceiling fan's brand name and the church bells and other sounds heard on the tape, CIA specialists deduce that the photograph may have been taken in Leopoldville
Kinshasa
Kinshasa is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The city is located on the Congo River....
, in the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
. Edward goes there and finds the room. He realizes that the photograph and tape are of his son Edward Jr. when he sees the model ship in the glass watch-casing on the nightstand; its blurred image was the one object in the photo that the CIA team was unable to identify. Ulysses is there and plays Edward an unedited version of the tape, revealing Edward Jr. repeating to his lover, a Soviet spy, the classified information he overheard his father discussing. Thus the Cubans and Soviets learned of the upcoming CIA landing at the Bay of Pigs. Ulysses encourages Edward to spy for the Soviets in exchange for them protecting his son. Edward is non-committal, however; he confronts his son, who says that he is in love with the woman and plans to marry her. His son refuses to believe that she is an intelligence agent.
Edward exposes Valentin as Soviet spy Yuri Modin after finding evidence of his true identity in a book given to him by Arch Cummings, who is thus exposed as a co-conspirator. Cummings flees to the USSR. After meeting Ulysses in a museum and refusing to betray his country, Edward explains that as the Soviets have won in Cuba it is not necessary to hurt his son. Ulysses notes of Edward Jr.'s fiancée: "neither of us can be sure about her", and asks Edward, "You want her to be part of your family, don't you?" Later, Ulysses' aide asks him for change to purchase his daughter a souvenir from the gift shop. Edward asks how much it is, and hands him a one dollar bill, commenting that a cardinal rule of democracy is generosity, thus confirming that the aide is Edward's defector in place.
Edward and Margaret arrive separately in the Congo for Edward Jr.'s wedding. His fiancée travels on a small plane to the ceremony but mid-flight is thrown out of the plane. When she fails to arrive at the church, Edward informs a worried Edward Jr. that his fiancée is dead. Edward denies any responsibility when Edward Jr. asks; Edward is visibly affected when Edward Jr. reveals that his fiancée was pregnant.
Edward meets with fellow Skull and Bones classmate Hayes (loosely based on Richard Helms
Richard Helms
Richard McGarrah Helms was the Director of Central Intelligence from 1966 to 1973. He was the only director to have been convicted of lying to the United States Congress over Central Intelligence Agency undercover activities. In 1977, he was sentenced to the maximum fine and received a suspended...
) at the new CIA headquarters still under construction. Hayes tells him that Allen is resigning under a cloud of financial improprieties (after receiving copies of the Swiss accounts delivered in a chocolate box), and that the President has asked him to be the new Director. The President has directed him to do some "housecleaning" and he tells Edward that he needs someone he can trust, saying, "after all, we're still brothers" and that Edward is the "CIA's heart and soul". He then tells Edward he will be the first head of counter-intelligence. Edward notes the inscription on the new marble wall of the CIA lobby: "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:32)".
Edward is then shown pulling from his home safe the suicide note that his father, Thomas, had left and in which his father's words, only now read by Edward, reveal that he had betrayed his country. He left loving words for his wife and son, particularly urging the latter to grow up to be a good man, husband and father and to live a life of decency and truth. Edward burns the note.
The film ends with Edward leaving his old office and moving to his new wing in the CIA.
Cast
- Matt DamonMatt DamonMatthew Paige "Matt" Damon is an American actor, screenwriter, and philanthropist whose career was launched following the success of the film Good Will Hunting , from a screenplay he co-wrote with friend Ben Affleck...
as Edward Wilson, Sr.; based on James Jesus AngletonJames Jesus AngletonJames Jesus Angleton was chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's counterintelligence staff from 1954 to 1975... - Angelina JolieAngelina JolieAngelina Jolie is an American actress. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and was named Hollywood's highest-paid actress by Forbes in 2009 and 2011. Jolie is noted for promoting humanitarian causes as a Goodwill Ambassador for the...
as Margaret "Clover" Russell Wilson - Robert De NiroRobert De NiroRobert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
as General William "Bill" Sullivan; based on William DonovanWilliam Joseph DonovanWilliam Joseph Donovan was a United States soldier, lawyer and intelligence officer, best remembered as the wartime head of the Office of Strategic Services... - Alec BaldwinAlec BaldwinAlexander Rae "Alec" Baldwin III is an American actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television.Baldwin first gained recognition through television for his work in the soap opera Knots Landing in the role of Joshua Rush. He was a cast member for two seasons before his character was killed off...
