the Good Shepherd

[King Crimson]

pretty good espionage flick....some subtle plot stuff. reviews are complaining it's too long (which i don't get)......and i suspect there will be some political groaning from the Alan Deshowitz's of the world who thinks "cultural production" should be pro-government all the time (propaganda model?) and anything remotely ambiguous or offering some room for interpretation (like life is) is anti-american....but i found this movie to be much less political than i expected.

not a bad film (as a film, if i want politics...i know where to go, that's not my complaint here). worth seeing.

there is some pretty loaded dialogue in which some "comment" (Deniro's character) is locked into safe cold war situations, as it were. but, since it points to personal causes instead of structural ones for political outcomes (like Bay of Pigs).....anyone groaning about this is off-base and reactionary.

for some reason this film is locked into a "which is better" argument with the Departed. i liked the latter better, but Good Shepherd is decent enough.