O Grupo Baader Meinhof

Being aged, knowing most about the R.A.F story from the news when it happened (1970s) including the events in 1968 (Berlin, Prague , Mexico , U.S.A.) I am much more disappointed in this " big production' on a major theme in post war German (European) history, than most other critics up till now. If you know little or nothing about the subject, like many younger people, this may seem a " cool movie". Just as an action pic, you're right. However, what I miss, is the ideological context in which all this was happening. There is some mention of sectarian leftist groups, we see major mass protests of university students, etc. And the starting scenes in Berlin (visit of Sjah) are the main " background" to the " movement". (by the way, how many under 30 people knew about the Sjah of Persia, anyway? I even remember first spouse Soraya from the early 60's...). What I miss, is , an explanation of what and how on the mass student meetings, they are just shown. Also missing are the deeper context of postwar BRD (Germany) not having come to terms with the Nazi past, especially in the situation of many former NSDAP - symp's having high places in society, government, industry, etc. As I remember, that was one of the main frustrations in leftist circles ( and not only there...). Etcetera. In this respect, seeing the first gen. members of R.A.F. speeding to an unexplained action in BMW's on the " autobahn" as if they were fun-cruising L.A. in a Tarantino muscle-car flic while having My Generation by the Who on the stereo this all is quite unbelievable for people informed about that era. I don't believe these guys were jet-set-emulators. Jet-set was capitalist and thus their opposite social stratum. Which they fought , with all fatal results. And, why the story ending with the death of the first four, how shocking it may be? This whole episode is too much for one movie. As a Dutch proverb says: " they took too much hay on their fork". (meaning the makers of B.M. Komplex). genomen".

The movie of Edel and Eichinger is fine when it comes to sets and costumes. It seems to catch the mood of the late Sixties and Seventies very well. Also the lead actors Bleibtreu, Wokalek and Gedeck have delivered outstanding performances. Too bad, that they don't get a chance to really explore their characters: Too much else is going on in this movie, that completely loses its focus during the last hour. The closer we get to the end, the more it resembles a documentary with a few scenes of play cut in now and then.

The viewer is presented with a lot of facts - and violence - but the movie fails in decoding the often cited "myth" of the RAF. For example, I've always wondered, whether Baader was just a criminal or really politically motivated. Well, in the first half of the movie, Baader is portrayed as an outlaw, who enjoys provocation and fast cars. Later he delivers sophisticated political statements. A good movie should at least try to explain this development. DER BAADER MEINHOF KOMPLEX doesn't.

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.

Although being somewhat more than moderately interested in politics, I knew very little about the original activities on which this film is based. Having seen the film, I now feel vastly more knowledgeable on how world events in the late sixties and early seventies led from the emergence to the demise of this particular left wing faction. My attention was fully engaged throughout the film. I thought the screenplay brilliantly portrayed the way the mindset of the RAF developed as they became more and more convinced they were living in a police state. Acting and direction were superb throughout. In spite of the violence and repression being depicted, I was reassured by the fact that such thought provoking films can and are being made for today's cinema audiences. After seeing Die Welle (I think it was three times) earlier this year I am now very enthusiastic about German cinema and shall certainly be hoping to see Der Baader Meinhof Komplex at least once more on the big screen this year. A masterpiece of political film making. Highly recommended.

I agree with the other comments on the following points: the film does indeed concentrate on the culprits and their actions in a documentary way (as opposed to an interpretation of the RAF's ideas and motivations from a clear-cut political standpoint). Although the victims DO appear they are not characterized more closely; the only representative of the state is Horst Herold (head of the BKA), politicians do not show up at all, the media appear only in the shape of Springer, konkret and Spiegel and even the lawyers (Haag, Croissant, Schily, Ströbele, etc.) are merged into only one (fictitious?) character. I for one do agree with this approach and if you are prepared for it you probably can live with it too. In any case, despite all the chases, shootouts and explosions it hasn't become a mere action-film.

What's more problematic is that the film follows the book by Stefan Aust VERY closely. Therefore the dramaturgy is more similar to "real life" than to a classical feature film (e.g. there are many changes in pace, several climaxes are distributed over the course of the film and a proper arc of suspense is somewhat missing). "Fortunately" real life offered a culmination of events with the Schleyer kidnapping in the "German Autumn" 1977, so that the film ends in a reasonably satisfying way. Nevertheless the end credits come a little abruptly.

The second problem is that the film tries to show virtually ALL events from the book (only some minor incidents like the Mahler detention, Peter Urbach, the burglaries in registration offices in order to steal blank passports or the visit of Jean-Paul Sartre in Stammheim are missing) so that it needs to squeeze 10 years of history into 140 minutes. The result is a film with breakneck speed at some points. The better scenes (e.g. the training camp in Jordan or the lawsuit in Stammheim) are obviously those where the film catches breath, calms down and takes its time for the actors to shine.

The quality of the acting ranges from good to fantastic (with very few exceptions like Alexandra Maria Lara, who is nothing more than wide-eyed again and who thankfully doesn't even have dialogue). Especially Martina Gedeck and Johanna Wokalek are sensational. It is THEIR film and the conflicts in Stammheim which led to Meinhof's suicide are acted Oscar-worthy. But Michael Gwisdek (Ensslin's father), Jan Josef Liefers (Peter Homann), Sebastian Blomberg (Rudi Dutschke), Nadja Uhl (Brigitte Mohnhaupt) and Hannah Herzsprung (Susanne Albrecht) are also very good.

The production values are excellent too. A lot of locations, a great deal of main and supporting roles, hundreds of extras, good special effects (mainly explosions) and a set design and costume design which creates a very coherent 70's atmosphere: you can see that the film cost a lot of money. Every cent is on the screen.

I didn't like the choice of music that much. Deep Purple's "Child in Time" is always great to hear, but the rest (Janis Joplin, The Who, Bob Dylan) is just too mainstreamy and unimaginative for my taste (but probably also very expensive). Why not use MC5, Ton Steine Scherben or Ennio Morricone's "Vamos a matar, companeros"?

Now I'm looking forward to the reactions and reviews from other countries, who probably don't know this part of German history very well. In the US I expect the criticism that there are too many naked people, too many swear words and even more cigarettes (every one in BMK smokes everywhere and at all times), in order to distract from the politics of the film ;-) "Der Baader Meinhof Komplex" isn't the masterpiece on the history of the first generation of the RAF that I had hoped for in my comments on "Todesspiel", but altogether it is a very suspenseful, fascinating, densely narrated and well acted film. Hopefully it will not be the last word on the subject, but it succeeds in giving the audience the basic RAF knowledge on which future (less neutral, more opinionated) movies can build their stories.