Tuesday, February 09, 2010

The Baader Meinhof Complex


As part of our recently collaboration with Artepolitik talking shop on the Just Ian weekly radio show, we were tasked with reviewing The Baader Meinhof Complex. First off I would like to point out that the film is great cinema and well worth checking out despite what some reviews have say. Directed by Uli Edel, the film retells the formation and early years of Red Faction Army (RAF). The film has been criticized for glorifying the violence and its members and for not presenting the material objectively. In our opinion the film tries to do justice to the terrorists as well as to the representatives of the German state by describing both sides with an equally objective distance opposed to being completely one sided. If anything the only shortcoming in the film is that mainly focuses on a few of the members of the RAF and does not properly develop new characters as they introduced in the film. More specifically, I found that its often difficult for the viewer to relate to any of the supporting characters in the RAF or the antagonists aka members of the German Government which supports the criticism by some that the film is one sided. Regardless, we highly recommend this film. Its available for streaming on NETFLIX, so you be the judge.

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