Movie Review: Breach

Great movie! I loved it!!! For anyone remotely interested in the topic of espionage or counter-espionage, I would highly recommend Breach. I'm currently reading Spy Handler: Memoir of KGB Officer, by Victor Cherkashin (fascinating to read his story from a Russian perspective). And I think Breach was done very true-to-life (well, except for the cute SSG guy... I don't know what real-life Eric O'Neill looked like, but I have never met a good-looking SSG guy before =P ). They did a fabulous job telling the unclassified version of the story. Obviously, classified information could not be shown on the silver screen - actually, at the end of the movie, a statement was made to the effect of, the extent of the damage done by Hanssen is classified. Ironic, don't you think?).

It was very interesting to get a view of the man behind the monster. In Breach, Robert Hanssen comes across as a very brilliant and arrogant man, who, while difficult to work with, loves his family (or at least is loved very much by them). His brilliance is what made him such an effective spy, especially, considering he had never had any formal training. Yet, intuitively, he knew how to protect himself because he knew how traitors thought and knew the only way to stay alive was to stay anonymous. "Meeting in this country is not really that hard to manage but I am loathe to do so not because it is risky but because it involves revealing my identity. That insulation has been my best protection against betrayal by someone like me." However, it was his arrogance, in the end, that was his undoing.

I think the reason this case is so interesting is that no one quite knows what his motivation for spying was. Money didn't seem to be it. In one of his notes to the KGB we wrote: “As far as the funds are concerned, I have little need for more than the $100,000. It merely provides a difficulty since I cannot spend it, store it or invest it easily without triping (sic) ‘drug money’ warning bells. Perhaps some diamonds as security to my children and some good will” would be better." The movie did a good job in portraying this aspect of the case. Really makes you wonder...