Hi people I hope every one is having a fantastic life. My life has been hooked to logs!!its been quite a while since I have been into troubleshooting and all I do is collecting logs and keep looking into the possibilities of errors! and that too for the transactional databases!! Now you can imagine the pressure in my head and toll on my head! lol
And as you all know what I opt for in these situations (yeah thats same old beer and movies naaa!!) yes yes! but from couple of weeks I havnt boozed due to few circumstances..but watched couple of movies. In those movies there is a movie called "The Good Shepherd" which is similar to my life...I mean not that I am working for CIA but the hard-work/smart-work which I am putting into my professional activities. So, lets know how good is that shepherd...
A photograph and an audio recording on reel-to-reel tape are dropped off anonymously at the home of Edward Wilson (Matt Damon), a senior CIA officer, after the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba fails due to an undisclosed leak. While riding to work on the bus, Edward is approached by a young boy who asks if Edward has change for a dollar. Upon arriving at work, Edward's assistant checks the serial number of the dollar against a long list of serial numbers assigned to various code names and confirms that Edward has been given a dollar from "Cardinal". The movie then flashes back to 1939.
In 1939 Edward is at Yale University and joins Skull and Bones, a secret society that grooms future U.S. leaders. He is compelled to disclose a secret as part of his initiation: he reveals that as a young boy he discovered the suicide note left by his father, Thomas (Timothy Hutton), although he says he never read it. After the ceremony, a fraternity brother tells him that Edward's father, an admiral, was to be chosen as Secretary of the Navy, until his loyalties were questioned. Afterwards Edward is recruited by an FBI agent Sam Murach (Alec Baldwin), who claims that Edward's poetry professor, Dr. Fredericks (Michael Gambon), is a Nazi spy, asking Edward to expose his professor's background as well as implying that the Professor is homosexual: Edward's actions result in Dr. Fredericks' forced resignation from the university.
Edward begins a relationship with a deaf student named Laura (Tammy Blanchard), but while on Deer Island, Edward meets and is later aggressively seduced by Margaret 'Clover' Russell (Angelina Jolie), his friend's sister. General Bill Sullivan (Robert De Niro) asks Edward to join the OSS, offering him a post in London.
Later while Edward and Laura are at the beach, Clover's brother, John, privately reveals that Clover is pregnant with Edward's child and asks him to "do what is expected." Laura, an able lip-reader, sees and walks away. Edward marries Clover. At the wedding reception Edward accepts an offer of a position in the London OSS office from General Sullivan, requiring him to be in England in one week, leaving his newlywed wife. In London he meets his former professor Dr. Fredericks, who is actually a British intelligence operative who had sought to infiltrate a Nazi organization while at Yale, causing the American authorities to suspect that he was a Nazi spy. Despite this, Fredericks recognized Edward's gifts and recommended that he be trained in counter-espionage in London.
An intelligence officer in the British SOE, Arch Cummings (Billy Crudup), tells Edward that Fredericks' indiscriminate homosexual relationships pose a security risk; Edward is asked to deal with his mentor, but Fredericks refuses the chivalrous suggestion to protect himself by returning to teaching. He says he will understand if Wilson wants to "tie his shoe" (a signal to watchers that the meeting went badly). Edward delays, prompting Fredericks to kneel down and tie Edward's shoe for him. As their meeting ends, he advises Wilson to "quit... while you still have a soul", leaves, and is brutally killed, his body being dumped into the Thames.
The time shifts to post-war Berlin, where the Allies and the Soviets, in a race for technological superiority, are trying to recruit as many German scientists as possible. Edward encounters his Soviet counterpart, codenamed "Ulysses", who praises Edward. They plan an exchange of scientists — the Soviets asking for German Nazi and Slavic scientists, while the Americans seek Jewish scientists.
hmmmm now you know how Americans got such an intelligent technologies!! What happens next who will end up in this cold war between Russia and America?? what happens to our protagonist Edward/mother?? will he able to satisfy his family needs?
As per Vish:- First thing first this film is not for the guys who is expecting some slicky and chasing filled with action CIA kind of typical movies. This is told in a very natural style and you hardly find any blood in the whole 2:45 min of film run. And what a performance by Matt Damon..it is just awesome to see an actor not showing his feelings on screen..Yes! as he plays the character of a CIA director whose aim is one and only "Serve the country and expect nothing in return" and he never shows any kind of human emotion in 95% of the movie..and nor he looks like a terminator too. He is neither a soldier without a gun nor a normal human without a soul!! it is very difficult to define his character but he defines just with his eyes...damn good performance. Angelina shows how good she is yet again!! she looks so energetic and bubbly in her early age...and becomes subtle in the middle age....and looks lost when she comes old..and in just one word she is FABULOUS. Apart from the cast...special kudos to the Art department..they have completely recreated the 1940s-1950s-1960sss era and the man behind all this achievement Robert De Niro..man you rock.
Bottom line is very simple...dont judge this movie on the running time but on the content. Have a fabulous viewing :)
Directed by:- Robert De Niro
Running time:- 167 minutes
Lok (Simon Yam) is now holding his position as triad chairman of the Wo Shing society unthreatened in Hong Kong. As his two-year term expires, a new chairman election nears, but Lok contemplates breaking tradition, attempting to seek re-election. At the same time, Jimmy (Louis Koo) is trying to escape Wo Shing by building a legitimate business empire in mainland China. When he is arrested in an illegal financial trade with a government official for the building of a new logisitics center and highway, the section chief of the National Security Bureau forbids him to re-enter the mainland to do business, unless he becomes Wo Shing's next chairman. Reluctant, but forced to accept the reality he can never truly exit the triads, Jimmy enters into the election nomination, with Jet (Nick Cheung) and Kun (Lam Ka-Tung) also seeking the chairman position.
Lok first negotiates with Kun, claiming Wo Shing's "Uncles" will support Kun, so long as they team up for a joint election bid. Kun then kidnaps and places Jimmy's financial supporter Mr. Kwok in a coffin alive with Big Head, so as to eliminate the competition. Lok also asks Jet to asssassinate Jimmy, also claiming the "Uncles" will support Jet. Unfortunately, Jet does not complete the assassination, following Jimmy warning the youth Lok will most likely have him and Kun killed, once Jimmy is dead. Mr. So, having been similarly arrested in the mainland for an illegal gambling ring, allies with Jimmy to see to his election as chairman. Meanwhile, Lok hides the Dragon Head Baton, the symbol of Wo Shing's leadership, in mainland China, hoping to reassert his power, then outright kills "Uncle" Teng Wai (Wong Tin-Lam), after Teng blasts Lok for breaking Wo Shing tradition. Seeing the corruption and civil war escalating in the society, Jimmy kidnaps Lok's lieutenants and bribes them to work for him. After exposing Kun for kidnapping Mr. Kwok and Big Head, while ordering Lok's lieutenants to murder the chairman, Jimmy's nomination is successful, and he wins the election.
