Review Eismayer – Review on FilmTotaal
Director: david wagner | Script: david wagner | Cast: Gerhard Liebman (Charles Eismayer), Luka Dimic (Mario Falak), Julia Koschitz (Christina Eismayer), ea | Time to play: 87 minutes | Year: 2022
If heteronormative macho culture prevails anywhere, it’s in the military. Despite frantic efforts to make the military more inclusive, it remains a masculine stronghold. Why genders or sexual orientations other than Cisheteros couldn’t defend a country is a mystery, but sadly many feel that way.
Try to come out of the closet in that culture, let alone break the prejudices. Mario Falak, a native of the former Yugoslavia, doesn’t care what his accomplices think that he likes men. In the Austrian drama based on true events eismayer Falak represents who he is. He earns her a lot of bullying, but also commands respect among his fellow soldiers.
Falak of all places ends up at Charles Eismayer’s club. During his examination, he warns the young soldier about Eismayer’s working method. The Vice Lieutenant is a walking cliché, complete with shouting matches, a hundred push-ups, and insulting curse words. But behind the man hides a great secret. Eismayer himself is homosexual. He tries to be away from home as much as possible, just to avoid being around his wife and son. Not because he doesn’t love them, but because he doesn’t know how to behave.
Eismayer, who actually exists, is an archetypal character who guarantees many contrasts with the outspoken Falak. Thankful for a dramatic film, though it lacks strong verbal interplay. The downside of a character like this is that it’s not exactly a cascade of speeches, much less that the dialogues he engages in with others are about his feelings. Eismayer would rather give orders than have a good conversation with others. It turns out to be a bit too skinny for a dramatic movie that has to come out for your feelings.
The man has a great sense of justice, and his direct mind often saves Falak. With filmmaker David Wagner having to deal with a closed-off character repressing his feelings for his first feature, he doesn’t exactly make it easy for his audience. Progression comes in the story in fits and starts, for example, with nocturnal encounters. So it’s mostly actions and few words. Such people exist, it’s hard to change anything about the real Eismayer, but for a dramatic movie it’s a flawed element.
eismayer Thus, it has a lengthy course, in which Wagner can only feed his own scenario with contrasts, a standard story arc, and breakthroughs that can only be forced by circumstance and Falak. It leads to an unsatisfactory conclusion, because Wagner goes completely mad again. Well, it’s also true, is there anything to say about it?
Despite the flaws eismayer a major film that hopefully manages to maneuver past the target group. There are so many subcultures where homosexuality is still not discussed. In addition to the army, think about the world of football or sports in general, construction, the police, etc. Stories like this should continue to be told, but with more attractive characters.