Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "Oberst Redl" or "Colonel Redl" is an Oscar-nominated movie from 1985, so this one already had its 30th anniversary last year. It is a collaboration by four European countries and the language spoken in here is German. This is a bit surprising as Hungary (one of the four countries) submitted it to the Academy Awards were it got in, but lost to the Argentinian entry eventually, just like at the Golden Globes. A BAFTA win isn't too shabby either though. The reason why it got in for Hungary is probably writer and director István Szabó, one of the most-respected European filmmakers at this time. He also directed the Oscar-winning "Mephisto" 4 years earlier, another collaboration with actor Klaus Maria Brandauer. Brandauer, an Austrian-born actor, like Szabó was among the finest Europe had to offer back then and he was also a success at Hollywood.But sadly, I cannot really share the praise all these awards bodies had for "Oberst Redl". This may, however, also have to do with the time in which this film plays, a historic era that I personally never had the biggest interest in. This film easily makes it past the 2-hour mark and if you don't manage to appreciate it quickly, it will drag on several occasions. I would not say that the actors are to blame here. Armin Mueller-Stahl and Landgrebe are still somewhat known in Germany today, but I am mostly referring to lead actor Brandauer with this statement. I am sure this movie would have been considerably worse without him as he is pretty convincing like always and this is definitely one of his career defining roles. I think you can say that now that he in his 70s. The ending especially was one brilliant moment of acting for Brandauer. I will not go into detail about the exact scene, but you will definitely know what I mean when I say it's difficult to find a better portrayal of involuntary closure. Certainly a contender for best film scene of the entire year and Brandauer brings his A-game there. But it is still not worth to set through everything else before that in this period piece. I wish Szabó would have kept it at least 35 minutes (preferrably more) shorter and would have included much more focus and better, more interesting character development aside from the title character. This way there is really no reason to see it other than Brandauer. I do not recommend the watch. Thumbs down.

rtok88 Reviewers who emphasize the cinematic excellence of this film - superb casting and acting, subtle dramatics, beautiful cinematography - are absolutely correct. But, and this is a very big but, those who see the film for the first time (or watch it repeatedly, as I do) should be aware that as a presentation of the Colonel Redl espionage case, it is preposterous.The best starting point for evaluating the film's historical quotient is to go back to E. E. Kisch's reporting on the case. Kisch, a colorful Prague journalist for the German-language newspaper "Bohemia", broke the case in 1913, several days after Redl's "compulsory suicide" and a misleading report put out by the General Staff in a Viennese newspaper. Within days the efforts of the General Staff to mislead the public about what had happened was undermined by Kisch and then by other reporting within Austria- Hungary and abroad. Kisch came back to the story after WWI (in which he served as a corporal in the infantry, then, after being wounded, as a lieutenant in the army's press service), examined documents, and interviewed Redl's colleagues and participants in the case. This resulted in a short book, published in Berlin in 1924 (the 1931 Czech-German film in the IMDb list credits Kisch as a screenwriter and uses the title of his book for the film's title).There is an English translation of this book in a 1997 bio-anthology of Kisch and his work as the star of "reportage" by the American writer, Harold B. Segel. The other English source for information about Redl's life and career is a 1959 "interpretive biography" by Robert Asprey, "The Panther's Feast"(Asprey managed to get access to ministerial archives with information on the case that had never been seen by journalists or "outsiders" before). John Osborne cited Asprey's book as a source of information for his Redl play, "A Patriot for Me", which, though totally fanciful, gives a more credible psychological portrait of Redl than Szabo does. And there are half-a-dozen books about the case written in German between the 1920s and just a few years ago (to Austrians Redl is "the spy of the (20th) century"). The consequences of Redl's years of very well- paid espionage on behalf of Russia were assumed by his contemporaries to have been devastating at the outset of WWI, though historians argue about just how damaging his treachery was.Szabo creates a portrait of a self-conflicted man destroyed by an opportunistic and self-centered dynasty and government – a man set up for false charges. This is the complete opposite of the truth. While the General Staff was remiss in its opportunity to investigate while Redl was still alive (demanding "honor-code" suicide instead) and went out of its way to suppress the truth, it eventually got out, and the man at the center of the real story should arouse neither sympathy nor admiration: he was venal, crafty, and ice-cold during his approximately 10 years of espionage, betraying classified military information and selling out numerous Austrian agents to Russian intelligence. He did it to fund an extravagant lifestyle (whether or not he was originally blackmailed into spying by the Russians). Historically, he ranks with other high-ranking "moles" within a nation's intelligence service (akin to Kim Philby, for instance).Szabo's portrait of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the alleged mastermind of a conspiracy to ensnare Redl, is also ridiculous. As unlikable and prejudiced as he was, the Successor, like his uncle, the Emperor, dreaded military scandals, and would hardly have created a plan to publicize a very demoralizing one, given Redl's high position and glorious reputation within the General Staff. In response to the discovery of Redl's treason he went after the General Staff with a vengeance, though, for practical and political reasons he could not have its Chief, General Conrad von Hoetzendorf, dismissed at the time. But, Franz Ferdinand, who thought that Hungarians were the major internal threat to the monarchy's stability, has always been a popular villain in Hungary.Reviewers who comment on the "betrayal theme" in the movie are also right. Szabo's version presents a fictionalized Redl story that reflects the repressive Hungarian state and its obnoxious secret political police in the 1950s, the period of his coming to age and his entry into film-making, when he too was compromised by the system. The Kubinyi family connection of the film is also fictional, possibly based on novels by Robert Musil or Sandor Marai, both well-known in the Hungary of Szabo's youth. In life Redl had been through a series of homosexual dalliances with both civilians and other military men, and one of the factors in his downfall was a rash decision he made during a romantic crisis with his protégé (and former paramour) , Lieutenant Stefan Horinka of the 7th Uhlan Regiment. Though different names are used, this relationship is at least depicted in the 1931 and 1955 Redl films.The events of Redl's fatal day (May 24th-25th, 1913) are an exciting crime and detective story, completely missing in Szabo's film, where Kubinyi is sent as a messenger demanding suicide and Redl agonizes because he knows he is not guilty of treason. In reality, hours after his detection as a spy, Redl was confronted by a commission of four officers who supplied him with a pistol, which he used within several hours to blow his brains out. That's the Redl story, though more recent historians have discovered many flaws in Kisch's version and there are still some unknowns due to destroyed files (done in order to protect General Staff officer reputations) and though Kisch went to his grave in 1948 without fully revealing his "inside" sources of information on the case.So, viewers beware. While Oberst Redl is truly a wonderful film, it strays so far from the record that its presentation of the case is historically meaningless. The meaning comes from Szabo's experience, not Redl's.

