Plot
Redl is an ambitious military officer in pre-World War I Austria whose career path is set early on. Redl's mother wants to restore her family's past glory through her son, and Redl soon wins favor everywhere for his talent, drive and loyalty to the Empire's ideal: tolerance for all and devotion to the Crown. In military school, he's forced to inform on Kubinyi, a student who's the source of a practical joke; though he beats himself up for being a Judas, he soon realizes that to rise in the ranks he must overcome his peasant background and hide his homosexuality by ingratiating himself with his superiors.
Kubinyi is a Hungarian nobleman,and together the two slowly climb the ladder of career-officers. While Kubinyi slowly falls prey to the national aspirations of a Hapsburg-free Hungary, Redl remains faithful to his benefactor, to his raison d'etre. Redl feverishly defends his King and country by working to uncover the various nationalistic movements that threaten the Empire's solidarity. In time, he becomes Chief of Military Intelligence for the Austro-Hungarian empire. His superiors find the perfect servant in Redl. His loyalty to the crown is steadfast, but the parvenus around the aging Emperor sense that Redl is their worst enemy. Nationalism is just one of the many diseases gnawing away at the Empire. The self-interest and greed of the nobles-in-waiting prove to be an even greater danger. As head of counter-intelligence, Redl soon sniffs out the bloody dagger; Austrian and Hungarian aristocrats are planning a coup d'etát with the help of Tsarist Russia. Waiting to catch the guilty conspirators, Redl is caught instead.
Though he professes to hate politics and politicians, Redl also can't avoid them. When the leader for whom Redl is supposedly spying among the officer corps, draws up a list of who can't be exposed for traitorous activities (including Austrian nobles, Hungarians, Czechs, Serbs, Croatians, and even the usual scapegoats, Jews—the aftershocks of the Dreyfus affair are still rumbling), he tells Redl that he must find a double of himself, a Ukrainian. His hidden homosexuality becomes known to the court and he is put into a compromising position. Public disgrace with discharge from the service or take the 'more honorable' position of scapegoat that he, Colonel Redl, conspired with the Russians. Disloyalty to himself or disloyalty to the Emperor and Empire---to his new-found father and family? A cruel choice that Redl is forced to make. Now certain that he will be exposed, Redl surrenders to fate, quoting to his wife from Montaigne: "It's no sin to be involved. It's a sin to remain involved." He is put under house arrest and commits suicide with a pistol.
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