DVD Released September 9, 2009
The title of this German historical thriller comes from the embryonic name for the RAF - the Red Army Faction, a band of communist "urban-gorillas" retaliating against the West German government in 1960s and 70s. Born out of the student protest movement, the film depicts their ideological rise and mobilization into something more radical and violent.
Though there are a dozen or more central characters from different "generations" of the RAF, the narrative focuses on the group's founders, Andreas Baader (Moritz Bleibtreu) and Ulrike Meinhof (Martina Gedeck). They and their underlings, thoroughly convinced that their ends justify their drastic means, justify murder by claiming that their fascist and imperialist government is responsible. When one of their own is shot and killed after fleeing from police, they cry of corruption and cold-blooding killings, even though this blame, arguably, should be reflected back upon them. Through this dilemma, Baader-Meinhof succeeds brilliantly in simultaneously making you both on the side of the revolutionaries and of the system they so violently despise.
The films rapid-fire pace is less successful; many events which deserve a film in of themselves come and go in instant and character development becomes lost in the shuffle. It's frequently infuriating that screenwriter Bernd Eichinger, who also wrote the tremendous Der Untergang, crams so much into the film's 150 minutes, sometimes you wish he took the time to build the intricate suspense sequences like in Spielberg's Munich, which is otherwise thematically a close cousin.
Despite this, The Baader-Meinhof Complex, presented excellently on this DVD but with no special features, is fascinating and meticulously crafted.