as FBI Agent Samuel "Sam" Murach - Billy CrudupBilly CrudupWilliam Gaither "Billy" Crudup is an American actor of film and stage. He is well known for his roles as guitarist Russell Hammond in Almost Famous, Will Bloom in Big Fish, and Ashitaka in Princess Mononoke. He also starred in the 2007 romantic comedy film Dedication, alongside Mandy Moore...
as Archibald "Arch" Cummings; based on Kim PhilbyKim PhilbyHarold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby was a high-ranking member of British intelligence who worked as a spy for and later defected to the Soviet Union... - Tammy BlanchardTammy BlanchardTammy Blanchard is an American actress. She has worked primarily in films and television, making her professional start in the soap opera Guiding Light...
as Laura - Keir DulleaKeir DulleaKeir Dullea is an American actor best known for the character of astronaut David Bowman, whom he portrayed in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey and in 1984's 2010: The Year We Make Contact...
as Senator John Russell, Sr. - Michael GambonMichael GambonSir Michael John Gambon, CBE is an Irish actor who has worked in theatre, television and film. A highly respected theatre actor, Gambon is recognised for his roles as Philip Marlowe in the BBC television serial The Singing Detective, as Jules Maigret in the 1990s ITV serial Maigret, and as...
as Dr. Fredericks - Martina GedeckMartina GedeckMartina Gedeck is a German actress. She came to broader, international attention due to her roles in films such as Mostly Martha, The Lives of Others, and The Baader Meinhof Complex...
as Hanna Schiller - Timothy HuttonTimothy HuttonTimothy Tarquin Hutton is an American actor. He is the youngest actor to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, which he won at the age of 20 for his performance as Conrad Jarrett in Ordinary People . He currently stars as Nathan "Nate" Ford on the TNT series Leverage.-Early life:Timothy...
as Admiral Thomas Wilson - William HurtWilliam HurtWilliam McGill Hurt is an American stage and film actor. He received his acting training at the Juilliard School, and began acting on stage in the 1970s. Hurt made his film debut as a troubled scientist in the science-fiction feature Altered States , for which he received a Golden Globe nomination...
as CIA Director Philip Allen; based on Allen Dulles - Gabriel MachtGabriel MachtGabriel S. Macht is an American actor. Macht is known for playing The Spirit in the film of the same name, and lately for his role as Harvey Specter on the USA Network series Suits.-Personal life:...
as John Russell, Jr. - Lee PaceLee PaceLee Grinner Pace is an American actor. Pace has been featured in film, stage and television. He is known best for his starring role as Ned in the ABC series Pushing Daisies for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe award and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2008.-...
as Deputy Director Richard Hayes; based on Richard HelmsRichard HelmsRichard McGarrah Helms was the Director of Central Intelligence from 1966 to 1973. He was the only director to have been convicted of lying to the United States Congress over Central Intelligence Agency undercover activities. In 1977, he was sentenced to the maximum fine and received a suspended... - Joe PesciJoe PesciJoseph Frank "Joe" Pesci is an American actor, comedian, and musician.He is known for playing a variety of different roles, from violent mobsters to comedic leads to quirky sidekicks...
as Joseph Palmi; based partly on Sam GiancanaSam GiancanaSalvatore Giancana , better known as Sam Giancana, was a Sicilian-American mobster and boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1957-1966...
and Santo Trafficante Jr. - Eddie RedmayneEddie RedmayneEdward John David "Eddie" Redmayne is an English actor and model. Redmayne won the 2010 Tony Award as best featured actor in a play for his performance in Red.-Early life:...
as older Edward Wilson, Jr. - John SessionsJohn SessionsJohn Gibb Marshall , better known by the stage name John Sessions, is a Scottish actor and comedian. He is known for comedy improvisation in television shows such as Whose Line Is It Anyway?; as a panellist on QI; and as a character actor in numerous films, both in the UK and in Hollywood.-Early...
as Valentin Mironov #1/Yuri Modin; based on Anatoliy GolitsynAnatoliy GolitsynAnatoliy Mikhaylovich Golitsyn CBE is a Soviet KGB defector and author of two books about the long-term deception strategy of the KGB leadership. He was born in Piryatin, Ukrainian SSR... - Mark Ivanir as Valentin Mironov #2; based on Yuri NosenkoYuri NosenkoLt. Col. Yuri Ivanovich Nosenko was a KGB defector and a figure of significant controversy within the U.S. intelligence community, since his claims contradicted another defector, Anatoliy Golitsyn, who believed he was a KGB plant...
