I had alot of problems with Baader Meinhof Komplex, as it was a subject I have been interested in, I was horrified at the simplifications given to the subject matter. It looks good, like most of Bernd Eichinger films and it starts well enough setting the secene of the era, but it goes rapidly downhill, with characters appearing without taking the time to explain who they are.Jake wrote:watched a few good un's recently including 'The Baader Meinhof Complex', which I had wanted to see for a while and been told it was great and certainly was. I was given an Al Pacino boxset for some reason and I'm not really a fan except for 'Scarface', but watched 'Carlito's Way', Sean Penn was the best thing about that movie pulled off a corupt laywer very well I thought. Watched 'Blow', which I thought was just another movie about drugs and just reaffirmed that I don't think much of Johnny Depp, the chicks love him but I don't!. On the subject of drug movies also watched 'Drugstore Cowboy' which I thought was better than Blow, pretty good stuff. I should come to this thread more often
By the time Ulrike Meinhof joins the group and Andreas Baader breaks out of prison, we lose focus. Suddenly there are new members in almost every scene and none of them gets introduced properly (with the exception of Peter-Jürgen Boock). Certainly, not every character needs a back story, but it would have been essential to tell the audience at least how these recruits got to join the group in general.
By the time that Meinhof, Baader and Ensslin are imprisoned, we really don't care about the RAF any more. And this is mainly because we have no idea who these "2nd generation" people are. Even people who know about the RAF will wonder who this or that guy in each scene is supposed to be because only few of them are even mentioned by name. The assassinations of von Mirbach, Buback and Ponto are just checked off a list to get the story to completion. And the whole Schleyer-kidnapping as well as the attack on the "Landshut" which are supposed to serve as the climax of the movie have terrible timing and leave out so much important information.
Also the German governments role in the suppression of the group could be explored further.