The Good Shepherd
Universal Pictures | Release Date: December 22, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
18
Mixed:
15
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ExaminerWalter Addiego
A remarkable study of the corrosive effects of fear and power on an establishment insider who puts duty above all else. Read full review
100
The New YorkerDavid Denby
One of the most impressive movies ever made about espionage. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
It's the type of film that may be forgiven its imperfections when they are compared with the vastness of its accomplishments. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
De Niro pulls the viewer into the world he has created and holds him there, sometimes spellbound, until the story is over and the end credits roll. Read full review
80
Washington PostStephen Hunter
The Good Shepherd is serious adult moviemaking, a truly surprising effort from De Niro, a man deeply interested in the art, craft and psychology of espionage. He seems to believe that we'd better be interested in it, because it's interested in us. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
While a bit unwieldy at nearly three hours and at times slow going, the film is absolutely fascinating for anyone who shares De Niro's passions. Read full review
80
TimeRichard Corliss/Richard Schickel
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. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
It's taken a dozen years for Eric Roth's smart, thoughtful, psychologically complicated script to reach the screen under Robert De Niro's careful and methodical direction, and it is easy to see why. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Deliberately paced, epic and ambitious, The Good Shepherd feels related in tone, mood and style to "The Godfather." Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Roth's screenplay, steeped in the peculiar rituals, lock-jawed repression and smug sense of superiority of the WASP ruling class that both shaped America's intelligence community and made it vulnerable, is less interested in derring-do than back-room deals and the day-to-day drudgery of spying, driven by the notion that espionage is a cynical high-stakes game played with people's lives and the ante is human decency and connectedness. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A cool-headed thriller, and a richly detailed character study that traces the birth and evolution of America's foreign espionage bureaucracy, The Good Shepherd also marks a significantly more mature, assured directing turn from Robert De Niro. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyScott Brown
Here, he's (Damon) the ultimate enigma machine, a man willing to erase himself for his country. Does that make him a hero? The Good Shepherd is too closemouthed to let on. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
The problem with The Good Shepherd is that it's a closed-off movie about a closed-off individual. Wilson is inscrutable from the get-go, and remains so. Damon does subtle work within the narrowest of confines. Read full review
70
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Still, even if the movie's vast reach exceeds its grasp, it's a spellbinding history lesson. The Good Shepherd demands you watch it like a spy: alert, paranoid, never knowing whom you can trust, or who will stab you in the back. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
Even with its first-rate cast, current political relevance and tangled mysteries, The Good Shepherd remains as remote as Wilson himself. But frankly, if the lives of CIA spies are really this dreary, they may as well keep their secrets to themselves. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Leaves you longing for the other, better political thrillers it evokes. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Shepherd wants to say something profound about the effect of a deceitful government on human values. But it's tough to slog through a movie that has no pulse. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
It's fitting that a drama trading in classified information would turn out to be such a cryptic bugger. Read full review
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