The Baader Meinhof Complex
The Baader Meinhof Complex is released on November 14th
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Monday, 10, Nov 2008 04:17
Directed by Uli Edel, out November 14th, starring Martina Gedeck, Moritz Bleibtreu, Johanna Wokalek, Bruno Ganz, Simon Licht, running time 150 mins.
In a nutshell...
Gruelling, relevant, thought-provoking thriller.
What's it all about?
Germany in the 1970s: Murderous bomb attacks, the threat of terrorism and the fear of the enemy inside are rocking the very foundations of the still fragile German democracy. The radicalised children of the Nazi generation led by Andreas Baader (Moritz Bleibtreu), Ulrike Meinhof (Martina Gedeck) and Gudrun Ensslin (Johanna Wokalek) are fighting a violent war against what they perceive as the new face of fascism: American imperialism supported by the German establishment, many of whom have a Nazi past. Their aim is to create a more human society but by employing inhuman means they not only spread terror and bloodshed, they also lose their own humanity. The man who understands them is also their hunter: the head of the German police force Horst Herold (Bruno Ganz). And while he succeeds in his relentless pursuit of the young terrorists, he knows he's only dealing with the tip of the iceberg.
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Who's in it?
Martina Gedeck (Meinhof) is best known for her acclaimed turns in the Oscar-winning The Lives of Others as well as Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd while Moritz Bleibtreu (Baader) starred in German features Run Lola Run and The Experiment, as well as Paul Schrader's The Walker and Steven Spielberg's Munich.
Johanna Wokalek (Ensslin) is one of the leading lights of German theatre, while Bruno Ganz (Herold) has won international praise for his performances in Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre, Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire and Bernd Eichinger's Downfall.
Other cast members include The Edukators' Stipe Erceg and Control actress Alexandra Maria Lara.
Writer and producer Bernd Eichinger produced the likes of Last Exit to Brooklyn, The Neverending Story, Downfall and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, as well as the Fantastic Four and Resident Evil films.
Director Uli Edel, meanwhile, broke through when collaborating with Eichenger on 1989's Last Exit to Brooklyn and has won multiple Golden Globes and Emmys for his television dramas.
As an example...
"We learned that talk without action is wrong." - Gudrun
"If you throw one stone, it's a punishable offence. If 1,000 stones are thrown, it's political action." - Ulrike
"Baby, this is getting out of hand." - Gudrun
Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars
It's already been put forward as Germany's nominee for the best foreign film Oscar and only Palme d'Or winner The Class stands in its way.
What the others say
"Big on explosions, shoot-outs and slogan-filled dialogue but sadly lacking in human drama and moral conviction, there's rarely a dull moment, but at the same time, it's far too splintered, episodic and sprawling truly to grip." - David Jenkins, Time Out
"An explosive performance by Johanna Wokalek gives some relief to an otherwise long and humdrum series of characters, blow-'em-ups and prison locations." - Boyd van Hoeij, Variety
"Only a movie like this can show young people how brutal and bloodthirsty the RAF's actions were at that time." - Jorg Schleyer, son of the assassinated manager and then president of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations, Hanns Martin Schleyer
So is it any good?
From the 1967 shooting of student Benno Ohnesorg to the 1977 Mogadishu hijack and assassination of industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer, the actions of the Red Army Faction (RAF) loomed large over an revolutionary, blood-drenched decade, with a fight against a supposed police state creating a very real one and 'extra-parliamentary resistance' transformed into militant and militarised terrorism.
In condensing ten years of history into a single film, the production duo of Eichinger and Edel have used a technique the former refers to as "fetzendramaturgie" or "shredded dramaturgy", which uses a series of 'puzzle pieces' rather than a linear narrative. On the one hand, it's the perfect form with which to illustrate the spiralling spread of terrorism, and Edel manages to keep a Michael Mann-esque tautness to the episodic nature of increasingly monstrous events. On the other hand, it makes the title a misnomer - this is not a study of Baader and his transformation for gang leader to cult figurehead, nor Meinhof's growth from a newspaper columnist and mother to a Kalashnikov-branding political warrior.
Instead, it's a film that raises more questions than it answers. For the younger viewer, there's the suffocating revelation that the spirited student protests of the RAF's beginnings were the very seeds of violent terrorism; for the older, it's an eye-opening look at a fight for justice with initial good intentions destroyed by bloodshed and murder. The set-pieces are undeniably hair-raising and an unsettling dread seems lurking around every corner, while the central trio of Gedeck, Bleibtreu and Wokalek give charismatic and intense performances as three characters who altered the course of history and Ganz is as imperious as you'd expect as the thwarted counter-terrorism chief (though his iconic Hitler performance in Downfall is hard to shake from your memory).
But with the RAF's real political might having developed during Baader, Meinhof and Ensslin's incarceration, and a new breed of recruits inspired to terrifying extremes, the sense that the film could last for several more hours is a wearying revelation for the reviewer, especially after two hours of violence and impassioned speeches.
Though its focus is too broad, Eichinger and Edel's piece is still a masterful recreation of ten years of terror under one of the most influential groups in world history - whose sometime public support still remains breathtaking.
7/10
Lewis Bazley