The Baader-Meinhof Complex

Roger Ebert reviews the Baader-Meinhof Complex film and rates it 2,5 out of 4. I watched it on DVD a couple of months ago and my immediate impression was that I would have been completely lost if I hadn’t been able to check the German Wikipedia’s timeline. I doubt if confusion was a planned part of the storyline.

Or in other words: I pretty much agree with Ebert here. The film is technically impressive and Johanna Wokalek was a very scary Gudrun Ensslin (I think Ebert could have mentioned her a bit more but Martina Gedeck is probably better known to an American arthouse audience). The Meinhof-Ensslin interplay is intriguing and should have been developed. Meinhof and Ensslin were perverted heroes (“hero” is the wrong word as I have absolutely no sympathy for their actions, but I hope you get the point) and both could easily have been the subject of a major fiction or documentary film.

And as recent news show, the actions of the RAF still leaves open wounds in German society.

German Wikipedia page about the movie.

Update: Mainhof corrected to Meinhof, except in the permalink.

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Category: Spare time | Tags: , One comment »

One Response to “The Baader-Meinhof Complex”

  1. Luke
    Luke
    September 11th, 2009 at 21:53

    I’d have to disagree. I thought it was a great film. Part of the idea behind it was to present the events without editorializing what happened or trying to lead the audience towards sympathizing with anyone in particular.

    It’s still playing in theaters in some places: http://www.baadermeinhofmovie.com/theatres/theatres.html

    I definitely recommended checking it out

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