Friday, February 16, 2007

Bravo for "breach"

For my money, the must-see film of this season is "Breach," Billy Ray's portrayal of the quest to catch FBI agent Robert Hanssen in the act of turning over classified documents to the Russians. Hanssen was arrested in 2001, ending a career as one of the most notorious and successful traitors in US history.

Robert Hanssen is a real downer as a spy, in that he did it for money. Most of his predecessors, like Kim Philby or the other "Cambridge traitors" of the l930s and l940s, spied out of conviction. They believed in Communism. Hanssen, it turns out, was strictly pragmatic, a treasonous capitalist. But what a head case he was: a super-patriotic G- man who betrayed his country, a devout Catholic with an addiction to pornography, a superficially straight-up guy who led not one, not two, but several separate lives. I am anxious to see how the director makes this character go.

File this one under" s "for sex, "t" for treason, "m" for money, and/or "f" for fascination. Oh, and "r," for russkis. I'm there already.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Sounds like it's going to be a really interesting movie. I think I might try to go check it out tonight; hopefully it's not sold out. I also really want to see Reno 911 but I guess that doesn't come out till the 23rd.