The Baader meinhof ComplexWhen terrorism comes from a foreign element, it's easy to identify the terrorists as people who are hateful of our way of life, as entities which desire to destroy us. But when terrorism is born from within, it forces the question as to whether that "way of life" is mutually equitable, is universally agreed upon, is in fact representative of the people, or if the domestic terrorism is the natural extension of an contingent of that society which believes it is underrepresented. It is also possible that radical activism is merely a convenient excuse for those who seek rebellion for its own sake to find a cause to rally behind. The Baader Meinhof Complex tackles all of these possibilities.
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The Baader Meinhof Complex is a historical adaptation of a terrorist movement, an organization which sprouted in the late Sixties and operated through the Seventies called the "Red Army Faction", or "RAF" for short. Their symbol was a star emblazoned with their group's acronym and an assault rifle, and their violent, terrorist actions certainly embodied that ominous symbol. Initially referred to as the "Baader-Meinhof Group", the relatively small terrorist cell was dubbed this by its two most pronounced members: Ulrike Meinhof (played by Martina Gedeck) and Andreas Baader (played by Moritz Bleibtreu). These two are depicted as being of nearly opposite backgrounds prior to their introduction; Ulrike is a left-wing journalist and a woman, both a minority in the conservative power dynamics of West Germany circa 1969, where feminism and progressive politics were little more than concepts. Ulrika is shown to be a liberal-minded woman, one who entertains the idea of a family outing to a nudist beach, and one who composes an inflammatory letter to Farah Pahlavi, the wife of the Shah of Iran, in the interest of addressing unfair living conditions for the people of that nation. But Ulrike realizes that for all her voice and theory, there is no genuine action taken to change the state of the society. When Ulrike hears of an arson case committed by a group of young radicals under the banner of protesting capitalism, her interest is piqued, and she meets with one of the criminals, a sharp, fiery woman named Gudrun Ensslin (Johanna Wokalek), who in turn introduces Ulrike to her lover and the leader of the small group of radicals, Andreas Baader. Andreas is a narcissistic hothead, who adopts a rock star countenance, and spews vitriolic rhetoric. He shows no moral compunction at stealing a car or wallet, or of the possibility that someone might get caught in the crossfire of his terrorist attacks, but behaves like a spoiled child when the same in turn happens to him. Whereas Ulrike embodies a spirit of revolution, Andreas individually is more interested in running amok and getting away with it than causing real change. But when the two unite under the common cause of rebellion, their organization becomes the face of domestic terrorism in West Germany, an effect like combining gasoline and frozen orange juice, making napalm that spreads far and wide.
Breaking with trends of most historical adaptations of true events, The Baader Meinhof Complex is presented more like a political thriller, an action movie filled with a rapid assault of scenes of violence and intensity. The challenge of any film adapted from a true story is that one runs the risk of portraying people who actually existed in a light that is different from reality. Compound this with the fact that the RAF and its members were literally terrorists, and it becomes dynamite in the filmmakers' hands when one portrays not just violent criminals as human beings, but arguably makes them our protagonists, effectively "anti-heroes". The Baader Meinhof Complex has the fast-paced rush of a Hollywood blockbuster, but avoids glamorizing the RAF, choosing to instead portray the series of events throughout the years as an inescapable vortex sucking in the parties involved deeper and deeper into their ideological crusades, an escalation of violence born from a belief which allows hate to take the helm. What is chilling is that in combination with the violence, people like Ulrike, Andreas, and Gudrun turn to the teachings of others to reinforce their beliefs, allowing the propaganda to justify their actions. Gudrun frequently quotes Che Guevara or Mao Zedong to lend credence to their acts, as if this would excuse them from their guilt. Ulrike utilizes her considerable writing skill to create propaganda to reinforce the RAF as a legitimate radical organization determined to undermine the proclaimed fascism of West Germany. The irony here is inescapable, as Ulrike and her generation are only one removed from the time when Adolf Hitler came to power, under similar auspices, and in turn led Germany into its darkest days. The rebellion which fuels the RAF and its followers is spurred by the desire of its youthful members to prevent the choke hold over their freedoms which accompanied the Third Reich, but their actions are not far removed from the sequence of events which got Germany there in the first place. Ulrike and Andreas rail against the presence of capitalist America in West Germany, executing a series of bombings on American institutions; but they in turn enjoy the music of American (and British) rock, voices of rebellion, but also products imported from the same countries they claim to detest.
