1809 Andreas Hofer - Die Freiheit des Adlers

A monstrous production with a lot of Austrian stars involved was shown this year in Austrian cinemas first, then on television. Xaver Schwarzenberger directed, famous author Felix Mitterer wrote the script. A dozen renouned actors have slipped in 19th century costumes.

The result is overwhelming in a way. Nobody disappointed me. But something is missing in the whole project. Maybe it is a little flaw, a little surprise. This biopic is too slick, too perfect. There are even too many stars (maybe casting Ottfried Fischer as Bavarian king Maximilian was the trigger that lead to me disliking the film), there is no space for risks left. Therefore, even the cool Tyrolean accent of the characters becomes boring after a couple of minutes.

The Andreas Hofer film is a mere commercial project – though, admittedly, very well done. I would like to mention two of the actors specifically: Franz Xaver Kroetz is fascinating as a fundamentalist priest, and Julia Stemberger, who plays Hofer's wife Anna, shows that she can actually act. I still don't like her but at least she managed to impress me in this role.

However, I don't think this is going to become anyone's favourite movie of all time.

I've been really impressed by this film which demonstrates that not only Hollywood can make a film about historic events that is truly gripping and moving. This film depicts Andreas Hofer not as the idolized figure that many of us learn about but shows him as a person who's made mistakes but nevertheless was a really brave man believing in the ideas he fought for.

One has to acknowledge that the actors (especially those from Germany) did a hell of a job learning the dialect as not all of them come from Tirol.

This film is definitely worth seeing not only for those interested in European respectively Austrian history.