Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

The Good Shepherd

Yesterday, we went to see "The Good Shepherd." I am not really a movie goer, but my husband loves the movies. So, once in a while, if I figure I won’t get out of the movie house without wanting to give it to Hollywood full steam, I accept to see a movie.

Yesterday, however, hubby and I almost left the place without seeing the film. Reason: the movie was supposed to start at 3:45 in the afternoon. It started at 4:30 and for what? To show us chilling previews of whichever atrocious movie the Regency Theaters could get their hands on. Actually, the previews had already started when we got in, which was twenty minutes earlier. That makes it over an hour of previews.

I wonder if serial killers lose it and become serial killers when subjected to such horrendous previews for such a long time. It is also possible that this tactic is contrived by the opposition to the movie industry as an underhanded scheme by executing torture on the general public. If I have paid to see a movie, I don't want to watch an hour of previews, okay?

Anyhow, since we both enjoyed the movie, I may accept another venture, once this trauma of the previews is forgotten. For a while though, it will be HBO or Blockbuster movies for me.

"The Good Shepherd" has mixed reviews and a lady in the movie house's restroom --yes, I talk to strangers-- complained to me that she didn't quite get the plot because of the frequent back and forth movement of the time frame. Neither my husband nor I had that or any other problem with the movie.

I think "The Good Shepherd" is very well directed. Kudos to Robert de Niro, one of my favorite actors, who has now turned out to be one of my favorite directors.

Matt Damon deserves an Oscar for portraying Edward Wilson, the American spy, who is a true patriot. The rest of the cast, Angelina Jolie, William Hurt, Alec Baldwin,
Robert De Niro, Billy Crudup, Michael Gambon, Joe Pesci, and John Turturro all were spectacular. The main plot of the movie is set around the Bay of Pigs Invasion, but it is really Wilson's story, a human story happening around the time when CIA was born.

The writer of the movie, Eric Roth, draws excellent characters. Movie goers should remember him from Forrest Gump and other highly acclaimed films.

The success of this movie proved my time-tested belief: A high-class writer has to be behind every successful venture.