- Oleg StefanOleg StefanOleg Stefan is a film actor. He has appeared in a number of popular television series, including Frasier and JAG. He had a role in Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd opposite Matt Damon.-External links:...
as Ulysses/Stas Siyanko - John TurturroJohn TurturroJohn Michael Turturro is an American actor, writer and director known for his roles in the films Do the Right Thing , Miller's Crossing , Barton Fink , Quiz Show , The Big Lebowski , O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the Transformers film series...
as Ray Brocco; based on Angleton deputy Raymond Rocca - Liya KebedeLiya KebedeLiya Kebede is an Ethiopian model, maternal health advocate, clothing designer and actress who has appeared three times on the cover of US Vogue . According to Forbes, Kebede was eleventh-highest-paid top model in the world in 2007...
as Miriam
Production
Eric RothEric Roth
Eric Roth is an American screenwriter. He won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for Forrest Gump . He also co-wrote the screenplay for Michael Mann's The Insider , the Steven Spielberg film Munich , and David Fincher's film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button , all of which were nominated for...
wrote the screenplay in 1994 for Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. He is widely acclaimed as one of Hollywood's most innovative and influential film directors...
and Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
. Roth read Norman Mailer
Norman Mailer
Norman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
's Harlot's Ghost
Harlot's Ghost
Harlot's Ghost , a fictional chronicle of the Central Intelligence Agency by Norman Mailer. The characters are a mixture of real people and fictional figures.-Summary:...
and became intrigued with the people who built the CIA. Coppola left the project because he could not relate to the characters due to their lack of emotion (although he retained a credit as co-executive producer). Wayne Wang
Wayne Wang
Wayne Wang is a Chinese American film director.-Biography:Wang was born and raised in Hong Kong, and named after his father's favorite movie star, John Wayne...
was set to direct and even conducted some location scouting but management changes at Columbia ended his involvement. The new administration gave Roth a list of directors to choose from and one of them was Philip Kaufman
Philip Kaufman
Philip Kaufman is an American film director and screenwriter. His movies have adapted novels of widely different types – from Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being to Michael Crichton’s Rising Sun; from Tom Wolfe’s heroic epic The Right Stuff to the erotic writings of Anaïs Nin’s...
. He felt that Roth's script, whose original structure was linear, should go back and forth in time to "give it a more contemporary feeling". Kaufman and Roth worked on the project for a year and then the management changed at the studio again. The new studio head had no interest in spy films unless they could get a movie star like Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....
to appear in the film. The project languished until John Frankenheimer
John Frankenheimer
John Michael Frankenheimer was an American film and television director known for social dramas and action/suspense films...
signed on to make the film with MGM agreeing to purchase the rights. He wanted Robert De Niro to star, having just worked together on Ronin
Ronin (film)
Ronin is a 1998 action-thriller film directed by John Frankenheimer and written by J.D. Zeik and David Mamet. It stars Robert De Niro and Jean Reno as two of several former special forces and intelligence agents who team up to steal a mysterious, heavily guarded suitcase while navigating a maze of...
. De Niro had been developing his own spy story about the CIA from the Bay of Pigs Invasion to the fall of the Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
in 1989 and agreed to appear in the film. During pre-production in 2002, Frankenheimer died. According to producer Jane Rosenthal
Jane Rosenthal
Jane Rosenthal is an American film producer.Rosenthal was born in Denver, Colorado and raised in Providence, Rhode Island; she attended both Brown and New York University...
, this had been Robert De Niro's pet project for nine years, but it proved difficult to produce in a pre-9/11 world and had to compete with his busy schedule as an actor. The actor said in an interview, “I had always been interested in the Cold War. I was raised in the Cold War. All of the intelligence stuff was interesting to me”. De Niro and Roth ended up making a deal: Roth would write up De Niro's idea into a screenplay if the actor would direct his existing script. If The Good Shepherd proved to be a commercial success then their follow-up would be De Niro's pitch.