Robert J. Maxwell The film traces the military and romantic careers of Colonel Alfred Redl from his humble beginnings, through a military academy, into the Austro-Hungarian army, to the guileful environment of high political intrigue, to his ultimate altruistic suicide in 1913. It's supposedly based on a true story but since so little seems to be known about the true story, the epistemology of the plot is questionable. Nobody really knows what happened.Brandauer delivers a remarkable performance, displaying great range, especially for a man with a face of such ordinariness. He looks like a guy who should be managing the produce section of a supermarket. Yet for all the talent of Brandauer and director Szabo, we don't get to know too much about what's going on inside Colonel Redl's head. The role doesn't give him a chance to pour out his soul to anyone, and, indeed, it's improbably that the real Redl would have done any such thing. His marriage, to a good-looking babe who loved him, was a matter of convenience. His friendships with his colleagues was constrained out of necessity because of Redl's latent homosexuality and because, after all, real men don't talk about their feelings -- they blow their brains out, but they don't talk about their feelings. Example: How does Redl feel about his early youth in the provinces? Well, while passing through his home town, he instructs the driver to pass the old house in which he spent his childhood, and he rubs a vacancy in the frosted window so that he can stare at it without expression for about five seconds. What's going on? What wheels and gears are turning in his memory, if any? It's anyone's guess.Nice score. Nice period decor and wardrobe. Nice performances from the other players, especially Armin Mueller-Stahl as ruthless Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He has such handsomely clear blue eyes, and he's soft spoken, reasonable, and as treacherous as a rattlesnake. Not that it does him much good, if you remember what started World War I. Elegant music -- Strauss and Chopin. Great marches, full of traps and whistling piccolos and irony. Makes you want to become an officer in the army in 1913 so you can shoot yourself.The film is paced kind of slowly and the intrigue is never overstated, so a certain amount of patience and attention is required. If anyone has a mind adjusted to the lightning-fast editing of a modern action movie, he's unlikely to find this film satisfying. The rest of us will find it interesting and, in the end, rather tragic.

MARIO GAUCI The second of director Istvan Szabo's collaborations with actor Klaus Maria Brandauer (I have also watched the first, MEPHISTO [1981, but not the third, HANUSSEN [1988]) is a well-mounted and stately production, typically meticulous and thought-provoking, highlighting the actor's towering leading performance. Once again examining the country's history at the time of a major upheaval (the eve of WWI) and with Brandauer - very ably inhabiting every facet of his complex role - giving another subtle, compelling portrayal of misjudged pride and the shameful exposure (thankfully, the homosexual angle of the plot is barely stressed) at the hands of the regime he had devoted his life to serving.