Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Colonel Redl Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 14, 2020

Considering the fact that part of the actual history of Alfred Redl, an officer in Austria in the epochal days leading up to World War I, includes not completely closeted homosexuality in the military, maybe just a bit surprisingly films based on his life were made as early as 1925 and 1931. The 1925 silent Colonel Redl (which I’ve admittedly never seen) evidently (and understandably, given the era of its production) forsook the gay element of the real life Redl’s story and instead focused on his spying tendencies, which several sources cite as the more probable reason for his suicide in 1913. A 1931 film entitled The Affair of Colonel Redl is considered lost but is rather oddly described as a comedy by some online sources, something that may seem downright peculiar given Redl's story. István Szabó’s 1985 version tends to lay the blame (so to speak) of Redl's "issues" on both the homosexuality angle and some socioeconomic differences between the lower class Redl and some of his upper crust fellow military cohorts, as well as a perhaps fanciful connection to Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The problems Redl's homosexuality caused for him were evidently more of a focal point in A Patriot for Me, a 1965 John Osborne play which reportedly provided at least some of the spark for this film. The Osborne play was apparently a huge cause célèbre in London in its day, and perhaps for that reason, it took four years for the play to matriculate to Broadway, where it quickly expired after 49 performances.

István Szabó completed a hat trick of sorts with Colonel Redl, getting his third Academy Award nomination in a row for Best Foreign Language film, after a run which started with Confidence in 1980 and which continued the next year with Mephisto, with that film famously becoming Hungary’s first winner in the category. There are some interesting parallels between Mephisto and Colonel Redl, with both films featuring performances by Klaus Maria Brandaeur, in each case playing a character coming under the sway of various sociopolitical movements. Brandaeur’s character of Alfred Redl is actually introduced first as a little boy (played by Gábor Svidrony), documenting early experiences which will refract into the adult Redl’s life. These include his indoctrination into a regimental life at a military academy, but also the fact that Redl is not of the same social status as many of his peers at the institution, something that will become a salient plot point once the adult Redl becomes an officer in the Austrian army.

And in fact while this film is able to be a good deal more overt about Redl's sexuality, Szabó seems at least as interested in exploring the socioeconomic underpinnings which Szabó seems to suggest contributed as much to Redl's psychological imbalances. While the film is kind of curiously sanguine about some of Redl's more provocative (and probably outright treasonous) activities, there's a Mephisto-like approach featuring a main character pretending to be something that he isn't, a pretense which leads to disastrous consequences.

If the underlying foundation of the story here is at least based in truth, the film departs from the historical record pretty dramatically at times. That includes a late interaction with Archduke Franz Ferdinand (Armin Mueller-Stahl) which apparently never happened, from what I've been able to glean in doing some background research. The fact that this plot point actually plays into the climax where Redl takes his own life (a suicide which is part of the historical record) may tend to highlight it even more, which perhaps detracts at least a bit from some of the more evidently factual datapoints involving Redl's work for the Austrian intelligence forces, as well as some of his more duplicitous behavior, which some historians feel helped grease the wheels for World War I.

Redl's history is probably much better known in Europe than it is in the United States, and considering the fact that Szabó is on record stating that considering how many liberties he took with Redl's actual story (as alluded to in the above paragraph), he could have just as well named the character something else, it may be best not to approach this film as "strictly" historical. That said, much like both Confidence and Mephisto, Colonel Redl has a well wrought production design which helps to create a believable milieu. More importantly, though, the film has a psychological truth at its core which ultimately helps to make Redl's self created tragic end all the more visceral.

Colonel Redl Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Colonel Redl is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber's Kino Classics imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.66:1. Kind of interestingly, neither this film nor Confidence offer the same overt mention of a 4K restoration as Mephisto's cover does, but the closing credits for this film do mention a 2018 restoration by the Hungarian National Film Archive, and there's a 4K credit as well. This is an often pretty sumptuous looking transfer, especially in some of the more warmly lit sequences, where the palette is beautifully saturated, detail levels remain consistently high, and grain resolves naturally. There are some interesting stylistic approaches Szabó, like some blue graded material (see screenshot 5 for an example), but fine detail levels emerge remarkably intact almost all of the time. There's a kind of cool wintry ambience in a lot of the exterior locales, and a few passing shots can look on the hazy side. Occasional very dark moments can look pretty gritty and ill defined when compared to the bulk of the presentation, though other relatively dark moments retain better clarity and detail (see screenshot 19, and then contrast that with screenshot 3, to see some of the variances that crop up).

Colonel Redl Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Colonel Redl features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track that offers some stirring source cues as well as a glut of ambient environmental effects in its many outdoor scenes which help to offer some variety from more stagebound dialogue moments. There are some nice standout sequences here, including some of the early training Redl experienced as a youngster at the military academy, and some larger group scenes later in the film, as in some well appointed ballrooms, offer a nice blend of both background clamor and more forward dialogue. Everything is rendered cleanly and clearly on this problem free track. Optional English subtitles are available.

Colonel Redl Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Note: All three of the István Szabó films Kino Lorber has released on Blu-ray (Mephisto, Confidence and this film) offer some of the same supplementary material.

• The Central Europe of István Szabó (1080p; 3:11) is basically a collection of clips from various Szabo films.


• Remembrance of Production Designer József Romvári (1080p; 8:12) is a really sweet piece done by art director József Romvári's granddaughter. This has some snippets from films, but also some nostalgic music and fun home movies.


• Trailer (1080p; 1:39) is actually promotion for all three István Szabó films released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber.

This is the relatively rare Kino release that I've personally reviewed that actually comes with an insert booklet, and in this case it has two interesting essays, stills and some cast, crew and technical data.

Colonel Redl Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Szabó may have wanted to have his cake and eat it, too, in any number of ways with regard to Colonel Redl, in terms of offering both fact and fiction as well as combining the perceived "sins" of spying and homosexuality as elements in Redl's downfall. This is another rather bracing effort from Szabó which, like Mephisto, offers a compelling lead performance from Klaus Maria Brandauer. Technical merits are solid, and Colonel Redl comes Recommended.