‘THE Baader Meinhof Complex” isn’t, very: This saga of Communist terrorists sowing mayhem in 1970s Germany treats a bloody band as a unit of stouthearted warriors sallying forth to fight for their principles against impossible odds.
Built by a leftist journalist named Ulrike Meinhof (Martina Gedeck) and car thief Andreas Baader (Moritz Bleibtrau), the Red Army Faction set fire to a department store, bombed US military installations and a newspaper publisher, and assassinated cops, judges, bankers and innocent bystanders.
All of it was in the name of supporting Communist North Vietnam, destroying capitalism and the legal system and bringing on an international Marxist-
Leninist revolution.
This repetitive, drawn-out movie, which was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, barely mentions communism. Amid the endless urgent arguments about revolution (“All over the world armed comrades are fighting. We must show our solidarity!”) it can’t squeeze in the fact that the group was being trained by the East German police state.
The group was also vehemently anti-Israel and supported Arab terrorists, who, according to this movie, couldn’t deal with the Red Army Faction hotties’ penchant for nude sunbathing.
The period detail is convincing, and there is some snap to a few action scenes, but this Bonnie-and-Klaus story never comes close to making its gallery of interchangeable killers sympathetic or even interesting.
In early days, the gang is shown stealing cars to the strains of “My Genera-
tion.” Too bad their wish to die before they get old wasn’t granted sooner.
As for the moxie of the ending — Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” backs up the closing credits, as though we have just seen a film about a circle of peace lovers — let’s just say you don’t need a weatherman to know when it’s raining bull droppings.
THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX Baadly misplayed. In German, with English subtitles. Running time: 150 minutes. Rated R (graphic violence, profanity, sex, nudity). At the Angelika and the Cinemas 1, 2, 3.