The creators of this well-made and well-acted film forgot a cardinal rule of narrative art--in order for the audience to remain engaged, some sort of sympathy with the characters has to be created from the outset. That is how so many films about terrible people (The Godfather, The Long Good Friday), or even psychopaths, can still leave us on the edge of our seats wondering about the fate of the protagonists.
Therein lies the problem for "The Baader-Meinhof Complex." It portrays the members of the most violent of the European Marxist terrorist groups of the seventies, the Rote Armee Fraktion, exactly as they were--as self-important, incredibly irritating middle-class scumbags, fighting ultimately for no cause beyond, well, being cool. As they prance around with their sunglasses and tight jeans, playing revolutionary to shock their former NSDAP-supporting mommies and daddies (a cause that doesn't quite merit killing legions of innocents), the viewer finds them as shallow, pathetic and despicable as they no doubt were. On this point, I'm shocked by some of the fools on this board, no doubt oh-so-hip do-nothing Marxists in their own college days, who agonize over whether these sociopaths were terrorists or freedom fighters. Please--East Germany tried socialism, and you had to wait in line for two hours to buy state-produced pickles. That's why the flight of people from West to East Berlin was, shall we say, none too common.
Anyway, since the characters make the viewer want to smack them in the face from day one (especially Gudrun Essling--kudos to that actress for the fist-clenchingly irritating portrayal), we stay engaged in the action-packed first half of the film, but lose interest completely once they're captured and the trial begins (the film is two and a half hours and far longer than it needs to be). Because at this point, the center of gravity of the film shifts toward the main characters' introspection regarding their own fates, and, well, I for one really didn't care. I just wanted them to shut up and kill themselves already.
Final note: The best scenes by far are those in the Palestinian training camp. The revolutionary culture clash that results as these utterly bourgeois, 60's counterculture wannabes attempt to train with real revolutionaries who, whatever one thinks of the Palestinian cause, are at least fighting for a real political goal that has some potential resonance, is handled perfectly and hilariously by the directors.
Therein lies the problem for "The Baader-Meinhof Complex." It portrays the members of the most violent of the European Marxist terrorist groups of the seventies, the Rote Armee Fraktion, exactly as they were--as self-important, incredibly irritating middle-class scumbags, fighting ultimately for no cause beyond, well, being cool. As they prance around with their sunglasses and tight jeans, playing revolutionary to shock their former NSDAP-supporting mommies and daddies (a cause that doesn't quite merit killing legions of innocents), the viewer finds them as shallow, pathetic and despicable as they no doubt were. On this point, I'm shocked by some of the fools on this board, no doubt oh-so-hip do-nothing Marxists in their own college days, who agonize over whether these sociopaths were terrorists or freedom fighters. Please--East Germany tried socialism, and you had to wait in line for two hours to buy state-produced pickles. That's why the flight of people from West to East Berlin was, shall we say, none too common.
Anyway, since the characters make the viewer want to smack them in the face from day one (especially Gudrun Essling--kudos to that actress for the fist-clenchingly irritating portrayal), we stay engaged in the action-packed first half of the film, but lose interest completely once they're captured and the trial begins (the film is two and a half hours and far longer than it needs to be). Because at this point, the center of gravity of the film shifts toward the main characters' introspection regarding their own fates, and, well, I for one really didn't care. I just wanted them to shut up and kill themselves already.
Final note: The best scenes by far are those in the Palestinian training camp. The revolutionary culture clash that results as these utterly bourgeois, 60's counterculture wannabes attempt to train with real revolutionaries who, whatever one thinks of the Palestinian cause, are at least fighting for a real political goal that has some potential resonance, is handled perfectly and hilariously by the directors.