Hungarian director István Szabó may not be a household name in America, but he's well regarded internationally, especially for a trio of costume dramas made during the eighties and pertaining to Hungary in the first half of the twentieth century. Colonel Redl was the middle piece of the triad.

Historical Background: István Szabó was born in 1938 in Budapest, Hungary and has helped give vitality to Hungarian cinema. After graduating from the Academy of Film Art in Budapest, Szabó became associated with the Hungarian New Wave and gained some attention at film festivals with a series of shorts during the early sixties. His first feature film was Age of Illusions (1964) and his first major international success was Confidence (1979), which won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. He is best known today for a trilogy of sweeping epics from the eighties that explored the political and social circumstances in Hungary in the twentieth century, prior to World War II. Each of the three films starred the talented Austrian-born actor, Klaus Maria Brandauer. The first film of the trilogy was Mephisto (1981). It was a German, Hungarian, and Austrian co-production, a rather amazing achievement considering that the Cold War was still very much on-going at the time, with Hungary and Austria on opposite sides of the so-called Iron Curtain. Mephisto won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. Next came Colonel Redl (1984) and, finally, Hanussen (1989). Colonel Redl is based on the true story of a high-ranking intelligence officer of the Austro-Hungarian Empire who apparently committed suicide, on May 25th, 1913, under veiled circumstances. The agents of the Austro-Hungarian were nothing if not masters of secrecy and cover-up (see, for example Mayerling), so the real story of Redl's death remains as much a mystery today as it was at the time.

The Story: The young Alfred Redl (Klaus Maria Brandauer) is uncommonly bright and hard-working, though the son of a mere peasant farmer. Despite his lowly background, he wins an appointment to the military academy, where the majority of the cadets come from aristocratic Austrian backgrounds. He establishes a bond with Kristof Kubinyi (Jan Niklas), who invites him home for the holidays to the elegant home of his parents, who lead a life of privilege and nobility in Hungary. There, Alfred meets Kristof's pretty sister, Katalin (Gudren Langrebe). At a brothel that the two young men visit, Redl seems more interested in watching his friend Kristof having sex with one of the prostitutes than in engaging the gal in his own room. Redl suppresses his attraction to Kristof, however, and transfers it, as best he can, to Katalin.

Back at the academy, Alfred serves as a second in a duel between Kristof and another classmate, who is killed in the contest. This foolishness jeopardizes the careers of both Kubinyi and Redl, but the commanding officer, Colonel von Roden (Hans Christian Blech), having noted Redl's hard work and loyalty to the Emperor, arranges a promotion for him and a prized assignment in Vienna. In Vienna, Redl is able to renew his friendship with Katalin, who is, by then, unhappily married.

From there, Redl is assigned to a garrison serving on the Russian border. The discipline there is lax and Redl readily stands out as a serious-minded young officer. When the district commander decides to retire, Redl is recommended for the job. As commanding officer, he proves very demanding, working hard to reinvigorate the discipline of his outfit. This does not sit well with the junior officers, including Kristof, especially because they feel superior to Redl by birth. When Redl and Kristof have a falling out over Kristof's sloppy habits and poor performance, Kristof mocks Redl's lowly origins in conversation with other officers.

Colonel von Roden intervenes on Redl's behalf again, bringing him back to Vienna to serve as deputy chief of the counter-espionage service. It's a nasty kind of job, since it entails spying on officers throughout the service, trying to identify those engaging in espionage activities for the Russians. Redl undertakes a loveless marriage of convenience in order to quell rumors of his homosexual proclivities.

Redl's single-minded devotion to duty soon draws him into the orbit of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (Armin Mueller-Stahl), who is a ruthless schemer (whose ultimate objective is to overthrow the Emperor in a coup d'etat). Redl participates in one of the Archduke's plots, which involves setting up a Ukrainian officer for a dramatic fall so as to shake the army out of its complacency. The man is accidentally shot to death, however, during the search and seizure, negating the value of the plan. The Archduke then decides to make Redl the fall guy instead. Redl contributes to his own downfall by allowing himself to be seduced by an attractive young Italian officer. Now out of the closet, Redl becomes easy prey to blackmail by the Russians and, apparently, provides them with privileged information about Austrian deployments along the border. Redl is now doomed. Under arrest, he's given a service revolver with which to take his own life. In a kind of epilogue, the film ends with a brief depiction of the famous assassination of the Archduke, at Sarajevo, that triggered World War I.

