Friday
21Aug2009
Movie Review - 'The Baader Meinhof Complex'
Friday, August 21, 2009 at 4:07AM | The Baader Meinhof
Complex
Starring Moritz Bleibtreu, Martina Gedeck, and
Johana Wokalek  |
I appreciated The Baader Meinhof Complex far more than I
enjoyed it. Having not grown up in the 1960s, so many of the events that shaped the 40 years or
so that have followed them are shared by younger generations through archival footage, not emotional memories. For
example, the only two images of Robert Kennedy that resonate with me are of him on the stage
after winning the California primary and moments later after being shot. My frame of reference
for most of these things looks like a TV screen.
It's even foggier for non-American history in the 60s, which has to be the most tumultuous decade
since World War II. Vietnam, Che Guevara, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, much of the
second half of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" exist to many of us only so much as we've
bothered to research them.
In April 1968 - a year many point to as the apex of countercultural revolution around the world -
two West German communists, Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin detonated bombs in two department
stores. Manifestos followed, as did a 30-year clash with the German government, leaving many on
both sides dead, others imprisoned, and a nation cautious about the next moves. Communism was
expressly forbidden in West Germany, having something to do with a giant wall bisecting Berlin.
The rise of the Baader Meinhof Group, alternately known as Red Army Faction, echoed what a lot of
younger Germans believed were institutionalized racism, colonialism, and even sexism in the
national government. In part, that's because many elected officials had been members of the Nazi
party, so the young revolutionaries were also making a statement about those in power along with
the power they wielded. That doesn't justify blowing up buildings and carrying out political
assassinations, but there you go.
Colin Boyd | Permalink | in Foreign Film, Reviews | Print Article | Email Article | Post a Comment | Share Article
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