Two and a half hours of endless violence, garbled ideology and much posturing. And I'm not talking about 'Quantum of Solace'. No, this is the latest film about modern German history. But it is not about the World Wars or the East German dictatorship. It is about West Germany's terrorist group of the 1960s and '70s: the Red Army Faction (RAF).
'The Baader Meinhof Komplex' tries to sum up around 30 years of complex social tensions in West Germany: the post-war generation that had to deal with the role of parents and grandparents in Nazi Germany; the student movement and the reaction of older people to its liberalism; and the radicalisation of left-wing ideology that resulted in terrorist tactics.
What results is a collage of scenes that supposedly show 'what actually happened' at the time. We see a student demonstration brutally put down by police and of course the catalystic shooting of the student Benno Ohnesorg by a police officer.
The left-wing intellectual Ulrike Meinhof joins the extremist Andreas Baader and away we go. Political assassination follows bombing follows shooting.
The graphic depiction of violence in this film is shocking in itself, but does it really make one think about the social issues of the time. I left the theatre feeling numb. I can imagine others leaving the theatre feeling elated. For example, this movie would go down very well with any member of Antifa - a German group that sees a need to fight fascists hands on.
It made me more convinced than ever that the use of terror is wrong. What did these people achieve apart from expressing their anger in the most apalling way? The film provided no new clues or perspectives. Given the amount of time it spent looking at the terrorists after they were caught and tried, it's portrayal of them is rather too sympathetic.
German director Uli Edel might have been better off sticking to the realms of myth as in his last movie - 'Ring of the Nibelungs'. He's tried to create an epic, where a single story could have told a lot more. To prove my point, look at 'Downfall' by German director Oliver Hirschbiegel. He took Hitler as his material, but he did not make a film about the entire Second World War. His powerful drama plays out in a bunker in Berlin in 1945 and reveals a lot more about German history than Edel's violent collage.
That said, see 'The Baader Meinhof Complex' yourself and let me know what YOU think.
[Watch the trailer on the official film website]
'The Baader Meinhof Komplex' tries to sum up around 30 years of complex social tensions in West Germany: the post-war generation that had to deal with the role of parents and grandparents in Nazi Germany; the student movement and the reaction of older people to its liberalism; and the radicalisation of left-wing ideology that resulted in terrorist tactics.
What results is a collage of scenes that supposedly show 'what actually happened' at the time. We see a student demonstration brutally put down by police and of course the catalystic shooting of the student Benno Ohnesorg by a police officer.
The left-wing intellectual Ulrike Meinhof joins the extremist Andreas Baader and away we go. Political assassination follows bombing follows shooting.
The graphic depiction of violence in this film is shocking in itself, but does it really make one think about the social issues of the time. I left the theatre feeling numb. I can imagine others leaving the theatre feeling elated. For example, this movie would go down very well with any member of Antifa - a German group that sees a need to fight fascists hands on.
It made me more convinced than ever that the use of terror is wrong. What did these people achieve apart from expressing their anger in the most apalling way? The film provided no new clues or perspectives. Given the amount of time it spent looking at the terrorists after they were caught and tried, it's portrayal of them is rather too sympathetic.
German director Uli Edel might have been better off sticking to the realms of myth as in his last movie - 'Ring of the Nibelungs'. He's tried to create an epic, where a single story could have told a lot more. To prove my point, look at 'Downfall' by German director Oliver Hirschbiegel. He took Hitler as his material, but he did not make a film about the entire Second World War. His powerful drama plays out in a bunker in Berlin in 1945 and reveals a lot more about German history than Edel's violent collage.
That said, see 'The Baader Meinhof Complex' yourself and let me know what YOU think.
I am of the same generation as the original Baader-Meinhof gang so it’s not surprising that I see the film in a rather different light. I knew a bit about the RAF and their activities before seeing the film. True the film does portray ‘endless violence, garbled ideology and much posturing’ but that’s how it happened. As I understand it Andreas Baader was a crazy, impulsive character, but Ulrike Meinhof was, at the outset, a respected leftist journalist who gradually got sucked into the violence. Baader’s girlfriend, Gudrun Ensslin seems to be the only true angry enemy of the state with relatively clear headed murderous intentions. The RAF used terrorism to protest against an over authoritarian state with some leaders in authority having dubious, possibly Nazi backgrounds. I think the authorities did learn to tread more carefully, but I’m not sure that this was due to the activities of the RAF, and even if it was it certainly does not justify the terrorist methods adopted by the RAF.
ReplyDeleteI think that the film portrays an accurate, no holds barred account of the dangerous instability in West German Society in the 1970s and early 80s. It depicts the fanaticism of the RAF first generation leaders and shows their ultimate descent into manic despair and suicide. I also found the Baader Meinhof Complex to be a gripping film leaving me rather shell-shocked by the end.
The film raises questions rather than giving answers. It makes you think. What more could you ask for? Making a film about the RAF was a tricky task, but BMK succeeded.
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