Some random thoughts on Der Baader-Meinhof Komplex which I saw last Friday in Santa Monica as part of the LA Chapter of The Goethe Institute..hmm, which reminds me to seek out Fassbinder's take on the movement.

You can tell the director Uli Edel really was inspired to emulate the style and pace of Downfall, the brilliant German film about the last days of Hitler & Co written by  Bernd Eichinger who, as it turns out, is also the writer of DBMK. The film works but only if you take the ride on its own terms; i.e. throw out the three-act structure with a required all-is-good climax. It's a more tantric endurance test than that, but one that pays off if you stick it out.

Any film that even remotely deals with Terrorism from the terrorist’s POV, especially Western Terrorists, is going to raise some eyebrows. I think that is why the filmmakers tried a stylized docu-drama approach, mixing in real news footage of the RAF and staged scenes of the fine, big-boned German casts (Moritz Bleitreu, Martina Gedeck, Bruno Ganz) partying nude, smoking dope, and making bombs. It made me think of the documentaries on American Terrorist movements like The Weathermen and SLA.

 Heady stuff but often draining.

There is one funny scene that stands out as a blaring gulf between West and (Mid) East revolutionaries. The RAF (a movement that is believed to have killed more than 30 public figures in an attempt to crush West German capitalism in the late 1960s and early 1970s) visit a Palistinian Terrorist Camp and immediately piss off the PLO or Hamas (?) by the fore-mentioned  nude sunbathing, drinking, and smoking dope under the Desert sun.

As a film it is often overwhelming as it takes off, almost stops, and then takes off again. That is how history unravels I suppose, but like I said, if you like Downfall’s pace you can get into DBMKs.’ You don’t have to be Chomsky-ites to sympathize with the human toll total faith and immersion in a movement-outlaw or otherwise-can take on a human being. I read that this film will try to be the Best Foreign Film entry for Germany come Oscar time but I'm not holding my breath. A little too..um, challenging for the Academy.

Highly recommended.