DER BAADER MEINHOF KOMPLEX (2008) *1/2 Ok as an action flick, but its only historical significance is as the most recent, hardly improved, amateurish whitewash of the West German government. Fascinating characters are neither developed nor explained, the scene is never set, and insupportable conclusions passed off as undisputed gospel in a manner never previously attempted by any serious historian including Stefan Aust in the (nonfiction) book. There is never any explanation for why people are acting this way: there is no mention that the West German government was quite literally being run by (ex-?) Nazis, that the kids had no electoral recourse as their Communist Party (KPD)-unlike numerous neo-fascist parties-was outlawed.there is no hint much less consideration of the legal defense that the revolutionaries/terrorists considered themselves to be exercising self-defense on behalf of the Vietnamese people. There is little to suggest how the armed struggle mutated out of the peace movement. It looks like Berlin kind of suffered from a Wild West syndrome but there is no reference to the fact that the Springer press (biggest one in the country) was urging its readers to violence against leftist students. The most fascinating trial in history isn't portrayed well: they don't even show the part where Judge Prinzing's head is slammed into the podium by Klaus Jünschke, nor do they mention that Prinzing was eventually disqualified from conducting the trial due to his obvious prejudice (though his prior rulings were inexplicably permitted to stand). The film's biggest strength is the incidental noises in the background. They're pretty cool. Johanna Wokalek, Moritz Bleibtreu and Martina Gedeck all demonstrate some sense of the principals, it's unfortunate that their performances were never given any historical or personal context, and that the cinematic context that they're placed in ranges from half-dimensional nonsense to outright lies. The overwhelming evidence that they were murdered by the state in Stammheim prison is simply ignored. It is noted that Irmgard Möller survived, but no mention is made of her statements regarding the attacks. It doesn't even work as a movie. The character of Horst Mahler is properly put front and center, and then simply forgotten. Same with the mysterious envelope that Gudrun Ensslin directed to the clerics in the event that she was murdered. It's not the worst or dumbest movie in the world, but below average. More than that it represents an opportunity to tell a true and fascinating story with reverberations to today, squandered.
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