The Baader Meinhof Complex shares more than a few similarities with Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde, a tale of two young bandits in love who claim their actions are in defiance of the state. There are even a couple of scenes which recall that film, including a brief picnic in Sicily resembling the desert picnic from Bonnie and Clyde, or Andreas' standoff at the apartment complex, mirroring the same kind of encounter at the campgrounds, complete with armored car. Nearly every scene in The Baader Meinhof Complex moves with urgency and a kind of paranoid anxiety. There are many people who engage in the terrorist actions for the RAF by proxy which are never properly introduced, but often lead to scenes of devastating violence. The impression given by this is that the proliferation of the RAF's message across West Germany is a wildfire out of control, creating a culture of suspicion thick enough to cut with a knife. The agents of the RAF are almost uniformly young Germans, ones who are financially stable but disillusioned with their society. They are stirred to frenzy by the rhetoric of the RAF, and it prompts apparently normal youth to numerous moments of chaos, their convictions heated to a boiling point, resulting in violent rebellion including shoot outs with the police. A further irony of these events is that where Ulrike accused West Germany of engaging in police state tactics before the RAF was created, it is as a result of their actions--and the actions promoted by them--that the country swoops into more stringent control, with police checkpoints and so on. The chief of the federal police, Horst Herold (Bruno Ganz), speaks of the RAF representing a new kind of war, one fought via terrorism as opposed to a literal army with a nation, and how understanding the cause of the radical violence is the key to understanding how to combat it. That is largely the message of The Baader Meinhof Complex, its title evoking the idea that there is a psychological component to the extremism which accompanied the RAF's actions in that age, a herald of the face of terrorism still felt today, at home and abroad.
Recommended for: Fans of a tense and adrenaline-fueled adaptation of a period of severe, extremist violence in West Germany throughout the Seventies. It is a film which will likely provoke conversations about politics and history, but is also a gripping drama and action film.
Breaking with trends of most historical adaptations of true events, The Baader Meinhof Complex is presented more like a political thriller, an action movie filled with a rapid assault of scenes of violence and intensity. The challenge of any film adapted from a true story is that one runs the risk of portraying people who actually existed in a light that is different from reality. Compound this with the fact that the RAF and its members were literally terrorists, and it becomes dynamite in the filmmakers' hands when one portrays not just violent criminals as human beings, but arguably makes them our protagonists, effectively "anti-heroes". The Baader Meinhof Complex has the fast-paced rush of a Hollywood blockbuster, but avoids glamorizing the RAF, choosing to instead portray the series of events throughout the years as an inescapable vortex sucking in the parties involved deeper and deeper into their ideological crusades, an escalation of violence born from a belief which allows hate to take the helm. What is chilling is that in combination with the violence, people like Ulrike, Andreas, and Gudrun turn to the teachings of others to reinforce their beliefs, allowing the propaganda to justify their actions. Gudrun frequently quotes Che Guevara or Mao Zedong to lend credence to their acts, as if this would excuse them from their guilt. Ulrike utilizes her considerable writing skill to create propaganda to reinforce the RAF as a legitimate radical organization determined to undermine the proclaimed fascism of West Germany. The irony here is inescapable, as Ulrike and her generation are only one removed from the time when Adolf Hitler came to power, under similar auspices, and in turn led Germany into its darkest days. The rebellion which fuels the RAF and its followers is spurred by the desire of its youthful members to prevent the choke hold over their freedoms which accompanied the Third Reich, but their actions are not far removed from the sequence of events which got Germany there in the first place. Ulrike and Andreas rail against the presence of capitalist America in West Germany, executing a series of bombings on American institutions; but they in turn enjoy the music of American (and British) rock, voices of rebellion, but also products imported from the same countries they claim to detest.
The Baader Meinhof Complex shares more than a few similarities with Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde, a tale of two young bandits in love who claim their actions are in defiance of the state. There are even a couple of scenes which recall that film, including a brief picnic in Sicily resembling the desert picnic from Bonnie and Clyde, or Andreas' standoff at the apartment complex, mirroring the same kind of encounter at the campgrounds, complete with armored car. Nearly every scene in The Baader Meinhof Complex moves with urgency and a kind of paranoid anxiety. There are many people who engage in the terrorist actions for the RAF by proxy which are never properly introduced, but often lead to scenes of devastating violence. The impression given by this is that the proliferation of the RAF's message across West Germany is a wildfire out of control, creating a culture of suspicion thick enough to cut with a knife. The agents of the RAF are almost uniformly young Germans, ones who are financially stable but disillusioned with their society. They are stirred to frenzy by the rhetoric of the RAF, and it prompts apparently normal youth to numerous moments of chaos, their convictions heated to a boiling point, resulting in violent rebellion including shoot outs with the police. A further irony of these events is that where Ulrike accused West Germany of engaging in police state tactics before the RAF was created, it is as a result of their actions--and the actions promoted by them--that the country swoops into more stringent control, with police checkpoints and so on. The chief of the federal police, Horst Herold (Bruno Ganz), speaks of the RAF representing a new kind of war, one fought via terrorism as opposed to a literal army with a nation, and how understanding the cause of the radical violence is the key to understanding how to combat it. That is largely the message of The Baader Meinhof Complex, its title evoking the idea that there is a psychological component to the extremism which accompanied the RAF's actions in that age, a herald of the face of terrorism still felt today, at home and abroad.
Recommended for: Fans of a tense and adrenaline-fueled adaptation of a period of severe, extremist violence in West Germany throughout the Seventies. It is a film which will likely provoke conversations about politics and history, but is also a gripping drama and action film.