Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story

I had to watch it for my class, but it was an interesting television movie. William Hurt did phenomenal with his character as Robert Hanssen. I am still used to him as the character from Hulk.

The movie was too long, so it was challenging to watch it through. The fact that this is based on a true story is surprising. If I were to recommend this to anyone, it would be for documentary related topic, but not for watching an entertainment movie like Avengers and all. I still enjoyed it and learned a lot information.

Plot - 7.5/10 Characters - 9/10 Acting - 10/10 Length - 5/10 Beginning - 6/10 Ending - 6/10

Overall - 7/10.

In the IMDb credits for this movie, it says that Leonid Sherbarshin and Viktor Cherkashin were played by 'Themselves'.

I can quite definitely state this is not the case. Sherbarshin is more than a foot taller than the actor playing him in this movie. Cherkashin was born in 1932 and therefore is considerably older than the person playing him.

Further, in the movie, when Shebarshin first appears, right after Hanssen first contacts the KGB in 1985, a caption says he is the head of Soviet Foreign Intelligence. In 1985 the head of Soviet Foreign Intelligence was Vladimir Kryuchkov. Sherbarshin did not become FCD head until 1988.

Ironically, the credits state 'Alexander Kalugin....?'. This person was actually played by the real former KGB Colonel and defector Oleg Kalugin.

In reality the person who stole the Hanssen file from the KGB archive as a retirement plan was not paid $20M for it as stated in the movie, but more like $7M, and that only in installments. However the SVR somehow managed to lure him back to Moscow where he was jailed for 18 years.

Other than these minor points this film is largely faithful to the major facts of the case.

William Hurt's performance made Robert Hanssen's life something to watch on the screen, otherwise, Hanssen was a mixed up sick person who could not find where he was going, even if he did go to church. In many ways Peter Boyle took the blame for his son's failures to God, Country and family. The success of this film was created by the excellent acting skills of Hurt and Boyle.

This is one of the most accurate portrayals of a spy. As anyone who knows this case knows, Hanson is responsible for the deaths of about 100 Russians who fighting against the various bloodthirstily dictatorships that have run Russia for 100 years.

Hanson was a sociopath with a deep narcissisms as well. Spending large sums on clothes, expensive cars and prostitutes.

He set up a secret room in his house so friends could watch his wife naked, and sometimes of him having relations with her. He videotaped her as well and distributed those tapes to acquaintances.

In return for money he helped the dictatorships in Russia despite himself being more well aware than the average person of just how bloody and bloodthirsty that dictatorship was. He endangered the lives of everyone in the world as well destroying accurate assessments of Soviet plans. Even more outrageously he gave to the Russians the extremely secret US government "continuity of government" plan. That is the plan for who has authority to do what in the event of a decapitation strike, and vastly increase the risk of a Russian first strike and all out nuclear war.

This film does a good job of showing Hansenn's reactions as the spy hunt progresses. Sadly it does not show the lives of freedom fighters in Russia and Eastern Europe that he destroyed.

A very interesting story but very uneven and hard to follow. Robert Hanssen was a very complex man and possibly the writer should not have tried to capture him in all his complexities. None the less, worth your time in learning the story about America's most damaging spy.