Review: The Baader Meinhof Complex

This film was an Acadamy Award nominee last year (2009) for best foreign film and it should be fairly easy to see why. Overall a very good movie. I'll give it 3 stars, borderline 3 and a half... Directed by Uli Edel, an explosive coming out for a man who has been around for a while, but had yet to put out a big-time movie, largly doing TV flicks prior to this.

This movie follows a group of Leftist radicals in 1970's era West Germany. I understand that it is somewhat true to history. I enjoy the way it was done in that no side was really taken, and it did not seem to be propagandistic at all, just telling a story. Though this story is told from the point of view of the group members. The action is ripping and the story is gripping. As the story line follows this movement and the organization called RAF (Red Army Faction) from its origins through about a decade of struggle.

The acting was rather good all around, especially I think by the character Ulrike, played by Martina Gedeck, and the lead, Moritz Bleibtreu, was nominated for his work.

The main negative I have read and I definitely agree on is the lack of character development at some points. The story moves along at quite a pace, as the movie makers are trying to get a lot in (and this isn't a short movie, over two and a half hours (it starts to drag just a bit at the end)). There are points of conflict between major characters that are somewhat difficult to understand, and I think that's because the development there was sacrificed for more breadth of story. This film is obviously in German, but I was thrown for a loop a couple of times when English is randomly spoken, and all of a sudden the subtitles were gone...

This is worth a watch. There is quite a bit of violence, some of it rather graphic, but it is not really gorey or anything like that, but we'll be serious, you're going to see people get shot in the head.

Watch this movie. Overall extremely quality. A solid three stars for sure.