The Good Shepherd

Sometimes I see a film, enjoy it, but I don't really feel like writing about it. "The Good Shepherd" is one of those films. Now I've decided to muscle through this review mostly to see if I can understand myself what makes some films great, just not good enough to want to write about.

The first thing I think about is the title, and the timing of this film's release. It opened on Christmas weekend, and I just saw it on Christmas Eve. There is a good shepherd, but there weren't any good shepherds in this film. There were some shepherds who were better then others, but I must say it was kind of a lesser-of-two-evils kind of shepherding. Robert DeNiro directed this film, and he has been in his share of films that take a very pessemistic view of the human condition. Perhaps this film, being released at Christmas can remind us of how far we have come from the principles that our country was founded on. Pilgrims thought Jesus was a good shepherd. Durring World War II and then the Cold War, who were our shepherds? Who are our shepherds now?

Of course I'm making some connections that were never explored in the film. Obviously I think that no other shepherd can compare to Jesus, and therefore he should be our example. I really don't know if DeNiro had a deeper purpose in mind when he made this film. At it's most basic, it is a film about corruption, how none of us are immune, and how it's amazing that our country has survived with the fact that everyone in positions of power is corruptable. From my point of view it is a blessing from God that our county has survived. God has allowed the lesser-of-two-evils to be in power at certain times. Sometimes of course the worse-of-two-evils may be in power, and maybe even there have been some good shepherds.

The reason it's hard for me to write about I guess is that I still haven't completely formulated my opinion of the film. I am somewhat dissapointed that DeNiro didn't outright come to the conclusion that I thought he should, at the same time I'm glad he didn't, so that I can take time to think, write and talk about it. It was a good film.