The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008)

People are voting emotionally.

Fresh and Exciting

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Germans have a quality wave of movies that reached wold audience in the early 21st century, after the Run Lola Run hit. This movie is perhaps not the best of the best, but is interesting, original and gives a story of one turbulent era with great detail and precision.

"The Baader-Meinhof Group" is a provocative, brutal, German film meticulously directed by Uli Edel "Last Exit to Brooklyn" (1990), written by Bernd Eichinger "Downfall" (2004), and stars some of Germany's best actors: Martina Gedeck, Moritz Bleibtreu, Johanna Wokalek and Bruno Ganz. These talents come together to tell the story of the founders of the Red Faction Army (RAF), one of Germany's violent left- wing anti-capitalist group against western imperialism in Germany, whose logo is a combination of a Red Star and an MP5 sub-machine gun. Working off of transcripts and real-life accounts, Uli Edel simply re-creates the story and history of the Red Army Faction in accordance with the historical record, while never imposing judgment or opinions. Germany in the 1970s: Murderous bomb attacks; the threat of terrorism and the fear of the enemy infiltrating high levels of government is rocking at the very foundations of the fragile German democracy. The radicalized children of the Nazi generation are led by Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, and Gudrun Ensslin who are fighting a violent war against what they perceive as the new face of fascism: American imperialism supported by the German establishment--many of whom have a Nazi past. Their aim is to create a more human society, but by employing the use of terrorism and the threat of violence, they lose their own humanity in the process. "The Baader Meinhof Complex" is visually riveting with fantastic action scenes, and at times can become almost emotionally overwhelming. Edel propels the complex narrative and its myriad ricochets, and it surprisingly holds together quite well. That being said, the sheer length and constant brutality and bloodshed mount, making the viewing of last third of the film laborious. An impressive, well done period piece, but "The Baader-Meinhof Complex" is diluted by too many events, with too many characters, distributed over too much time.

This hardly believable fictional account of what actually happened portrays the Baader- Meinhof group as a bunch of petit-bourgeois twenty- somethings, basically out for a bit of fun, with guns and quasi- revolutionary cod- ideology overlaid as something cool. It is suggested that stealing cars on a Saturday night and driving to Darmstadt (of all places) was their idea of having fun.All of which might be mildly amusing were it not for the fact that everyone in the film - "goodies" and "baddies" alike, smoke cigarettes incessantly, all the time, without stopping. This goes much further than simply trying to portray the fact that yes, everyone smoked at that time: this is a conspiracy to make sure smoking tobacco is constantly present throughout the film: a specific decision was taken to do this.For that reason it's unwatchable. I can't stand to watch a person smoking and I certainly can't stand to watch an entire film in which everyone is deliberately told to smoke, continuously.I'm left with some interesting thoughts about the vested interests that funded it and enabled it to be so extravagant. This execrable film proves there is nothing the System cannot digest and spit out again, in furtherance of its purposes,

I confess an interest. I once worked with the director Uli Edel, who was then attached to my script Crossmaglen. We worked on the script at his house in Los Angeles and he was the perfect host, and clearly an amazing film maker. Unfortunately he eventually parted company with the project. Tonight I saw The Baader Meinhof Complex, which I knew Uli had directed, for the first time.It's a little masterpiece all of its own..contemporary history immortalised. I lived through that period - though not in Germany - and I remember the angst, but not how bloody and violent it all was. The movie itself is utterly gripping and one simply doesn't doubt that you're in the Seventies, from clothes to cars to just mood, furniture, curtains even. It shows in great narrative form the rise of Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, why they became what they were - the rather odd sinister West German society of the time, but also pulls no punches in its depiction of the two main players and their acolytes as vain, spoilt and horrendously violent and uncaring individuals. To see them crushed by the prison system, though, is also sobering.The action scenes are just second to none..I've had a live round fired at me and - yes - all concerned duck when being fired at as they do in this film.I end by saying I have no axe to grind or benefit to be gained by posting this review, but I wished to be honest in that I know the director. I haven't seen Uli for five years and have no commercial dealings with him. This is just an incredible film..in its way, on a par with Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers in its significance and its study of urban terrorism. I truly believe that. How this one didn't get the attention and plaudits it deserves since it opened three years ago, is beyond me. But then...I saw it tonight, so who am I to criticise? Just a must see movie. See the damn thing!!!