Because Beatty has made some distinguished historical films, many had high hopes for this one. But the result seems to be rather uninspired for a film that he has contemplated doing for so long.  The best one can say is that it is competently made, writes Jim DiEugenio.    

A well wrought, smaller piece of chamber music, telling the story of how part of the Vietnam nightmare was constructed and the efforts of those who did what they could to try and correct it, writes Jim DiEugenio.

The Good Shepherd was subtitled in its trailer, “The Untold Story of the Birth of the CIA.” This is a real misnomer, since most of the “untold” actual events are immediately recognizable to anyone who has a cursory knowledge of the history of the CIA. In another sense the subtitle is true since the story it tells is very liberally fictionalized. In that sense, it is untold, writes Philip Sheridan.

I wish Ambrose and Schlesinger had read the Review Board's declassified files ... [and] used them for their work in this volume. Until they do, Stone is completely justified in making these films and therefore keeping the historical establishment honest, writes Jim DiEugenio.

An excerpt from Probe's "Media Watch" in which Jim DiEugenio reviews the documentary "the best film ever made about the CIA".