Breach

Breach

Breach is a film based on the true story of the arrest of Robert Hansenn, a senior FBI agent, for the treasonous crime of espionage, the selling of secrets to his Soviet (later Russian) handlers. The story is told from the perspective of Eric O’Neill, a junior computer analyst for the FBI, who was surreptitiously assigned the task of spying on his new boss, agent Hansenn, for supposed practices of sexual deviancy. O’Neill figures out that the story fed to him is a cover and as such, discovers that he has been thrust into the middle of a high-profile agency investigation into Hansenn’s exploits as a Russian mole.

The film craftily builds suspense despite knowledge of the ultimate ending; the viewer realizes that Hansenn will be caught, just not how. More importantly, we don’t know if O’Neill will survive his undercover role.

Actor Chris Cooper portrays the devoutly Catholic, tightly-wound Hansenn as a man made arrogant by his superior intelligence, ruled by an overfed ego, and about to explode out of a life of hypocrisy and intricately layered lies. Hansenn is suspiciously paranoid, careful to the extreme, a super-agent who has survived twenty-five years of clever deception. O’Neill, played by actor Ryan Phillippe, and the other FBI agents walk a tense tightrope as they maneuver ways to search the suspect’s car and download the incriminating content of his palm pilot.

The writers of the film script make an attempt to understand the motivations of Hansenn. Why would such a man, intelligent, apparently moral and devout, dedicated to family and country, turn to treason? He accepted fairly large amounts of cash and jewelry in payment for his betrayal, yet that did not seem to have been the major factor. Perhaps it was a misguided patriotism, a disgust at the bureaucracy and incompetence that appears rampant in the FBI and other government institutions. But mostly, it appeared to be a matter of ego, a way of proving to the world that he was smarter than his colleagues, that his efficiently ruthless mode of operating would always be superior.

The film does subtly highlight the bureaucratic inefficiencies and the self-serving turf wars that hinder effective cooperation of the government agencies responsible for public security. A pallet of unopened Dell computers lay unattended and unused in a hallway. Inter-agency meetings are awkwardly arranged, then canceled at a whim. Egos are bruised, careers are advanced in the shooting range.

This internal investigation within the FBI ended in February, 2001, just months before September, 2001. One wonders about the many resources it consumed. What might these agents have been investigating otherwise?

It is unfortunately coincidental that another FBI agent named O’Neill, quit his job in that same time frame. The story of John O’Neill is also well-known. An expert on international terrorism with a focus on Osama Bin Laden, he became frustrated with the bureaucratic impedances to the performance of his duties and retired to become head of security at the World Trade Center. He died on September 11, 2001.