De Niro took the project to Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
where producer Graham King
Graham King
Graham King, OBE is a British film producer. He is also President and CEO of Initial Entertainment Group. He is best known for his Academy Award winning 2006 crime thriller film The Departed, which was awarded the Best Picture Oscar at the 79th Academy Awards.King was appointed Officer of the...
agreed to help finance the $110+ million budget. He had a deal with Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo DiCaprio
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio is an American actor and film producer. He has received many awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Aviator , and has been nominated by the Academy Awards, Screen Actors Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television...
, who was interested in playing the film's protagonist Edward Wilson. De Niro planned to shoot the movie in early 2005 but DiCaprio could not do it then because he was making The Departed
The Departed
The Departed is a 2006 American crime thriller film, fashioned as a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. The film was directed by Martin Scorsese and written by William Monahan...
for Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
. King left with him and so did his financial backing. De Niro approached Matt Damon, who was also doing The Departed but would be done earlier than DiCaprio and De Niro would only have to wait six months to do the film with him. Initially, Damon turned De Niro down because he was scheduled to shoot Steven Soderbergh
Steven Soderbergh
Steven Andrew Soderbergh is an American film producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, and an Academy Award-winning film director. He is best known for directing commercial Hollywood films like Erin Brockovich, Traffic, and the remake of Ocean's Eleven, but he has also directed smaller less...
's The Informant!. Soderbergh agreed to delay filming and Damon agreed to star as Wilson. James Robinson's Morgan Creek Productions agreed to help finance the film with a budget under $90 million which meant that many of the principal actors, Damon included, would have to waive their usual salaries to keep costs down.
De Niro was not interested in making a spy movie with flashy violence and exciting car chases. “I just like it when things happen for a reason. So I want to downplay the violence, depict it in a muted way. In those days, it was a gentleman's game”. He and Roth were also interested in showing how absolute power corrupted the leaders of the CIA. Early on, De Niro said in an interview, “they tried to do what they thought was right. And then, as they went on, they became overconfident and started doing things that are not always in our best interests”. In preparation for the film, De Niro watched spy films like The Spy Who Came In From the Cold
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (film)
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is a 1965 film adaptation of the novel of the same name by John le Carré. It was adapted by Paul Dehn and Guy Trosper. The film stars Richard Burton as Alec Leamas, along with Claire Bloom, Oskar Werner, Peter van Eyck, Sam Wanamaker, Rupert Davies and Cyril Cusack...
, The Third Man, and Smiley's People
Smiley's People
Smiley's People is a spy novel by John le Carré, published in 1979. Featuring British master-spy George Smiley, it is the third and final novel of the "Karla Trilogy", following Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Honourable Schoolboy...
. He also hired retired CIA agent Milton Bearden
Milton Bearden
Milton Bearden is a retired Central Intelligence Agency officer, author and film consultant. As of 2003, Bearden lives in Reston, Virginia with his French-born wife, Marie-Catherine....
to serve as a technical adviser on the film. They had first worked together on Meet the Parents
Meet the Parents
Meet the Parents is a 2000 American comedy film written by Jim Herzfeld and John Hamburg and directed by Jay Roach. Starring Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller, the film chronicles a series of unfortunate events that befall a good-hearted but hapless male nurse while visiting his girlfriend's parents...
where De Niro played a retired CIA agent. Bearden agreed to take De Niro through Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
to the north-west frontier of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
and into Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
for a guided tour of intelligence gathering. Damon also spent time with Bearden as well as visiting several of the locations depicted in the film and reading several books on the CIA. Bearden also made sure that the historical aspects were correct but fictionalized to a certain degree.
Principal photography began on August 18, 2005, with shooting taking place in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Washington D.C., London and the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
. Three-time Academy Award-winning art director
Art director
The art director is a person who supervise the creative process of a design.The term 'art director' is a blanket title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games....
Jeannine Oppewall
Jeannine Oppewall
Jeannine Claudia Oppewall is an American film art director. She has worked on more than 30 movies in such roles as art decorator, set decorator and production designer, and has four Academy Award nominations for Best Art Design for L.A. Confidential, Pleasantville, Seabiscuit and The Good Shepherd...
was assigned art director for The Good Shepherd, which would eventually earn Oppewall her fourth Oscar nomination for Best Art Design
Academy Award for Best Art Direction
The Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999...
