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Andreas Baader: Moritz Bleibtreu
Ulrike Meinhof: Martina Gedeck
Gudrun Ensslin: Johanna Wokalek
Horst Herold: Bruno Ganz
Never has there been such a rich, vital, utterly exciting time in German film-making, when the rules are constantly being rewritten and revised.,
First we had
Downfall,
Goodbye Lenin and The Lives of Others. Now, exploding onto DVD comes Uli Edel's
The Baader-Meinhof Complex. Shot with the narrative drive and tension of
a thriller, but with documentary qualities that seem ripped from the headlines and
footage of the day, this is the first real drama about the RAF - the Red Army Faction -
an idealistic terrorist group known outside Germany as the Baader Meinhof Group.
Starting with two quick scenes, on a naturist beach, then a sixties party, it cuts to the
big set-piece action as the Shah of Iran arrives at Berlin Opera House in 1967. And
when Iranian students start beating up the German protestors, who get further pursued
and assaulted by mounted police, batons, and water cannons, a handful of young,
outraged protestors are radicalised. An extraordinarily brutal and brilliantly
choreographed scene, meticulously recreating what really happened. The rest of the
film follows the gang's exploits as they grow in numbers, become more overtly
violent, then murderous, before being hunted down by the likes of Horst Herold,
beautifully played by Bruno Ganz.
Martina Gedeck (from The Lives Of Others) is the journalist mother who turns into an
activist on the run. Moritz Bleibtreu invests all his easy charisma into the part of loose
cannon Andreas Baader, who is always at boiling point. And Johanna Wokalek is the
glamorous, unforgiving Gudrun Ensslin, the third cornerstone of the group. They are
almost certainly the grooviest, coolest, flipping sexiest bunch of radicals you'll ever
watch - especially Bleibtreu's Baader. And even though you know their crimes were
heinous and their exploits bloody, it's hard not to root for them - as you might with
Bonnie and Clyde, or Butch and Sundance.
Director Uli Edel lived through the period, and wanted to convey all the intensity of
that time - which is neglected in school history lessons, says Bleibtreu, but is one of
the most important periods in post-war Germany. And this is where the wonderful set
of extras on the DVD really add to the viewer's experience. Through documentaries
on the making of the movie, the director himself, and the film's music, we follow the
development of the film from the original 1985 book by Stefan Aust right up to the
adding of layers of percussion on the soundtrack to give the necessary tribal feeling.
And we learn that the violence, stress and terror of the plot were profoundly affecting
and draining for the director and actors, but helped inform the composers' compelling
score. Intense is the word that keeps cropping up - and you can see it in all their faces.
There is only one tiny quibble about the whole DVD, and that is that the subtitles are
too small for the small screen. Other than that, it's a resounding cry of 'wunderbar'.
Recommended.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
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