Review: ‘The Baader Meinhof Complex’

West Germany’s Baader Meinhof group (also known as the Red Army Faction or RAF) was formed in the late 1960s and named after two of its ringleaders, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhoff. With its logo of a gun set against a red star, the RAF was a terrorist organization made up of young left-wing revolutionaries who railed against a current political establishment with bombings, bank robberies, and murder and is the subject of the ambitious new movie THE BAADER MEINHOFF COMPLEX. Director Uli Eddels’s film is a long but engrossing look at a fascinating chapter of recent German history.

Based on a nonfiction book by Stefan Aust, THE BAADER MEINHOFF COMPLEX takes a look at the origins and heyday of the RAF and the violent acts they carry out, each more bold than the last: the bombing of a newspaper office, murders of prominent judges and prosecutors, the violent takeover of an embassy in Sweden, the hijacking of a jet, and the kidnapping and ransom of a noted politician. The story is partly depicted through the eyes of Ulrike Meinhoff, a 30-ish privileged wife and mother who is also a political journalist and committed radical thinker. Much of the early part of the film depicts how Meinhoff teamed up with Baader, an angry high school dropout, to fight a violent war against what they perceive as fascism: American might blessed by the German establishment. Meinhof is articulate and level-headed, a writer wanting to use her intellect to fight for a cause until she’s swept up in the violence and loses everything. Baader by contrast, is an arrogant hot head who’s goaded on by angry firebrand girlfriend Gudrun. Baader mixes revolutionary political action with violent delinquency and seems to enjoy his role as outlaw activist. After fire-bombing a department store, the group goes underground and ends up in a terrorist training facility in Jordan. There, even their jihadist hosts there find them insufferable as they treat the training camp as their own personal holiday complete with nude sunbathing and refusal to submit to military discipline. The German media places them front and center and their outlaw persona makes them heroes with youth at odds with authority. The crimes increase, but more and more innocent people get killed and the group begins to quarrel among themselves. Around the 100 minute mark, most of the principles are dead or arrested and the film then switches back and forth from their criminal trials to a new generation of RAF wannabes who’s ideas make their heroes look reasonable by contrast.

THE BAADER MEINHOFF COMPLEX is a historical epic of undeniable sweep and urgency. The movie’s sheer scope is impressive as it covers a ten-year period and never feels dragged-out and the period detail is complete right down to the 70’s clothes and shaggy hairstyles. I guess one fault is that 2 ½ hours is a long time to spend with characters so completely unsympathetic. The RAF may have been stewards of radical chic, but the only thing righteous about their mission was their attitudes. Rebelling against authority is one thing but it’s their own extreme deeds that result in the creation of the police state (military actions, random searching of cars, etc.) they’re so fearful of, and the group, lacking a sense of irony (or humor) fails to see how counterproductive their actions are. Their goal may have been world peace but they didn’t really stand for anything except anarchy and their methods of waging war and slaughtering civilians to get it was madness (in the United States we had Bill Ayer’s and his similar Weather Underground).

Central to the film is an excellent performance from Martina Gedeck (THE LIVES OF OTHERS) as Ulrike Meinhof, whose complex journey ends in despair. Moritz Bleibtreu, recognizable as the boyfriend from RUN LOLA RUN is good as Baader but even better is Johanna Wokalek as the furious and frightening Gudrun. Bruno Ganz, who played Adolph Hitler in DOWNFALL, is prominently billed but his role as a kidnap victim is small. German director Uli Eddel was acclaimed in his home country for the harrowing prostitution drama CHRISTIANE F. in1980. He came to Hollywood in the late 80’s and made the superb drama LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN (1989) but followed that up with the Madonna stinker BODY OF EVIDENCE (1993), some forgettable TV work, and his last theatrical feature, the juvenile 2000 comedy LITTLE VAMPIRE. THE BAADER MEINHOFF COMPLEX has to be considered something of a comeback for Eddel. He’s made an uncompromising, complex, and demanding film that fairly depicts the romantic allure of radical life and the anguish that comes when an ideology is exposed as futile. There is so much inherent drama in this story but Edell is more interested in getting the facts straight and wisely neither glamorizes or judges these characters. THE BAADER MEINHOFF COMPLEX is easily one of the best films of the year.