The Baader-Meinhof Complex [18]

Very disappointing. I believe the makers of this spent hundreds of hours exhaustively researching the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, but the problem is the director seems to want to put on screen most of what he knows. The film lacks the necessary focus to compress things into 2 ½ hours - is it a bio-pic, an action movie or a political exegesis? What we have is an uneasy amalgam of all three, none done particularly well. We never get to learn what makes the principals tick, especially Ulrike Meinhof, who turns from being a home-loving mother and part-time journalist to a snarling action-woman in the unexplained blink of an eye. Nor is it clear whether Baader was ever more than a lout full of anger.

The Baader-Meinhof events are great material for the cinema, but more directorial self-discipline will be wanted for their successful presentation.

Andrew Bell (DI Reviewer), 23/11/08

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Starting as it means to go on, with striking pleasure-beach nudity, The Baader Meinhoff Complex is as in-your-face as the young upstart terrorists whose story this is.

Based on the book by Stefan Aust, it’s an impressively detailed account of the rise and demise of Germany’s Red Army Faction (RAF). Kin to Spielberg’s Munich, it depicts the formation of a feared but popular terrorist group, with the director matter-of-factly filming their killings and kidnappings.

Ulrike Meinhoff (Martina Gedeck, The Good Shepherd) and Andreas Baader (Moritz Bleibtrau, Female Agents) are the eponymous political activists, appalled at their country’s acquiescence in the perceived American imperialism of the sixties. Carrying out an escalating spree of outrages and flirting with Middle Eastern factions, the organization soon draws the dogged attention of Horst Herold, head of the German police force.

The Baader Meinhoff Complex takes its time and offers up the terrorists' activities without comment. Taken by some – including the families of the real victims – to be an unnecessarily sympathetic portrayal of the RAF, it’s certainly courted controversy. Its fidelity to events and its evident aspiration to be a definitive portrait of the period makes it far too plodding in places.

The shouty energy of the protagonists – angry young men and women – makes them immensely slappable and you long for them to calm down. Do they need to shout and hector each other when sitting only inches apart, just to convey how angry they are? Perhaps its a way of portraying the naïve ignorance of the group.

Flying out to the Middle Eastern training grounds for terrorists, the free-wheeling young women think it’s funny when they strip naked and sunbathe in full sight of the Muslim men in the compound. The youngsters show the doomed adolescence of their politics when they view the resulting outrage as a kind of fascism on their liberty.

Director Uli Edel (who helmed the kid flick The Little Vampire) comes of age with a committed if not ultimately compelling film which treats its audience seriously. Courting controversy is what the film’s about – literally. But this is no gimmicky movie. Like Munich, it takes a no-nonsense approach to violence, nudity and the angry politics of the age. An impressively complex, if uncomfortable, film.

Glenn Watson (DI Reviewer), 16/11/08

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