Breach (2007) -vs- Spy Game (2001)

Review by Bryce Zabel 

The Smackdown. "Spies like us" is our theme here. In both of these films, we have the older spy characters teaching lessons of the craft to their younger apprentices. In both cases, too, the younger man is presented as the moral superior to his older teacher. In a world of intelligence failures like 9/11, both of them make us think about what rules need to be applied to this important work.

"See, the thing is, selling out your country is one thing, just make sure the Big Guy has your back."

The Challenger. "Breach" already has people talking about an Oscar nomination next year for Chris Cooper who blows you away with his portrayal of veteran FBI agent Robert Hanssen who also happened to have handed over more than 6,000 pages of documents and 26 computer diskettes to the Soviet Union. Oh, and he caused the deaths of multiple agents working for the U.S. It's a brave film because it tells you from its first frame that Hanssen will be caught, throwing aside the hook of "did he or didn't he?" in favor of telling its own story with suspense and tension. Ryan Phillippe is the best he's ever been as Eric O'Neill, the earnest FBI trainee who finds himself in the position of having to out-spy one of the most formidable spies we've ever seen.


"Explosions, thrills, countdowns, check. But who knew you had to have a prayer scene?"

The Defending Champion. "Spy Game" was made right before 9/11 and released right after. It has a lot of the sensibilities of that simpler world where it's easy for Brad Pitt's character to criticize Robert Redford's character for taking awful actions in the service of the national interest. The suspense here is that Pitt's Tom Bishop is about to be killed in a Chinese prison and Redford's Nathan Muir has to save him from inside the walls of the CIA on the last day of his career.

The Scorecard. Tony Scott directed "Spy Game" and he's always criticized for being too slick or too distant or something, but I thought he made a film that is built on flashbacks. Billy Ray directs "Breach" after coming off "Shattered Glass", another film about someone who's hiding his shady alter-life. Both directors are trying to sell films where the stories have tied one hand behind their backs: in "Spy Game" more than half the film is flashback, and in "Breach" the ending is already known to the audience. As for acting, though, there is no doubt that the Redford/Pitt pairing has more sheer star-power wattage, while the Cooper/Phillippe tandem makes us forget who they are and focus on who they appear to be.

The Decision. I watched both of these films in the same day. The truth is, as far as spy thrillers go, neither one of them is as good as "The Lives of Others" which just won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film. In that film, the spying is real, the actors are real, and the stakes are real -- but that's not our contest here today. We end up caring so much more about the characters in "Breach" over the characters in "Spy Game", partly because one feels authentic and the other feels like a Big Hollywood Movie. It may cost you ten bucks to see "Breach" in the theaters before it closes, but it's worth it.