Director Uli Edel teams with screenwriter Bernd Eichinger to explore a dark period in German history with this drama detailing the rise and fall of the Red Army Faction, a left-wing terrorist organization that became increasingly active following World War II. Also known as the Baader-Meinhof Group, the Red Army Faction was formed by the radicalized children of the Nazi generation with the intended goal of battling Western imperialism and the West German establishment. Adapted from author Stefan
Aust's definitive account of the group that resorted to killing innocent civilians in the name of democracy and justice, The Baader Meinhof Complex stars Moritz Bleibtreu as Andreas Baader and Martina Gedeck as Ulrike Meinhof. Bruno Ganz co-stars as Horst Herold, the head of the German police force faced with the task of bringing the Red Army Faction to justice. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
It'd be nice to see an American filmmaker commit a similar reckoning with the Watts riots, the Weather Underground, or the Black Power movement, not simply resort to cant and kitsch but to really interpret those moments.
There's a fine line to walk when making a film about outlaws: A few wrong moves and, presto, glamorization occurs. To its credit, The Baader Meinhof Complex almost entirely avoids this pitfall.
This flick was written by Stefan Aust, long-time editor of Der Spiegel, Germany's version of Time Magazine. Hence the lurid, superficial and reactionary tilt. The Baader-Meinhof gang was disgusting, but nearly as disgusting as the people they fought.
... the detail is fascinating and it is mesmerizing to watch this idealistic rebellion swamped by obsession, revolutionary fervor and the psychotic drive of Andreas Baader...
The Baader Meinhof Complex is a terrific entertainment, an action packed look at anarchy in the streets followed by the specious slacker malaise argued behind closed doors.
An impressive period reconstruction and a ripping yarn that never reduces its complicated and conflicted characters to stereotypes ... one of the best action movies of last year and a thoughtful essay on the futility of violence.
Filmed through tear gas and broken glass, Edel graphically depict the horrific violence (the group was responsible for nearly 30 deaths) while equally layering in substance.
The 150-minute-long, Oscar-nominated foreign-language film, based on a 1987 book, has a rat-a-tat pace and a lurid, film noir quality that captures the chaos and hysteria of the era that bred and sustained them.
Baad and Baader extreme women rule, in this bold, more-than-meets-the eye brand of moviemaking, while the impassioned political thriller dissects the Red Army Faction's ideological seduction of actually one fourth of the German population.
The acting is top drawer and everyone behind the camera is technically proficient with a workmanlike approach. The monumental task of editing by Alexander Berner deserves special mention.
The leaders of a terrorist group working within Germany in the 1970s are hunted down and imprisoned while their comrades perpetrate increasingly desperate plans for their release. The Baader Meinhof Complex is an interesting look at a period of German history I new little about, when the new generation feared the
apathy that led to Hitler's rise and decided to act against what they saw as similarly imperialist actions. This gives an interesting political backdrop to some well executed action sequences during the first half of the film but unfortunately once they are captured, the film becomes quite unfocussed and slightly tiresome. It degenerates into various scenes of prison cell squabbling which is in no way aided by the fact that there is no central character the viewer can identify with (or hate for that matter) and so it all becomes a little difficult to care about any of these "idealists" who actually come across as arrogant, obnoxious and hypocritical. It does have its good points and is certainly an interesting backdrop to the political situation of the 1970s, but as a story of individuals it fails to engage on any real level.
November 23, 2011
xGary Xx
Super Reviewer
The true story of terror attacks in Germany of the 1960s and 70s, performed by left extremists of the Red Army Fraction. While the movie is already two and a half hours long, it would have needed even another hour to deliver the background for people not familiar with this part of Germany's history. Especially the end
comes rather suddenly and should have some explanations added for foreign audiences. That being said, the film does a great job in bringing this time back to life by rushing through the most important events in a really exciting and interesting way, following the most important characters on both sides of the law. The cast reads like a who is who of current German cinema, the performances are all around great, especially by Moritz Bleibtreu as terrorist leader Andreas Baader. By using montages with original news footage and music, delivering some of the strongest scenes, the film manages to sum up the mood, thread, ideas and emotions involved at that time really well. It just shows what happened, without judging or taking either the terrorists' or the law's side. A great history lesson, but probably hard to consume without some more background information.
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