This movie, as the title suggests, is about the Baader-Meinhof Group - sometimes known as the Red Army Faction or RAF - that terrorized West Germany in the 1970s. Similar to the Weathermen and Weather Underground in the United States in roughly the same period, this group was generally leftists, anarchist and anti-establishment. They saw the West German government as neo-fascist and saw violence including bombing and kidnapping as their main tool for changing that.
The story here follows the main people involved in the group - Baader and Meinhof and their immediate associates. It shows how despite being put in prison in 1972 (only two years after the group's creation) splinter and copy-cat factions of the group continued to act for the next eight to ten years.
As historical fiction or historical narration, this is a very gripping and interesting movie. As a movie to sit back and enjoy, it's a bit clinical. It think part of this is that pace is a bit slow and draggy. I also think this has to do with the subject matter itself - at the end of the day it's simply hard to make terrorism and prisons very bright and fun.
I think I was much more enthusiastic about this movie right after I saw it - but over several days of marinating, I now see this as a good and not great picture. I don't not like this, but it's hard for me to be very passionate about it after living with it for a bit. I like it; I just don't love it.
Stars: 2 of 4
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