SPY GAMES DAMON, DE NIRO DO CIA THE OLD-SCHOOL WAY IN `THE GOOD SHEPHERD'.

Byline: Evan Henerson Staff Writer

When is the manner of setting fire to a piece of paper an example of painstaking historical accuracy?

Answer: When a veteran Central Intelligence Agency officer instructs you on how to do it.

In the case of ``The Good Shepherd,'' which opened last Friday, technical consultant Milt Bearden taught actor Matt Damon the precise igniting technique.

``We call that a fan fold,'' says Bearden, who spent 30 years in the CIA, ``and all the kids at the CIA were taught how to fold a piece of paper like a fan and light it across the fold. Between the smoke and the temperature of the room, the weight of the paper just takes off, and it floats in one of those strange movie moments. It was a detail that Bob wanted me to put in.''

``Bob,'' in this case, is actor Robert De Niro, whose direction of ``The Good Shepherd'' culminates a decade-long interest in bringing to the screen a historical story of the CIA.

That fan fold is one of countless details Bearden and the research team helped supply. Bearden, who came to the agency in 1961, after the events of ``The Good Shepherd'' were over, accompanied the actor-director on numerous information-gathering missions across Russia and Afghanistan.

``I linked up with some old KGB guys who had been my adversaries during the Cold War,'' says Bearden, the co-author of ``The Main Enemy: The Inside Story of the CIA's Final Showdown With the KGB.'' ``So Bob got into observing everything about them -- their moves, their thoughts, the way things move between the two sides.

``If there's a little sign on a safe in an office in the movie, that's the way it was in 1960,'' he continues. ``Bob wanted it right first and then folded into the metaphor.''

From Coppola to Kaufman ... and finally De Niro 

According to Bearden and screenwriter Eric Roth (``Forrest Gump,'' ``Munich''), it was De Niro's doggedness that allowed ``The Good Shepherd'' to reach the screen at all. The actor had been mulling a historical CIA-themed project since the mid-1990s. Roth's script, written eight years ago, had been loosely attached to such directors as Francis Ford Coppola, Wayne Wang, Philip Kaufman and the late John Frankenheimer, with whom De Niro had made the 1998 film ``Ronin.''

After Frankenheimer's death, Roth's script found its way to De Niro, who had been interested in tracking the CIA after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

``Bob suggested -- or I did -- that if he would direct this one, and get it set up, that I'd write the second one for him, part 2,'' says Roth. ``It took him eight years to get it done. This isn't an easy one.''

Damon's participation also involved a certain amount of De Niro intervention. The actor was caught up in a scheduling glut that included director Martin Scorsese's ``The Departed'' and a film with director Steven Soderbergh.

According to Damon, De Niro offered to chat up good friend Scorsese if Damon would work on gaining some scheduling flexibility from Soderbergh.

``Without flinching, Soderbergh said, `I've heard of this script, everyone knows De Niro, and I would never stop one of my friends from being in a great movie,' '' recalls Damon. ``Then Marty massaged (`The Departed') schedule to get me out. I literally wrapped with Marty on Friday or Saturday night and started with Bob on Monday morning.''

Rhymes with `intelligence'

In ``The Good Shepherd,'' Damon plays a buttoned-up poetry student named Edward Wilson recruited out of Yale's ultra-secret Skull and Bones Society to work first for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II and, ultimately, for the newly forming CIA itself.

The cast includes Oscar winners Angelina Jolie, William Hurt, Timothy Hutton and Joe Pesci, along with Billy Crudup, Alec Baldwin, Michael Gambon, John Turturro and Keir Dullea. De Niro himself also takes a role as a high-ranking U.S. Army general who handpicks Wilson for covert service.

Spanning five decades and three continents, ``The Good Shepherd'' touches on agency high and low points during the Cold War, up to the agency's failure to accomplish its mission in the Bay of Pigs. The film is loosely based on the life of James Angleon, former chief of counterintelligence for the CIA.

Fictionalized though it purports to be, the film is looking to make a point about the costs of giving up one's life to the cause of patriotism. Wilson marries badly (to a senator's daughter, played by Jolie), gives up any semblance of a home life and ultimately sees his career choices affect his son.

``There's always a gray area when you end up with things being done in your country's name that you're not comfortable with,'' says Damon. ``The important question is: What are you willing to sacrifice in order to feel secure? It may be different for everybody. Some people are comfortable chucking the whole Constitution in order to feel safe at night.''

Real spies

Typically, when it comes to spies -- sorry, make that secret agents -- movie audiences tend to favor the breed that uses guns, sips martinis, loves babes and employs plenty of bang bang, chase chase intrigue.

The actual operatives, the ones pulling the strings instead of squeezing the triggers, may prove to be a harder cinematic sell. The occasional adaptation of a John le Carre novel notwithstanding, spies without spice in no way guarantees box office.

Which is one reason why Roth -- despite ''The Good Shepherd's'' impressive cast and pedigree -- may have difficulty reaching an audience.

``It's not necessarily a mall audience picture, unless they become sort of educated into the events of things,'' says Roth. ``People have read it, thought it was pretty great writing and said, `Interesting piece, but I don't know how they're going to make a nickel back from it.' That's always a problem, and it still may be.''

Damon ... naked?

Then again, if the historical spy games and the high-powered cast don't attract viewers, Damon jokes that perhaps some of ``The Good Shepherd's'' more offbeat exploits might do the trick. Edward Wilson's early college career includes dressing in drag to perform in a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta and engaging in naked mud wrestling as part of a college initiation rite.

``Yeah, I'm naked wrestling in the mud and I get (urinated on),'' says Damon. ``I was telling (Jolie) it's going to be like a cult movie. We'll have a small following, but a very loyal one.''

Evan Henerson, [phone]

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Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) SPIES lkie us

`The Good Shepherd' infiltrates the CIA

(2) Edward Wilson (Matt Damon) marries a senator's daughter (Angelina Jolie), an ill-advised match that goes from bad to worse.

(3) Damon, left, co-stars in ``The Good Shepherd'' with Robert De Niro, who also directed the movie and helped Damon arrange his busy production schedule to appear in it.