BreachA spy thriller takes a look at the mystery of evil through the case of an FBI agent who became the most damaging traitor in US history.
Breach
Norman Mailer wrote an earlier version of the Hanssen story called Master Spy (2002), starring William Hurt. This was a TV mini-series that went on for four hours and attempted to cover Hanssen’s entire life: his oppressive police chief father; his relationship with a stripper; his secret filming of conjugal relations with this wife, which he then sent to his best friend; as well as his dealings with his Soviet counterparts in the KGB and the FBI’s eventual discovery of his treachery. Artistically, the results were mediocre. Hurt played the part too passively to carry the Freudian interpretation Mailer gave the lurid events. Billy Ray, the director and one of the writers of Breach, takes a different approach. Instead of "explaining" Hanssen by showing his life, he introduces into the story Eric O’Neill (Ryan Philippe), who did not even figure in the 2002 version. O’Neil is the young employee whom the FBI placed in Hanssen’s office in order to spy on him. This turns the biography of Hanssen into a kind of mentor/apprentice, father/son drama not unlike the excellent Donnie Brasco (1997), in which the FBI also directed Brasco (Johnny Depp) to infiltrate the mob and exploit his relationship with the older, trusting mobster, Al Pacino. In both cases the films gain complexity because the good guy agent must lie, cheat, and ultimately betray the bad guy, with whom the audience has developed some sympathy, even with someone as "creepy" as Hanssen. Much of the success of the film depends on the brilliant performance by Chris Cooper, who plays Hanssen. O’Neill’s control officer, Kate Burroughs (Laura Linney) tells him only that Hanssen is under departmental surveillance because of his kinky sexual activities. But instead of discovering a pervert, O’Neill sees a very cranky, uptight guy who is disgusted with the failings of the FBI: its turf wars, waste, faulty procedures, bureaucracy, and its being more of a "gun culture" than an intelligence gathering one. As Hanssen and O’Neill interact, Hanssen warms to O’Neill and O’Neill begins to respect Hanssen. When O’Neill complains to Burroughs that his surveillance of Hanssen has no significance, she reveals to him that his real job is to catch Hanssen in the act of spying. From one point of view, her long exposition of Hanssen’s crimes and the losses he has caused diminishes the detective work of the plot, but it manages to keep the focus of the film on the personal relationships between O’Neill and Hanssen and then, as the screw turns, between O’Neill and his young bride, Juliana (Caroline Dhavernas), for he must lie and deceive her as well as his boss. All this makes for genuine drama and three-dimensional characterizations, not the usual Mission Impossible sensationalism. The film makes a point of not even trying to explain Hanssen’s bizarre behavior and treachery, to answer the question "Why?" Rather through Cooper’s superb acting and O’Neill’s day-to-day perspective of him, it infers some possible solutions to what ultimately must be the mystery of evil. Ray leaves such interpretation up to the audience. For instance, we learn of Hanssen’s wounded pride over not achieving greater status within the Agency. A desire to show it up and prove his superiority could have motivated his actions. His prurient sexual activities could be related to his expressed homophobia, or, and this is where the film becomes troublesome, to his Catholicism. Hanssen is devout. He goes to daily mass, to confession; he prays the Rosary. And he tries to persuade O’Neill, a non-practicing cradle Catholic, to do the same. All this seems innocent enough, except that the audience knows from the outset that Hanssen is a traitor as well as a pervert, and the film presents no normal practicing Catholic as a dramatic variation or ideological corrective to him. As a result the film implicitly equates "creepiness" and deep neurosis if not insanity with norms of Catholic piety. The scenes of Hanssen and his wife Bonnie (Kathleen Quinlan)’s attempting to befriend Mrs O’Neill and bring her into the Catholic fold only enforce this negative view. In one climactic moment, Mrs O’Neill exclaims she does not wish to spend the rest of her life, like Mrs Hanssen, being pregnant and clueless. Mercifully, Opus Dei, for the most part, is left out of the film. This is no Da Vinci Code. Except that at one moment of confrontation between the two men, O’Neill complains that his wife does not want to hear any more "lectures" about Opus Dei. Undoubtedly, many viewers of the film will miss this connection between Opus Dei and Hanssen. But what I notice is that many of the reviews of the film posted on the indispensable Internet Movie Data Base, speak of Hanssen’s being a "fanatic" Catholic, as though zeal can be equated with both kookiness and treachery. For anyone familiar with the teaching of St Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei, Hanssen represents a colossal irony. Instead of practicing the "unity of life," that is, the synthesis of one’s