The Baader Meinhof Complex

An interesting mix of documentary veracity with thriller glossiness, Uli Edel’s film is less pointed to an American audience than a German one, for whom the meticulous recreations of recent historical events will be freighted with more personal meaning, especially since many of the scenes were shot precisely where they occurred. For example, a riot that occurred during the Shah’s visit in 1967 ends with the shooting of a student, the photographic image of which is burned into the German psyche as much as that picture of the dead girl at Kent State to Americans of that era. Also, the radicalizing speech of “Red Rudy” at Berlin University, and the showcase trial of Baader, Meinhof, et al. Not to mention all the gang’s bombings, assassinations, and other terrorist acts. Nonetheless, this film is never less than involving, even if it expects you to bring your own knowledge and point of view to the events depicted. Because, make no mistake, these young guys and gals were terrorists -- way more so than the Weather Underground, for example -- despite the Bonnie and Clyde vibe in the culture of the moment. Despite how their story played -- and plays -- on radical sympathies, we now have a better idea of what happens once terror is validated as a political strategy. With Moritz Bleibtrau and Martina Gedeck in the title roles, and based on the bestselling book of the same name, the film may be accused of glamorizing political violence, but seemed to me dispassionate enough to allow one to take the facts and make up one’s own mind, seeking not so much cinematic identification with the protagonists, as understanding of them within the context of the times. (2009, dvd.) aa*7* (MC-76.)