Der Baader Meinhof Komplex (2008)
Genre: Drama / Crime
Duration: 150 minuten
Alternative title: The Baader Meinhof Complex
Country:
Germany / France / Czech Republic
Directed by: Uli Edel
Stars: Martina Gedeck, Moritz Bleibtreu and Johanna Wokalek
IMDb score:
7,3 (42.007)
Releasedate: 25 September 2008
Der Baader Meinhof Komplex plot
Berlin 1967. Students inspired by American anti-war movements take to the streets to protest during the visit of the Iranian Shah. However, the protest is crushed by the Shah's agents and has far-reaching consequences. Ulrike Meinhof (Martina Gedeck) follows the developments from her living room and decides that something must be done. She comes into contact with the extremist Andreas Baader (Moritz Bleibtreu) and both form the 'Rote Armee Faction' from that moment on.
Actors and actresses
Ulrike Meinhof
Andreas Baader
Gudrun Ensslin
Brigitte Mohnhaupt
Holger Meins
Jan Karl Raspe
Peter-Jürgen Boock
Horst Mahler
Petra Schelm
Horst Herold
Reviews & comments
memorable
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- 173 messages
- 1728 votes
As a historical document , this film may be there. Within two and a half hours, a span of ten years is covered, and care has been taken to ensure that no minor fact is missing. So if you are interested in history, this film can count on your interest. The original images of a rioting crowd or a Chancellor addressing his people don't feel fabricated.
In terms of feature film, the end product is rather sparse. However, perhaps the director's intention was to emphasize the emptiness of the radical left ideology by portraying his characters as purely political animals; in that case he has succeeded in his purpose. Only Ulrike Meinhof still gets some depth, especially in the beginning as an intellectual, introspective of the unregulated bunch. However, the metamorphosis of her persona into a murderous terrorist is not shown at all, let alone explained. It is only named when we see her drop her children out of nowhere to put her sectarian existence first.
Baader and Ensslin are defined as the emblem of antipathy exhibited. They riot without it having any kind of character, and even when Ensslin quotes Mao she still pulls a dirty face. I wonder if these persons were really devoid of such substance or morality. It seems almost untrue to me.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Fisico
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- 10039 messages
- 5398 votes
The history of the Red Army Faction is a series of left-wing extremist violence in the 1960s and 1990s. In Der Baader Meinhof Komplex we quickly get an overview of all this excessive violence. Apart from a few snatches, the viewer gets very little information about the real motives of the action group, especially with the second generation at the end of the 1970s.
Even with the characters it is not always clear what drives them. With Ulrike Meinhof, for example, a journalist by profession and yet one of the top figures and founders of the group, I couldn't figure out why she took such a drastic turn in her life. The film contains too little depth and character development to clarify this. Instead, you are presented with a tsunami of violence. Especially in the second part, where cold-blooded and mafia-style accounts are portrayed, were shocking.
Stylishly portrayed, that's for sure, good performances too, so this film falls under the pure crime genre. A little too little historical drama in my opinion because my expectations were different, but otherwise an entertaining film.
Translated from Dutch · View original
mjk87 (moderator films)
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- 15025 messages
- 4760 votes
This film is more of a documentary than a film: it gives an overview of years of RAF history in which some key scenes were played and made into the film. But despite the fact that the film lasts 150 minutes, the film remains very superficial because it has not been chosen for a certain aspect, for a certain focus. Now it is a lot, but not everything. The film therefore remains quite distant and the characters are nothing more than some annoying rioters, later terrorists, whose motives I never really understood. Visually okay with a good image of the era with a style that has been used more often and in this film I mainly missed a bit of personal input. This was the better steal. 2.5*
Translated from Dutch · View original
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