. She conducted a large amount of research for the film that filled ten to twelve 6 inches (152.4 mm) three-ring binders. It took her a week to organize the number of set locations due to the large amounts of settings in the script, which included Cuba, Léopoldville, London, Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, Moscow, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is the second-largest city in Connecticut and the sixth-largest in New England. According to the 2010 Census, New Haven's population increased by 5.0% between 2000 and 2010, a rate higher than that of the State of Connecticut, and higher than that of the state's five largest cities, and...
, among other places. Although the vast majority of the movie was filmed in New York, the only scenes that are actually set in New York were filmed at a house in the Long Island town, Manhasset. As a result, many sets had to be constructed under Oppewall's direction, including a Skull and Bones headquarters and the Berlin set, which was built on the Brooklyn Navy Yard
Brooklyn Navy Yard
The United States Navy Yard, New York–better known as the Brooklyn Navy Yard or the New York Naval Shipyard –was an American shipyard located in Brooklyn, northeast of the Battery on the East River in Wallabout Basin, a semicircular bend of the river across from Corlear's Hook in Manhattan...
. The interiors of the CIA were built in the Brooklyn Armory, a large edifice built in 1901 for the United States Cavalry. She also visited the CIA's headquarters in Washington, D.C. and worked with Bearden to create sets for the CIA's offices, Technical Room and Communications Room. Since the lead character originally aspired to be a poet, Oppewall incorporated many visual poetic symbols into the film, including a large number of mirrors to represent the duplicity of the CIA, full rigged ship
Full rigged ship
A full rigged ship or fully rigged ship is a sailing vessel with three or more masts, all of them square rigged. A full rigged ship is said to have a ship rig....
s as symbols of the state and eagle
Eagle
Eagles are members of the bird family Accipitridae, and belong to several genera which are not necessarily closely related to each other. Most of the more than 60 species occur in Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just two species can be found in the United States and Canada, nine more in...
symbols, which were used in ironic situations such as suspect interrogations. Her team tracked down the right set dressings and also found authentic Teletype
Teletype Corporation
The Teletype Corporation, a part of American Telephone and Telegraph Company's Western Electric manufacturing arm since 1930, came into being in 1928 when the Morkrum-Kleinschmidt Company changed its name to the name of its trademark equipment...
machines, reel-to-reel tape recorders and radios used in the CIA during that time.
Edward Wilson, the character played by Matt Damon, is based at least in part on James Jesus Angleton
James Jesus Angleton
James Jesus Angleton was chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's counterintelligence staff from 1954 to 1975...
, the long-serving director of the CIA's counter-intelligence
Counter-intelligence
Counterintelligence or counter-intelligence refers to efforts made by intelligence organizations to prevent hostile or enemy intelligence organizations from successfully gathering and collecting intelligence against them. National intelligence programs, and, by extension, the overall defenses of...
staff who also fell victim to intense paranoia during his career, and covert operations specialist Richard Bissell
Richard M. Bissell, Jr.
Richard Mervin Bissell, Jr. was an American Central Intelligence Agency officer responsible for major projects such as the U-2 spy plane and the Bay of Pigs Invasion.-Early years:...
. Bill Sullivan, the character played by Robert De Niro, is based on William Stephenson
William Stephenson
Sir William Samuel Stephenson, CC, MC, DFC was a Canadian soldier, airman, businessman, inventor, spymaster, and the senior representative of British intelligence for the entire western hemisphere during World War II. He is best known by his wartime intelligence codename Intrepid...
and William Joseph Donovan
William Joseph Donovan
William Joseph Donovan was a United States soldier, lawyer and intelligence officer, best remembered as the wartime head of the Office of Strategic Services...
. William Hurt's character Phillip Allen is likely based on former CIA Director Allen Dulles, while Lee Pace
Lee Pace
Lee Grinner Pace is an American actor. Pace has been featured in film, stage and television. He is known best for his starring role as Ned in the ABC series Pushing Daisies for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe award and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2008.-...
's character Richard Hayes shares some similarities, including a similar name, to Dulles' eventual successor Richard Helms
Richard Helms
Richard McGarrah Helms was the Director of Central Intelligence from 1966 to 1973. He was the only director to have been convicted of lying to the United States Congress over Central Intelligence Agency undercover activities. In 1977, he was sentenced to the maximum fine and received a suspended...
. High-ranking British operative turned Soviet mole, Arch Cummings, bears some similarities to Kim Philby
Kim Philby
Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby was a high-ranking member of British intelligence who worked as a spy for and later defected to the Soviet Union...