supernatural beliefs with one’s natural behavior at work and in marriage, Hanssen lived in extreme disunity and derangement, a life antithetical to all the principles of Opus Dei. Curiously enough, the film supports this principle, for at the end, O’Neill, his marriage threatened by the kind of work he must perform, gives up his ambition to be an agent and leaves the FBI so he can be a better husband. The credits tell us not only that he served as an advisor on the film, but also that he became a lawyer. His participation no doubt contributed to Cooper’s understanding of the role and the authenticity with which the film presents the tormented Hanssen. It misses only one item. It omits what according to other testimonies were Hanssen’s words as he was being arrested. "What took you so long?" William Park is a veteran film reviewer and the author of "Hollywood: An Epic Production", a highly praised verse history of American cinema. He lives in California. |
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Breach is a film that might offend some readers, but its subject is certainly of interest. It tells the story of the last two months that Robert Hanssen spent with the FBI. Hanssen, you may remember, turned out to be the most damaging traitor in US. history. For twenty years he spied for the Soviet Union, and when that fell, for Russia. He also belonged to the Catholic institution Opus Dei.
Comments (1)
Ally said...Though my anti catholic companions proved immune to the subtleties of the plot, I do believe that a sensitive reading of the film does reveal an altogether more sympathetic and generous portrayal of Catholicism.
The first conversation between Eric O'Neil and his wife reveals that Eric's parents are practising Catholics who are concerned to gently encourage their son and his non-catholic wife to attend Mass. Eric explains that they have offered to take them to Mass but his wife says that she would rather see a film. Whilst Eric was quick to agree with his wife, it also seemed that he was a little disappointed with her unwillingness to go to Mass.
As Eric starts to interact with Hanssen, he begins to be attracted to Hanssen partly because of his religious and family life witness.
I think it is fair to say that these aspects of Hanssens' character were real. But Their fruits were corrupted and destroyed by the eveil choices Hanssen was making. I dont think that the film in any way suggested that Hanssen's religious faith was the cause of his wickedness and the scene in the confessional underscored that.
When Eric goes to his father we are again presented with a sensitive and positive if understated reference to the deep Catholic faith of Eric's parents. His father's ethical approach to work and family life is coherent and Eric is able to return to his task with more peace. As the camera pans back away from the father and son and through the room inside, we see a cross on the wall of the Senior O'Neil's home.
Later when Eric has to talk Hanssen back into the car, he hastily throws together his reasons - and because he knows only too well how easily Hanssen can detect lies, I think that Eric chooses true reasons. He tells Hanssen that he is troubled by his wife's hostility to Catholicism, and the fighting they have been engaged in. He tells Hanssen that he would like help in choosing some good Catholic reading material that might defuse the situation. He also of course tells Hanssen that he lied about construction blocking access to their office by a more direct route.
When Hanssen's corruption is apparent to the audience, his wife's innocence is clear. She also is pious, devout and probably also in Opus Dei.She was the person who led Hanssen into the Church and also possibly into Opus Dei. She is portrayed sympathetically and we feel angry at Hanssen's sordid betrayal of her trust.
Does Hanssen's corruption turn Eric away from the Church? I think that the film hints that it does not. At the end of the film Eric sacrifices what could be a promising career in the FBI for the sake of his wife and their marraige. And when he unexpectantly meets Hanssen at the lifts, Hanssen asks him to pray for him. And Eric says, empahtically that he will which leaves open the possibility that Eric is on a path back to the Church in part because of Hanssen's influence.
It is troubling that a man who was so ostensibly devout, who was a super numerary of Opus dei, was also one of the most costly traitors in American history. The film hinted at a a troubled childhood and a difficult, cold and even cruel father. Hanssen seems to have some narcissistic traits that may have been the result of this family dynamic and that could have compromised significantly his capactiy to develop integrity of character. Such psychological problems could have made him more vulnerable to resentments and pride but I think that the film also fairly raised the reality of temptation and sin as key dimensions of the story.
So i feel that Breach is essentially a very Catholic film both in its themes and in its generous portrayal of Catholics.
Australia | Tuesday, 12 June 2007 at 2:30 am
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