W.R. came over last night and brought The Breach to watch. The breach is a movie based upon the two months leading up to the arrest of Robert Hanssen, the FBI agent turned most notorious spy in US history. I have to say that actor Chris Cooper was phenomenal in the role of Hanssen. He stands head and shoulders above all of the others in this film.

 

The movie is actually a fairly tedious affair but you lose sight of that if you immerse yourself in the character of Hanssen. You don’t really want to like this guy but you can’t help but sympathize with him and you begin to understand how he was so difficult to catch. There are many aspects of Hanssen’s life you wish were explored more but the movie is focused on how his cover unravels in the two months preceding his capture.

 

I would definitely recommend the film for those who have patience and attention  to detail.

 

On a similar note the movie points out another interesting facet of human nature – our tendancy to see the good in the most evil of characters. Hannsen’s clerk in the movie rapidly comes to respect him and you can tell he regrets the ultimate humiliation that Hannsen will undergo in capture. Of course we see this reiterated over and over again throughout art and film from characters like Darth Vader all the way back to the character of Satan in John Milton’s Paradise Lost who is initially presented as something of a tragic anti-hero. Even modern re-interpretations of Scripture like to try to redeem Judas Iscariot. Canadian writer Morley Callahan’s book A Time For Judas comes to mind.

 

Redemption and the possibility for it are strong tendencies within the human psyche. Perhaps it is a reflection of our personal desire to be saved from our own personal evil. We see in the salvation of others hope for ourselves. It is attractive.