FILM REVIEW: The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008)

Director: Uli Edel
Starring: Moritz Bleibtreu, Martina Gedeck, Johanna Wokalek, Nadja Uhl and Bruno Ganz
Running Time: 150 minutes
Genre: Non-fiction drama

Before this film I had never heard of the Baader-Meinhof gang (or of the Red Army Faction), but this often shocking and expansive German-language drama covers ten years of the RAF's troublesome and morally ambiguous attacks on German society. What follows is a highly complex, often confusing and very often a shocking and harrowing look at the horrific actions of the RAF and moreover, a look into Ulrike Meinhof's (the fantastic Martina Gedeck) tragic fall from left-wing journalist to a terrorist.

The film accurately captures the groups plight from left-wing wannabe revolutionaries to full-on terrorist monsters with a series of ever-sickening attacks. Gudrun Ensslin's (Johanna Wokalek) pushing of Andreas Baader (Moritz Bleibtreu) to commit more and more serious crimes in the name of the RAF and their mutual flawed ideologies are the stuff of monsters, but it is Meinhof's tragic plight that is the centrepiece of the film, between the moments of shocking and deplorable violence, her mental plight is the most shocking of all. Familiar to Western audiences for his portrayal of Hitler in 2004's Downfall, Bruno Ganz offers a touch of contemplative class to proceedings as a contrast to the wild and impulsive actions of the gang. While it is a journey and drags out, especially in the final act, it is still scathing and its convictions and the collapse of the leaders of the gang on the creation of something they could not handle.

Edel captures late 60s/early 70s Germany without ever looking overly tacky and the central performances are good and rather than being a film that glorifies the actions of the group, it highlights the shocking brutality and senseless violence of the group mixed with the leaders mental decline. It is a difficult watch, but for the most part a highly engrossing, and very often shocking look at one of the most fascinating and horrific post-war Germany periods.

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