Themes: The broadest theme of the film is the decadent state of affairs in Austro-Hungary leading up to World War I. Class and birth had become the major determinants of promotion and position within the military and the bureaucracies of the Empire. Ruthlessness and cunning were more important to success than loyalty, merit, or hard work. As a result, the Empire was no longer capable of the forceful military initiatives that would have been required to hold it together. As a political entity, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was headed toward an inevitable fall. Redl can be seen as both a product and, ultimately, a victim of the corrupt social system in which he lived. Born into an inferior position, he was ambitious and sought to elevate his status through discipline and hard work, but was finally brought down by the snobbery of the sons of the aristocracy.

A second theme is the risks inherent in trying to get ahead by loyalty to a system that is inherently amoral. One could liken Redl's strategy in life to a young man in a ghetto trying to better his lot by joining a gang and loyally doing the bidding of the gang's corrupt leader. The strategy may work short-term, but runs the extreme risk of collapsing as soon as one's usefulness to the amoral gang leader dissipates, for any reason. Redl was especially vulnerable to a falling out with the power brokers because of the questions about his ethnic origins and his sexual proclivities. He was apparently partly Jewish (on his mother's side) and had homosexual inclinations, though, as a young man, he suppressed his orientation. These vulnerabilities in his status made him an easy target when a scapegoat was deemed necessary. Pursuing a self-interested assent to power within a corrupt system is fraught with danger. Redl, though flawed in some respects, was heroic in his professional merit and loyalty, but in devoting those qualities to a malevolent system, he brought about his own ruin. It's not enough to be an essentially good person, if one is working within a badly corrupted organization.

In Colonel Redl, Szabó has also crafted a skillful portrayal of homosexuality that is evident but repressed. The notion is delicately interwoven throughout the film, through little acts of touching and voyeurism among the various male characters. A hand on the knee, concurrent sexual activities at a brothel, quick embraces, and pecks on the cheek create an undercurrent of suppressed homoeroticism. Yet, Redl's sexual orientation is also just part of what defines him as an outsider in his world. He is also part Jewish and part Ukrainian. One piece of the homophobia of the military is a concern with the vulnerability of officers to blackmail based on homosexual proclivities, but there's a paradox inherent in that concern. The person is only subject to blackmail to the extent that there is some kind of adverse inference or consequence that derives from the person being revealed as gay. (In the long run, "don’t ask, don't tell" can't work as a policy in the military because (among other reasons) it increases vulnerability of the military to espionage activities, regardless of what one might think about the merits or demerits of the policy as a short-term accommodation for the lack of privacy in living spaces within the military).

Production Values: Szabó collaborated on the screenplay for Colonel Redl with Peter Dobai. The film was loosely based on John Osborne's play A Patriot for Me. Szabó acknowledges that the story is fictional and speculative, only based on historical events, since the real facts of the case are not known. The result is a film in which the political context is far more cogently detailed than the personal story. Despite Brandauer's brilliant performance, the character and motivations of Redl remain as fully mysterious after the film as they were before. The character is not well drawn by the script, sometimes almost pathetically uncomplicated and unresolved. The time and the setting are very stylishly depicted, but Redl wanders through it like an apparition. The themes emerge but not Redl's inner personality. There's some excellent music in the soundtrack, which includes excerpts from Schumann, Liszt, Strauss, and Chopin.

Brandauer is an exceptionally fine actor. Here, he gives a controlled performance that integrates innocence, loyalty, ambition, and energy. I don't know any actor who has better mastery of shifty eye movements and subtle winces than Brandauer. He makes his character fully transparent and can't be held responsible for the lack of clarity in the script in relation to Redl's motivations. Brandauer's rendition in the suicide scene is especially realistic and moving. Brandauer's other work includes Mephisto (1981), Never Say Never Again (1983), Out of Africa (1985), The Lightship (1986), and The Russia House (1990). Armin Mueller-Stahl gives an excellent performance in the relatively limited role of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He's appeared elsewhere in such films as Music Box (1989), Avalon (1990), Night on Earth (1992), Shine (1996), and The X-Files (1998). Jan Niklas and Gudrun Landgrebe are very good as the brother and sister, Kristof and Katalin.

Bottom-Line: The Anchor Bay Entertainment DVD provides the theatrical trailer plus a conversation between István Szabó and Klaus Maria Brandauer. There are some talent bios as well. The film is in German with a running time of 142 minutes. The English subtitles are the optional type. This film offers excellent period authenticity and a riveting performance by Brandauer. The dramatic aspects of the film are much weaker. I recommend it enthusiastically for those with a penchant for historical epics.


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You might want to check out these other excellent films from Hungary:

Mephisto
The Red and the White

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age