The Good Shepherd v. Munich

For the past two weeks, Nelly has been on break from law school. That means we have more time for doing fun things like seeing movies. We recently saw "The Good Shepherd" which was unbelievably long. (Remember that scene at the end of LotR where all the hobbits are hugging on the bed and they're saying goodbye and it just goes on and on... worse than that!)

It's length was just about the only attribute that stood out in this movie. It wasn't that it was bad more that it wasn't nearly good enough for me to spend so much time watching it. This reaction was put in stark relief last night as I flicked over to HBO and found they were playing "Munich" (based on the reputed Mossad assainations after the Munich Masacre).

Both movies follow a regular joe as he backs his way into becoming something of a master spy for his country. Both films take on the delicate balance of familial and patriotic duties. Both show a man slowly progressively losing himself, his friends and family to his occupation. They even have similar run-times (with Munich coming in 4 minutes fatter).

Except Munich paints a much more vibrant, interesting, entertaining, and captivating picture. In every imaginable aspect (writing, directing, acting, dialog, music, editing...) Munich far exceeds TGS. The only categories The Good Shepherd wins are fedoras, trench coats and misery.