I haven’t seen either one of these yet, so I’m going to most likely have to do a double-feature to catch up. They both sound fascinating to me, and I’m hoping for two great experiences back-to-back.
So tell me, Capone... are both the SHEPHERD and the GERMAN good?!
The Good German
Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here. Like many of the post-WWII-era films that The Good German emulates, the plot makes close to no sense and it couldn’t matter less. The intent here is to impress you with bizarre and sinister characters (even a couple of the good guys qualify in one or both categories), stunning black-and-white cinematography (the film was shot with cameras in use during the era it portrays), and an atmosphere dripping with betrayal, sex, politics, and blood. And, as the ladies discovered with last year’s Good Night, and Good Luck, George Clooney looks good in black and white.
The setting is a devastated Berlin ripe for the picking by Allied vultures, all trying to carve out a piece of Europe for themselves. The American, the Russian, and even a few Germans race around trying to see where money can be made. Clooney plays U.S. Army war correspondent Jake Geismar, in the city to cover the Potsdam Conference. He doesn’t do much reporting but he does manage to do a great deal of investigating, especially when he is seeking out the whereabouts of a former German girlfriend Lena Brandt (the sultry Cate Blanchett), who is now a high-priced prostitute desperate to get out of Berlin. The film begins colorfully enough with Geismar arriving in Berlin for the first time in many years and getting chauffeured around by the chirpy Tully (Tobey Maguire). Since you can’t assume that an actor of Maguire’s caliber would get saddled with such a sidekick role, I quickly learned that nobody in the film is what he or she seems.
What shocks you early on is that although director (and long-time Clooney collaborator) Steven Soderbergh uses the cameras from the 1940s, the language and sexual frankness in The Good German is pure 21st century. Imagine Casablanca with nudity, four-letter words, and simulated sex. This may not appeal to everyone, but I found the prospect intriguing, and Soderbergh doesn’t get too out of hand with the limits of his R rating.
Based on the Joseph Kanon novel, The Good German offers glimpses of the feverish black market that existed at the time, when loyalty lines were blurred and nation’s staked their claims on Germany and set the stage for a cold war that lasted decades. Soderbergh and company clearly care about the story, but he cares just a little bit more about the look and mood of his work. Normally this is an unforgivable cinematic crime, but here it’s an exotic and visually devastating infraction. And the best news: Ocean’s 13 hits in June.
The Good Shepherd
Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here. Whenever a film comes along with a cast as impressive as this, I get nervous. It's so rare that a long list of great actors translates into a worthy film (a recent example of a failed attempt at this being All the King's Men). But the Robert De Niro-directed The Good Shepherd is a thoughtful and exceptional work that tells the all-too-believable story about the birth of the CIA through the eyes of a man whose dedication and commitment to his country and job surprise even him at times.
Edward Wilson (Matt Damon, giving the performance of a lifetime and his second film this year--along with The Departed--as part of an ensemble cast) is no Jack Ryan super spy. He begins life as a pre-WWII Yale student invited to join the elite, clandestine society Skull & Bones, a place where leaders and men of power are crafted. His reputation as a fiercely loyal man (he turns in a professor he likes a great deal for being a Nazi sympathizer) catches the attention of the intelligence/counter-intelligence organization the OSS. His almost unnoticeable recruitment at the hands of the sly William Hurt is the first of many great, understated scenes in The Good Shepherd.
Wilson's relationship with a lovely deaf woman is what keeps him human, but a one-night slip up with the sister of one of his Skull & Bones comrades results in a pregnancy as eventual marriage that neither one truly wants. His wife is played by Angelina Jolie, who gives a mostly restrained performance in the early part of the film. But, as you know, Jolie isn't usually hired for to play prim and proper. With Wilson's job keeping him away sometimes for years at a time, and since he can never share with her the details of his work with his wife, she literally is driven insane by the quiet nature of their marriage.
The plot, from a screenplay by Eric Roth (Munich, Ali, The Insider), paints Wilson as one of the architects of the Central Intelligence Agency (the agency OSS evolved into). He is one of the masters not only of gathering information but also disseminating false background and intelligence to feed the enemy (in most cases, the Soviet Union's KGB). There are a number of fantastic sequences involving the cat-and-mouse information game he plays with his CIA counterpart that are so slick and impressive, you can't help but laugh a little. The Good Shepherd is not a film about explosions, flash cars, and beautiful but deadly female assassins. No, this film takes a wholly cold and emotionless tone. There are many great actor present who are know for scene stealing, including director De Niro, Alec Baldwin, Michael Gambon, Billy Crudup, John Turturro, Joe Pesci, and Timothy Hutton. But De Niro seems to have given strict instruction to dial everything back. Much of the dialogue is spoken in quiet tones, at least that's how it seemed.
Not surprisingly, spending your entire career dealing in secrets and lies breeds a healthy amount of paranoia. Much of the film is told in flashbacks, and Wilson remembers how he got involved in the business to begin with. In the present day, he is being investigated for possibly leaking state secrets. He is also dealing with his now grown son, who seems desperate to follow in his father's shoes if only to get his dad's approval. The Good Shepherd is a swirling, mesmerizing work. The film manages to be both chaotic and beautifully organized. De Niro makes no effort to glamorize the life he's depicting, but he does manage to relay the appeal of such a chosen profession. Secrets are power, after all.
This is a film that you may not realize how truly involved you are in it until it's over, and upon reflection, the levels the film is working on are many and highly intricate. It also isn't until the end that you'll realize you've been feeling edgy for most of the movie and you'll probably need some help prying your fingers from the armrests. De Niro's means of building is so subtle as to almost be unnoticeable until you're deep into the work. The Good Shepherd is a film of substance that presents the events without judging them or the players too harshly. He leaves that to the audience. Between this film and The Departed has given us his best year as an actor. True, he goes back to his comfort zone of franchise work next year with both Ocean's 13 and The Bourne Ultimatum coming out in the summer, but those are hardly films to dread. But it's his work in The Good Shepherd that shows us a side to his abilities yet untapped. This restrained performance somehow still manages to show us the heart of a man whom the government would prefer be heartless. Check this film out immediately.
Capone
