FILM REVIEW: THE BAADER MEINHOFF COMPLEX

It is "Nie wieder" for youngsters in The Baader Meinhoff Complex.


The hate that hate produced

By Ed Rampell

As the so-called global “war on terror” continues to unravel, an extremely violent film is coming to American screens that takes an in-depth, closeup look at theBaader Meinhof Gang, one of the most notorious terrorist groups of all time, that won’t allow viewers to take their eyes off of the screen for more than two riveting hours. If Germans occupying Denmark in Flame & Citron were the authorities in that World War II movie, Germans form the resistance movement in The Baader Meinhof Complex (as well as the powers that be who battle them), an ultra-left group that began in 1967.

Fifty years ago Mike Wallace did a TV documentary about the Black Muslims called The Hate That Hate Produced, and director/co-writer Uli Edel does a masterful job in showing how the callow indifference, complicity and police brutality of a West German regime that allowed U.S. military bases there to wage war against Vietnam spawned a violent anti-imperialist resistance movement. This aspect of The Baader Meinhof Complex is similar to how Jeremy Kagan’s 1975 made-for-TV-movie, Katherine, traced how the injustices and violence of the 1960s turned Sissy Spacek’s character into a bomb-wielding member of the Weather Undergound. But in terms of sheer willy-nilly violence, the RAF were more akin to America’s Symbionese Liberation Front, which was depicted in Paul Schrader’s 1988, Patty Hearst (starring the late Natasha Richardson as the kidnapped heiress supposedly turned terrorist), than to the Weathermen, who generally bombed property, not people.

Like Ving Rhames as Cinque in Patty Hearst Moritz Bleibtreu is truly nuts as the nihilistic Andreas Baader, a guy who enjoys joy riding at high speeds in stolen vehicles and firing pistols: As Abbie Hoffman put it, this is revolution for the hell of it.Bleibtreu gives a great performance as this manic uber-revolutionary, while Martina Gedeck’s Ulrike Meinhof, his journalist turned comrade in arms, delivers a more subtly drawn portrayal of a wife betrayed by her unfaithful husband who turns to armed revolt.

There is plenty to rebel against, at home and abroad, as the Gang champions Third World liberation struggles from Indochina to Palestine, taking up arms ostensibly in solidarity with them, fighting, as their hero Che Guevara put it, “in the belly of the beast.” Like John Dillinger in Public Enemies, the Baader Meinhof Gang, aka “The Red Army Faction” or RAF, turns to bank robbing, as well as kidnapping, assassinations, bombings and more, sometimes striking unarmed civilians, such as at the offices of a conservative newspaper.Edel’s deft direction periodically intercuts RAF actions with news footage of world events that inspired their armed madness, but around two thirds of the way through the movie, after “Uncle Ho” and Vietnam have driven the Yankees out, the archival clips stop, and the motivations for the Gang’s terrorism seem to disappear (with the exception, perhaps, of the Palestinian cause). It seems that they are fighting on because the RAF is trapped in a cycle of violence, ultimately using tactics similar to those of the “oppressors.” In the end, what separates them?

Bruno Ganz is cleverly cast as Horst Herold, the law enforcement chief who plays Inspector Javert to the RAF’s “Les Miserables.” Ganz brilliantly played Hitler in Downfall and an anti-fascist law professor in The Reader. Here, Ganz relentlessly pursues the Baader Meinhof Gang, but espouses more liberal tactics and techniques in ensnaring them, including trying to understand what makes the terrorists, as well as their bombs, tick. Like those other recent films about authorities versus armed networks, the mobster hit, Public Enemies, and the World War II resistance thriller, Flame & Citron, counter-insurgency methods are delineated and depicted in their war on terror.

Unfortunately, The Baader Meinhof Complex doesn’t get as deeply into the group’s ideology. We know what they were against, but what exactly were they fighting for? West Germany’s nominally socialist neighbor is unmentioned, and the initials “RAF” are never explained for an American audience. And while members of the Gang were actually fashion icons (like the Black Panthers in their berets and leather jackets were), thisdoesn’t come across onscreen.

Nevertheless, this is a masterful if not mesmerizing movie that was very deservedly nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar last year. AsEdel previously proved in his 1989 film, Last Exit to Brooklyn, he is a great, socially conscious filmmaker. Edel has crafted a superb adaptation of journalist Stefan Aust ’s definitive book. His use of nudity (which shames the prudishness of so many American productions, where sex acts are covered by blankets and the like) links the sexual revolution of the sixties to the era’s political movement. When Arabs, presumably Muslims, scorn the group’s casual nudity at a commando training base,Baader explains that “fucking and shooting” are the same thing.”

What really happened to the leaders of the Red Army Faction remains a mystery, but one thing’s for sure: do not miss The Baader Meinhof Complex, a must see movie that opens in New York on Friday, and in L.A. and Irvine on Aug. 28. By examining the terrorists of yesterday, perhaps we can better understand today’s ultra-violent extremists.