Given how plenty of the issues mentioned still linger today, The Baader Meinhof Complex is hesitant to take a side and condemn or defend the group it depicts. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Having some distance from the subject helps keep the accuracy of the events, which is already thrilling and controversial enough on its own. It's what makes the film interesting. Rather than choose a side, Director Uli Edel and writer-producer Bernd Eichinger take their story to explore what it means to fight for one’s ideals in a modern world, raising more questions than providing conclusive answers. It’s this intricacy makes The Baader Meinhof Complex not an easy watch, but an intriguing one nonetheless.
Synopsis
'Der Baader Meinhof Komplex' depicts the political turmoil in the period from 1967 to the bloody "Deutschen Herbst" in 1977. The movie approaches the events based on Stefan Aust's standard work on the Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF). The story centers on the leadership of the self named anti-fascist resistance to state violence: Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof and Gudrun Ensslin.
Storyline
West Germany, 1967. When a student protest ends with violent police intervention, popular journalist Ulrike Meinhof decides to walk away from her regular life to join the radical far-left terrorist cell, Red Army Faction (RAF).
TLDR
Your opinion of the film might depend on your politics, but nonetheless it’s an intriguing film about how standing up for certain principles can lead to violent ends.
What stands out
When the film gets going, it’s interesting to see how the characters collide as a group, refraining from diving deep into their backstories.
