The Good German/Shepherd

Quote of the day:
"It's not a phone. It's not an iPod. It's a phenomenon. They don't even have to release the damn thing to consider it a success."
--David Chamberlain, Technology Industry Analyst

We found ourselves in an interesting position last week. Netflix sent us both The Good German and The Good Shepherd. We had both these movies in the house as well as an actual good German Shepherd. A harmonic convergence, perhaps?

I don’t know what’s gotten into Steven Soderbergh. His film (German) is very much like his Kafka of several years ago. That is, incomprehensible. Or pointless. Or both. The black-and-white cinematography is quite interesting but not enough to sustain this film, which has good actors and a strange plot that I ceased caring about after 20 minutes.

The Good Shepherd is much better. But then, so is Attack of the Crab Monsters.

Shepherd is Robert DeNiro’s first film as a director, and he clearly knows what he is doing. The problem is that he does it for so long. This 2 hour 40 minute movie could have been 90 minutes without losing a bit, extracto tediumis maximus.

Matt Damon puts in an excellent performance. Indeed, all the acting is quite good, including DeNiro’s. The film tells a fictionalized story of the formation and early days of the CIA.

It is quite interesting. Just not 2 hours and 40 minutes interesting. There’s just not enough character depth or plot to sustain it that long.

But I do hope DeNiro makes another film. It is beautifully shot and skillfully edited.