(who fled to the USSR after being exposed and spent his last years friendless and mired in alcoholism). The character Yuri Modin shares similar characteristics to Soviet defector Anatoliy Golitsyn
Anatoliy Golitsyn
Anatoliy Mikhaylovich Golitsyn CBE is a Soviet KGB defector and author of two books about the long-term deception strategy of the KGB leadership. He was born in Piryatin, Ukrainian SSR...
, and the character of Dr. Ibanez bears some similarities to Jacobo Arbenz.
In May, 2007, CIA's historians publicly released an article referencing the film's depiction of the OSS and CIA, and discussing factual details surrounding the actual persons on whom some of the film's characters were based. The article also addressed inaccurate but enduring beliefs that Yale's famous secret society Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones
Skull and Bones is an undergraduate senior or secret society at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. It is a traditional peer society to Scroll and Key and Wolf's Head, as the three senior class 'landed societies' at Yale....
was an incubator of the U.S. Intelligence Community.
Oscar-winning actor Joe Pesci
Joe Pesci
Joseph Frank "Joe" Pesci is an American actor, comedian, and musician.He is known for playing a variety of different roles, from violent mobsters to comedic leads to quirky sidekicks...
appears in one scene as a Mafia boss ("Joseph Palmi") who, it is implied in the film, is a fictionalized composite of Santo Trafficante Jr. and Sam Giancana
Sam Giancana
Salvatore Giancana , better known as Sam Giancana, was a Sicilian-American mobster and boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1957-1966...
(in one scene it is mentioned that Castro has seized "three of [Palmi's] casinos and thrown him out of Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
." In fact, Castro did nationalize several casinos owned by both Chicago and Florida organized crime interests). The CIA recruited such mafiosi for multiple assassination attempts against Fidel Castro. The story thread, however, is not fully developed in the film. Also, this marked Pesci's return to acting after an eight-year absence from the screen following Lethal Weapon 4
Lethal Weapon 4
Lethal Weapon 4 is a 1998 American action film directed by Richard Donner, starring Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Joe Pesci, Rene Russo, Chris Rock and Jet Li. It is the third sequel in the Lethal Weapon series of films. -Plot:...
.
Music
The music for the film was by Bruce FowlerBruce Fowler
Bruce Lambourne Fowler is a prominent American trombone player and composer. He notably played trombone on many Frank Zappa records, as well as with Captain Beefheart, and in the Fowler Brothers Band...
and Marcelo Zarvos
Marcelo Zarvos
Marcelo Zarvos is a Brazilian pianist and composer. He began in classical music in his teens and studied at the Berklee College of Music. He is more known for jazz and had success with the album Dualism accompanied by saxophonist Peter Epstein...
. They replaced James Horner
James Horner
James Roy Horner is an American composer, orchestrator and conductor of orchestral and film music. He is noted for the integration of choral and electronic elements in many of his film scores, and for frequent use of Celtic musical elements...
, who left the project due to creative differences.
The violin solo is an extract from Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto In D
Violin Concerto (Tchaikovsky)
The Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35, written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1878, is one of the best known of all violin concertos. It is also considered to be among the most technically difficult works for violin.-Instrumentation:...
though this is misattributed to Marcelo Zarvos on the soundtrack CD.
Bay of Pigs Invasion leak
The film depicts the Bay of Pigs InvasionBay of Pigs Invasion
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was an unsuccessful action by a CIA-trained force of Cuban exiles to invade southern Cuba, with support and encouragement from the US government, in an attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The invasion was launched in April 1961, less than three months...
failure as the result of a leak within the CIA.
James K. Galbraith
James K. Galbraith
James Kenneth Galbraith is an American economist who writes frequently for mainstream and liberal publications on economic topics. He is currently a professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and at the Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin. He is also a Senior...
wrote that the Taylor Report on the invasion confirmed the existence of a leak:
One of the great travesties of the Cold War surfaced on April 29, 2000 when the Washington Post reported the declassification in full of General Maxwell Taylor's June, 1961 special report on the Bay of Pigs invasion. Partial versions of this document have been available for decades. But only now did its darkest secret spill. Here is what Taylor reported to Kennedy. The Russians knew the date of the invasion (Therefore, Castro also knew.) The CIA, headed by Allen Dulles, knew that the Russians knew (Therefore, they knew the invasion would fail). The leak did not come from the invasion force; it had happened before the Cuban exileCuban exileThe term "Cuban exile" refers to the many Cubans who have sought alternative political or economic conditions outside the island, dating back to the Ten Years' War and the struggle for Cuban independence during the 19th century...
s were themselves briefed on the date. Kennedy was not informed. Nor, of course, were the exiles. And knowing all this, Dulles ordered the operation forward.
