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After the last days of Hitler in 2004’s Der Untergang (Downfall), the Uli Edel and Bernd Eichinger director/producer/writing team now attempts to tackle yet another controversial era in the more recent German history – the RAF (Red Army Faction) terrorism of the late 60s and 70s West Germany. Sure to create controversy due to its main subject matter which seems more than current in today’s climate of the US war on terror and radical Jihad warriors training in terrorist camps all over the world, it feels like the film tries to do too much and ends up achieving too little.
Der Baader Meinhof Komplex taps into the current sense of fear and powerlessness when facing an enemy that is hard to define and hard to understand, but shies away from taking a definite stance or attempting to explore the reasons for a radicalization of the leftist movement in 60s West Germany from which the RAF emerged, let alone the motivations that lead to its creation and ever increasing brutal tactics. Instead, we’re thrown right into the action with the arrival of the Shah of Iran in Berlin and the protests that led to student Benno Ohnesorg’s murder in 1967. A shot heard all around Germany and, in the film, apparent starting point for the radicalization of RAF terror that would define more than a decade of West Germany's history. More a docu-drama than compelling narrative, the film explores the following events from 1967 on in minute detail, focusing on the core members of the first generation RAF - Andreas Baader (Moritz Bleibtreu), Ulrike Meinhof (Martina Gedeck), Gudrun Ensslin (Johanna Wokalek), Brigitte Monhaupt (Nadja Uhl) and their actions. Though because of this insistence to showcase every terrorist act without much of an actual narrative, the film feels more like a dry history lesson come alive on the big screen than a tightly structured exploration of the events and underlying reasons, all of which gives the film a rather fragmented feel throughout. The beginning is grabbing enough due to the ever escalating events, presented in a quick succession of arson, bombings and shoot-outs, but the uninflected editing of these action sequences gives little time to get to the actual characters, who are a mishmash of political activists and idealists like Meinhof, and apparently attractive rogues, sporting leather jackets and driving Porsches, like Andreas Baader.
The film does hold up well enough at first and is impressive in its ability to recreate the era accurately when it comes to sets and conveying the turmoil of this period, but falls apart completely with the incarceration of the main protagonists in Stuttgart’s Stammheim prison and subsequent take-over of the group (and film) by second generation RAF fighters who seem to appear out of nowhere and disappear just as quickly in the last 60 minutes. It could have made a point, but a lot of potential the film might have had is wasted by only hinting at controversial subjects. Such as the role of the press and media, for once. The Axel Springer publishing house is featured heavily early on and some well-founded critique of its conservative leanings is attempted, but dropped quickly from one scene to the next. Or the question what sort of appeal an organization like the RAF might have for young people. It certainly can’t just be a Brando-esque Baader who keeps insisting on the “fun” and cockily hands his leather jacket to a young newcomer to the group. That or a lot of exposed breasts, it seems. To keep with the times, parallels to today’s terrorism are made through terrorist training camps or plans to drop a plane on Bonn, as well as the flip side of that coin by showing the power of a Big Brother type (possible) police state, and in that sense it is a bit like Spielberg’s Munich in the way it tries to show the roots of modern terrorism. But its failure to take a stance towards or explore the actual political origins of this particular type of terrorism is probably the film's main weakness aside from its fractured and meandering nature. Coupled with a dreary soundtrack that ranges from on the nose song choices like Joplin’s Mercedes Benz to poor scored music that seems to come right out of a cheap action flick, Der Baader Meinhof Komplex makes for a rather long and uninspiring movie experience. It’s doubtful this film will stand a chance at next year’s Academy Awards, although it’s already been submitted as the German contender for Best Foreign Film. Supposedly the most expensive German film ever made, the money should have gone into a better script willing to take some chances instead of a lot of explosions, making Edel and Eichinger look like the German pendant of Bruckheimer and Bay. Images: © Constantin Film |
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