"Colonel Redl" is based on a famous scandal that took place in the last years of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and its greatest strength is in how it evokes the masculine militarism of the era. It follows the life of Alfred Redl (Klaus Maria Brandauer), who rose from humble origins to become a spymaster for Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand, but struggled to repress his homosexuality and eventually betrayed his country.
The movie makes Redl less treasonous than he seems to have been in reality, and Brandauer's performance keeps him sympathetic, too. We see how Redl's extreme loyalty to the army destroys his humanity and fills him with self-loathing; thus, when he finally stops lying to himself, it comes as a relief (even though this now means that he is lying to everybody else).
"Colonel Redl" is probably too long (2 hours 20 minutes) for the story it wants to tell, and yet it still sometimes glosses over its characters' motivations. For instance, Redl claims he has no interest in marrying, then the very next scene depicts his wedding; and his wife never gets sufficiently characterized. Sometimes the scene transitions are subtly clever; other times they are abrupt and choppy.
"Colonel Redl" is thus neither accurate history nor fully engaging drama, but it is a good portrait of the declining Austro-Hungarian empire. It shows many of the factors that led to World War I: pervasive ethnic tensions, the belief that war was necessary and proper, and a military command more concerned with preserving archaic ideals than with investigating actual, pressing threats. In the end, they paid for this, when discontented Serbians assassinated Franz Ferdinand and started World War I--the war that caused the world of "Colonel Redl" to disappear for good.
The movie makes Redl less treasonous than he seems to have been in reality, and Brandauer's performance keeps him sympathetic, too. We see how Redl's extreme loyalty to the army destroys his humanity and fills him with self-loathing; thus, when he finally stops lying to himself, it comes as a relief (even though this now means that he is lying to everybody else).
"Colonel Redl" is probably too long (2 hours 20 minutes) for the story it wants to tell, and yet it still sometimes glosses over its characters' motivations. For instance, Redl claims he has no interest in marrying, then the very next scene depicts his wedding; and his wife never gets sufficiently characterized. Sometimes the scene transitions are subtly clever; other times they are abrupt and choppy.
"Colonel Redl" is thus neither accurate history nor fully engaging drama, but it is a good portrait of the declining Austro-Hungarian empire. It shows many of the factors that led to World War I: pervasive ethnic tensions, the belief that war was necessary and proper, and a military command more concerned with preserving archaic ideals than with investigating actual, pressing threats. In the end, they paid for this, when discontented Serbians assassinated Franz Ferdinand and started World War I--the war that caused the world of "Colonel Redl" to disappear for good.