Reaction
The Good Shepherd was released on December 22, 2006 in 2,215 theaters, grossing $9.9 million on its opening weekend. It went on to make $59.9 million in North America and $39.5 million in the rest of the world for a worldwide total of $99.4 million.Critical reception
The film received mixed reviews, with the review-tallying website Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reporting that 90 out of the 167 reviews they tallied were positive, for a score of 54% and a certification of "rotten" (according to the website's criteria). Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
reports the film has an aggregate metascore of 61/100 ("Generally favorable reviews"). In her review for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with A.O. Scott. She was formerly a chief film critic for the Los Angeles Times, the film editor at the LA Weekly, and a film critic at The Village Voice. She has written for a variety of publications, including Film Comment and...
wrote, "The Good Shepherd is an origin story about the C.I.A., and for the filmmakers that story boils down to fathers who fail their sons, a suspect metaphor that here becomes all too ploddingly literal", but praised De Niro's direction: "Among the film’s most striking visual tropes is the image of Wilson simply going to work in the capital alongside other similarly dressed men, a spectral army clutching briefcases and silently marching to uncertain victory". Kenneth Turan, in his review for the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, praised Matt Damon's performance: "Damon, in his second major role of the year (after The Departed
The Departed
The Departed is a 2006 American crime thriller film, fashioned as a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. The film was directed by Martin Scorsese and written by William Monahan...
) once again demonstrates his ability to convey emotional reserves, to animate a character from the inside out and create a man we can sense has more of an interior life than he is willing to let on".
Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine's Richard Corliss also gave Damon a positive notice in his review: "Damon is terrific in the role-all-knowing, never overtly expressing a feeling. Indeed, so is everyone else in this intricate, understated but ultimately devastating account of how secrets, when they are left to fester, can become an illness, dangerous to those who keep them, more so to nations that base their policies on them". In his review for The New York Observer, Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris is an American film critic and a leading proponent of the auteur theory of criticism.-Career:Sarris is generally credited with popularizing the auteur theory in the U.S...
wrote, "Still, no previous American film has ventured into this still largely unknown territory with such authority and emotional detachment. For this reason alone, The Good Shepherd is must-see viewing". USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "What makes the story work so powerfully is his focus on a multidimensional individual—Wilson—thereby creating a stirring personal tale about the inner workings of the clandestine government agency". Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
gave the film a "B" rating and Lisa Schwarzbaum praised De Niro's direction and Damon's performance, noting the latter's maturation as an actor.
Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
magazine's David Ansen
David Ansen
David Ansen is a reviewer and senior editor for Newsweek, where he has been reviewing movies since 1977. He came to Newsweek after several years as the chief film critic at Boston's The Real Paper...
wrote, "For the film's mesmerizing first 50 minutes I thought De Niro might pull off the Godfather
The Godfather
The Godfather is a 1972 American epic crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo. With a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola and an uncredited Robert Towne, the film stars Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard...
of spy movies ... Still, even if the movie's vast reach exceeds its grasp, it's a spellbinding history lesson". However, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine opined, "It's tough to slog through a movie that has no pulse". In his review for the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
, Jim Emerson wrote, "If you think George Tenet
George Tenet
George John Tenet was the Director of Central Intelligence for the United States Central Intelligence Agency, and is Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University....
's Central Intelligence Agency was a disaster, wait until you see Robert De Niro's torpid, ineffectual movie about the history of the agency". Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
gave the film two out of five stars and criticized Damon's performance: "And why is Damon allowed to act in such a callow, boring way? As ever, he looks like he is playing Robin to some imaginary Batman at his side, like Jimmy Stewart and his invisible rabbit. His nasal, unobtrusive voice makes every line sound the same".
In 2007, the cast of The Good Shepherd won the Silver Bear of the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...
for outstanding artistic contribution. It was the only American entry in 2007 to win a prize at the festival.
De Niro said he would like to make two sequels to The Good Shepherd, one bringing the action forward from 1961 to 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
, the other following its protagonist, Edward Wilson, up to the present day.