During the late 1960s and 1970s West Germany was plagued with an outbreak of "urban terrorism" by a group known as the Red Army Faction (the "RAF"). It also became known as the Baader-Meinhof gang, after two of its leading lights. The gang robbed banks, let off bombs and assassinated the odd official and businessman. Although associated with the left the RAF was more of an anarchist group originally provoked by police violence against demonstrators and the Vietnam War. It later degenerated into a gang of youthful criminals bent on revenge and on the release of some of its members from prison.
This film covers the history of the gang in fair detail and ends with the suicide of three of them in prison after the PFLP hi-jack of a Lufthansa aircraft in 1977 which was commissioned to have them released along with some Palestinian "freedom fighters" also languishing in German jails..
The interesting question the film raises is why well-brought up, educated young people with no obvious signs of psychosis from the middle classes got involved in this sort of mayhem. Ulrich Meinhof was an established journalist (albeit left wing) in her late 20s, married with children, yet she went off with the gang to rob banks after being involved in an attempt to free one of them from custody. Andreas Baader was more of a bad lad with a history of delinquency, but his original motivation was political rather than criminal. His boon companion Gudrun was also politically motivated, but was a good deal more ruthless than the others. In the early days, during the late 60s they had plenty of supporters, for their stance on Vietnam, and their hero Che Guevara had admirers around the world. The impression I get from the film is that group dynamics played a large part people did evil things in a group that they would never consider doing on their own. The lovers of action overwhelmed the more thoughtful members such as Meinhof. Karl Marx wrote (and it is on his tombstone in Highgate cemetery) "The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways the point however is to change it." He probably didn't contemplate the middle class rising against itself the revolution was to come from the workers.
Probably the most lasting damage the group did was to civil liberties. If you are a security supremo a group like this is manna for heaven. The most enigmatic character in the movie is the police chief played by Bruno Ganz (superbly) who keeps on telling his subordinates as they urge harsher measures that "we must address the problems this group is protesting about". Not that the West German government could do much about the war in Vietnam. But nothing is ever done except the implementation of more security in banks, airports, and public buildings, and more general harassment of anyone considered a threat. Somehow, Islamic extremist slipped past.
The veteran director Uli Edel ("The Lives of Others") handles this material with great skill, and most of it is edge of the seat stuff. However, things both slow down and become confusing towards the end, with most of the original gang in prison and with new characters introduced without any attempt to establish them. The actors playing Baader, Meinhof and Gudrun are all great, especially Martina Gedeck as Meinhof , who gives a very poignant portrayal of intellectual disintegration. I wasn't left with the impression that the filmmakers were out to glorify terrorism, rather the reverse.
This film dove-tales with "Mogadishu" a very good German TV film on the hi-jack which was shown on Austrian TV on November 30, just a few days before I saw this film in a cinema in Bolzano. The Lufthansa hi-jack is revealed as a curious piece of co-operation between two very different terrorist groups.
This film covers the history of the gang in fair detail and ends with the suicide of three of them in prison after the PFLP hi-jack of a Lufthansa aircraft in 1977 which was commissioned to have them released along with some Palestinian "freedom fighters" also languishing in German jails..
The interesting question the film raises is why well-brought up, educated young people with no obvious signs of psychosis from the middle classes got involved in this sort of mayhem. Ulrich Meinhof was an established journalist (albeit left wing) in her late 20s, married with children, yet she went off with the gang to rob banks after being involved in an attempt to free one of them from custody. Andreas Baader was more of a bad lad with a history of delinquency, but his original motivation was political rather than criminal. His boon companion Gudrun was also politically motivated, but was a good deal more ruthless than the others. In the early days, during the late 60s they had plenty of supporters, for their stance on Vietnam, and their hero Che Guevara had admirers around the world. The impression I get from the film is that group dynamics played a large part people did evil things in a group that they would never consider doing on their own. The lovers of action overwhelmed the more thoughtful members such as Meinhof. Karl Marx wrote (and it is on his tombstone in Highgate cemetery) "The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways the point however is to change it." He probably didn't contemplate the middle class rising against itself the revolution was to come from the workers.
Probably the most lasting damage the group did was to civil liberties. If you are a security supremo a group like this is manna for heaven. The most enigmatic character in the movie is the police chief played by Bruno Ganz (superbly) who keeps on telling his subordinates as they urge harsher measures that "we must address the problems this group is protesting about". Not that the West German government could do much about the war in Vietnam. But nothing is ever done except the implementation of more security in banks, airports, and public buildings, and more general harassment of anyone considered a threat. Somehow, Islamic extremist slipped past.
The veteran director Uli Edel ("The Lives of Others") handles this material with great skill, and most of it is edge of the seat stuff. However, things both slow down and become confusing towards the end, with most of the original gang in prison and with new characters introduced without any attempt to establish them. The actors playing Baader, Meinhof and Gudrun are all great, especially Martina Gedeck as Meinhof , who gives a very poignant portrayal of intellectual disintegration. I wasn't left with the impression that the filmmakers were out to glorify terrorism, rather the reverse.
This film dove-tales with "Mogadishu" a very good German TV film on the hi-jack which was shown on Austrian TV on November 30, just a few days before I saw this film in a cinema in Bolzano. The Lufthansa hi-jack is revealed as a curious piece of co-operation between two very different terrorist groups.