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Directed By
Uli Edel
Written By:
Uli Edel, Bernd Eichinger, Stefan Aust
Cast:
Martina Gedeck, Moritz Bleibtreu, Nadja Uhl, Stipe Erceg, Niels-Bruno Schmidt, Alexandra Maria Lara, Hannah Herzsprung, Tom Schilling, Sebastian Blomberg, Heino Ferch, Bruno Ganz, Volker Bruch, Thomas Thieme, Jasmin Tabatabai, Gerald Alexander Held, Hubert Mulzer, Michael Schenk, Johannes Suhm, Hassam Ghancy, Joachim Paul Assböck, Kirsten Block, Marcus Bode, Andreas Haslinger, Alexandru Herca, Helmut Schmidt, Peter Schneider, Chris Wilpert, Joel Cross
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The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008)
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Movie Review by Jarrod
August 25th, 2009
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'The Baader Meinhof Complex' was Germany's official entry at the Academy Awards, and follows in the footsteps of Downfall, which should have won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film, for its harrowing depiction of Hitler's final days. This movie has a much broader focus, and crams in a bunch of material, I would argue far too much, in its attempt to tell the story of the Red Army Faction, or RAF, a radical leftist terror group that resisted what it saw as the re-imposition of fascism in West Germany in the decades after WWII.
The RAF forms in the late 60s, following protests that turn into riots, and the German police kill a student, in a polarizing event comparable to Kent State. In 1968, popular left-wing orator Rudi Dutschke (Sebastian Blomberg) is nearly assassinated, presumably by fanatical right-wingers, and neo-Nazis. The ranks of the RAF are filled with committed opponents of Nazism, mostly young people and college students, led by Andreas Baader (Moritz Bleibtreu), and Gudrun Ensslin (Johanna Wokalek), both of whom gain inspiration from older journalist/intellectual Ulrike Meinhof (Martina Gedeck).
The RAF is pursued by competent crime fighter Horst Herold (Bruno Ganz), who must continually try to outwit the terrorists, while also trying to understand what drives and motivates them. The flick is sort of vague on the whos and whys, but it does not offer an excessively romanticized portrait of the RAF; it shows that they plan and carry out a series of bombings, kidnappings, assassinations, and jailbreaks, for those members unlucky enough to get caught by the authorities.
And that they get caught is due on the one hand to clumsiness and the sheer audacity of their stunts, they repeatedly draw attention to themselves, and help to make Herold's job that much easier. Yes they have meetings and rallies where individual speakers get a chance at the podium to engage in some ideological ranting, but they want German politicians, law enforcement and military officials, other Europeans, Americans, and their neo-Nazi rivals to take notice of them, and comprehend the message they are trying to send.
Are they loyal to, or do they admire, the Soviet regime in East Germany? It is likely, but it would hypocritical, if they are fervently against any form of totalitarian government. The narrative is split into two parts; the first covering the RAF in its infancy, the other showcasing the arrest, trial, and imprisonment of its founders, and the second generation that emerges to revive the RAF, led by Brigitte Mohnhaupt (Nadja Uhl), and Peter-Jurgen Boock (Vinzenz Kiefer).
Of the three central characters, Gudrun is the most compelling and three-dimensional; Wokalek's performance is outstanding. The cast consists of popular and well-known German thespians, and the subject matter is sure to resonate more with a European audience than with an American one. Plenty of action and impressive production values. Much of the dialogue is pulled directly from historical records, interrogations, court proceedings, etc. Occasionally involving and tense, but overlong by at least 20 minutes.
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