Guilt, Lies and Betrayals

 

 This essay pertains to the 2006 movie The Good Shepherd.  Matt Damon (Wilson ) , Angelina Jolie (Wilson's wife) ,Alec Baldwin (FBI )  , others featuring and directed by Robert De Niro (forming OSS and CIA ) tell the story of the  founding of the OSS and the  CIA.  The essay's focus is  on one dominant message expressed in this movie: "don't trust anyone."

Wilson's admiral father was a candidate for Secretary of the Navy.  Young  Edward Wilson attended Yale and became a member of the secret student society Skull and Bones.  The movie began with a contradictory message between a young boy, Wilson and his father.  Wilson's father lectured his son about friendship.  He told his 6 year old   son, never to lie because that destroys friendship between two people.  Edward's also told  that you have to trust and that without trust, you can never be safe.  Edward acknowledged. Later, Edward heard a gunshot  and found his father lying on the floor dead with a suicide note in his hand.  He puts the unread note in his pocket before  mother arrives .  Not only did Wilson's father not say goodbye to his son, he abandoned him  and was no longer there to protect him . The father said one thing about  honesty and friendship and behaviorally did the sadistic and cruel  unthinkable. How did this act affect the young Wilsons sense of trust ?

During a Skull and Bones initiation mud wrestling ceremony, one senior fraternity member, the balcony above, urinated on Wilson.  We find Wilson walking fast away with another fraternity brother telling him, don't take it personally..  Did Wilson express anger  or humiliation appropriately ?  He went along with the humiliation and kept his anger to himself.  In another scene, the recruits were told to tell their most private , guarded  and never told secret to the group. Edward told the group about his father committing suicide and  finding the note.  One brother asked him if he read the note and he said he hadn't.  Edwards was told  to trust the society.  They were all together in secret  and their trust was "loyalty."

In another scene, Edwards meets his Yale advisor in a small seminar group .  An FBI agent , hiding in the dark , told Edward that his advisor was suspected of being a Nazi sympathizer and that he had to "spy" on him.  Edward found documents in his advisor's briefcase and gave his copied notes  to the FBI.  His teacher was fired .  Later on, during the OSS in London, he met with his mentor who would teach him the espionage trade .  The mentor turned out to be his Yale teacher who confronted him with messing up his spying operation at Yale.  Later, Edwards told that his mentor was gay and must be eliminated.  Edward met with his mentor and his mentor understood his fate.  Edward witnessed his mentor being killed.  Notably, there's an absence of any emotion, anger, sadness, grief, embarrassment by Edward.  His emotions were nonexistent and hidden . More messages , in the story, about trust and especially mistrust . His advisor told him to get out of the business and that he's never met anyone that he could trust.

Edward was introduced to a  fraternity brother's sister, Angelina Jolie.  She found him alone at the party and seduced him.  Shortly thereafter, Edward was at the beach with a young female student that he  actually liked.  She told him about her future and told Edward that he's not there emotionally.  He denied the accusation.  A  fraternity brother enters and Edward  accompanies him.  Edwards told that Angelina was pregnant and Edward must do the right thing.  Edward did not return nor say goodbye to  his beach friend. He just left her in the sand .Guilt, lies and betrayal in view .

Edward  was told about the  OSS by the general.  The general  told him that this group had few Catholics, no Jews, and no Blacks.  At the wedding, he’s told that he's been selected and he accepts . His orders were to leave in one week.  Edward left for London.  After the war, Edward was working in Berlin recruiting German scientists away from the Russians.  His female interpreter invited him for dinner.  He agreed and after dinner , said he had to leave.  She asked him if he would like to stay .  He stayed . Next scene we saw her  murdered.  Again, there's an absence of any expressed emotion by Edward.

Edward does express emotion but not when his wife told him about her affair .  They  were having dinner with  another couple .  His wife told the dinner guests , her friends, that William worked for the CIA.  After they left, he  expressed anger and told her she's never to tell anyone  that he worked for the CIA.  He works as  a civil servant for the American Trade Bureau, which is the CIA's cover of this misinformation.  She told him she had no idea of what he does, he's gone night and day, and she and him are miles apart without any sort of relationship.  Their level of trust was ?

Enter Edward Junior who wanted to join the CIA.  Both Edward and his wife are against the idea.  Throughout the movie, there's an investigation of a tape recording taking place in the Congo.  There was a Bay of Pigs leak and the CIA's failed involvement in liberating Cuba  .  They were looking for the leak in the CIA and had this document that they had trouble decoding.  During the movie, Edward was told about the CIA operation in Cuba.  In the next room was Edward  junior.  Edward asked his son if he overheard the conversation, his son  lied and denied that he did.  As it turned out, it was Edward Junior having an affair in the  Congo. Edwards' Russian counterpart, Ulysses, told him that the woman was an agent.  Ulysses played a clear tape recording of the conversation, in which Edward Junior mentioned the intended Bay of Pigs operation .  Ulysses, the Russian, tells Edward that he can protect his son or the agency.  Edward said that the mission failed so there was no need to harm his son.  Ulysses knew of the upcoming wedding and asked Edward if he wanted her in the family.?He also said that he may need a favor at some point .  In another scene, Edward , Edward Junior and mother were at the church waiting for the bride to be.  Meanwhile, she's boarding  a  plane , in her wedding dress, and traveling to her wedding.  In mid-flight, she's thrown out of the plane.  Another scene, Edward tells his son that she's not coming and they hug.  Angelina knows different.  Edward Junior and Angelina expressed emotion. Later, the general told Edward about his inability to trust anyone.

In this  movie, there's an absence of trust.  Instead, there's mistrust,  secrecy ,lies, misinformation, crazy loyalties ,betrayals and an absence of quality interpersonal relationships.  With trust there is a mutuality of  give-and-take with the ability of meeting another person's needs with intimate empathy between two individuals.

The building of  a sense of trust begins very early based on the interpersonal  interactions  providing that the physiological, safety and security ego needs are being met by the caretaker .  Later, the same dynamic occurs , with others, in forming and meeting one's affiliative needs.  With consistency,  a  perceptual predictability becomes formed along with an important  developed expectancy.  If there's a high degree of ego that needs  satisfaction , a mutuality occurs based on the dynamics of both interjection and projection .  An inner feeling of comfort , goodness and well-being forms , an introjection , the foundation for trusting oneself can occur along with projecting that favorability onto others. In other words, when ego needs are being met and gratified, by another,  with consistency , the ability to trust is  formed and  necessary and beneficial for being mentally healthy  and having a sense of well-being.  We have an ego need for companionship and opportunities for facilitating  safety needs  with individuals in which we can confide in and trust . That mutual  empathetic contact with another individual is necessary  and separates us from all other living beings ..

In this movie, Edward was seen as quiet, obedient, evasive, secretive , suspicious and unemotional without a meaningful  trustful interpersonal relationship.  He met up again with that young female he left on the beach  in the audience at a play in Washington.  He meets her , secretly ,on the sly for one encounter. Unknown to him, pictures of them were taken and sent to his wife.  She went ballistic . Later Edward's right-hand man returned the young woman's cross ( Edward had for over 20 years) to her without words or message. How well did Edward  shepherd  his wife, his son and his two affairs ?