'Der Baader Meinhof Komplex' – Or Why We Need Our Directors to be Ill

posted by Jett Loe

Oh Fritz Lang, if only you were still around!

You would have made a great pic out of the true-life crime epic that is the story of the Red Army Faction.  After all, your great subject was crime – and by extension the evil that men do.  Your ‘The Testament of Dr. Mabuse’ is the most frightening portrait of a criminal I’ve ever seen, (Dr. Mabuse would eat Anthony Hopkin’s Hannibal Lector and Brian Cox’s superior Hannibal Lecktor for lunch).  Don’t believe me?  Check out the trailer for ‘The Testament of Dr. Mabuse’ below – the film itself will scare the hell out of you:

Ok, so Lang is no longer with us.  Who then should have made ‘Der Baader Meinhof Komplex’?  This sprawling story of crime, anarchism, terrorism, idealism, sex, anger misogyny, Fascism and Communism deserves to be photographed and directed as if the people making it were in a fever – some sort of altered state – their brains burning…something.

What is this, the largest film production in post-war German History?  Jesus.  It’s a sprawling epic – look at the number of speaking parts listed at IMDB.  God bless ‘Last Exit to Brooklyn’ Uli Edel and ‘Downfall’ Rainer Klausmann – they make a conventional thriller – and to do so obviously worked their asses off.  The 60′s/70′s decor and wardrobe is impeccable, the actors are scary and sexy and the film gots Bruno Ganz!*, (to me he will always be the fallen angel Damiel from ‘Wings of Desire’ – to the kids out there he’s that Hitler YouTube Dude).

But the film doesn’t ignite – starting off strong it slowly peters out – a metaphor for the RAF itself? No, I won’t be so crass – but you see I liked the pic enough to wish it was better.  Watching it made me wish it was a documentary – anytime ‘Baader Meinhof’ uses real excerpts from TV or newsreels of the time there’s an immediacy – a kind of grungy, fetid 70′s quality that made me want to go there – to see what these people were really like.  How did they justify the terrible things they did?

The script answers that question:  radicalised by the Vietnam war and terrified that West Germany was turning into a police state,  (with so many positions of power held by ex-Nazis one can understand their concern), the post-war generation was ripe for some sort of uprising – yet the film is just too safe – it feels like a made-for-TV movie, (was it? – apparently there’s a TV version that’s 30 minutes longer).

The film itself needs to be radicalised – watching it I just couldn’t help myself thinking: what if Oliver Stone** directed this thing?  An Oliver Stone with all the drugs in the world and 200 Million Dollars.  Alas – we’ll never know.

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‘Der Baader Meinhof Komplex’ is playing at the Belcourt Theatre, Nashville today at 6 and 9pm.

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* Alas, Bruno Ganz suffers from ‘Brian Cox Red Eye Syndrome’ in this pic, (two Brian Cox references in one post!).  What is BCRES?  Well, in ‘Red Eye’ Brian Cox plays Joe Reisert – the crusty yet dependable father of Rachel McAdams’ flight attendant Lisa Reisert.  Poor Lisa is working a shift on a plane that happens to get highjacked in this suspenseful, taut, 85 minute thriller.  During the film Lisa continually calls her her father for help and advice – these calls take place over many hours.

Now ‘Red Eye’ was done on the cheap – its budget was slashed right before production – leading to some cut corners – it’s the reason I like the film actually = do less with more!  Anyhew, they didn’t have much money…it’s obvious that they could only pay Brian Cox for what seems like a day -  so every time we cut back to Joe Reisert, even though it’s supposed to be ‘hours later’ in the film – it’s clear that it’s only seconds from the last scene – the camera’s just moved a few inches to the right to give it a slightly, oh my goodness ever so slightly different feel.  It’s the same deal with Bruno Ganz in ‘Baader’ – though the film takes place over a decade it feels like Bruno shot all his scenes while waiting to be brought into ‘makeup’ for a much better film.

** “Oliver Stone!” I hear you saying.  “Why would you want that hack directing this movie?”  Well yes, quite.  But you see my friends one can argue that Oliver Stone is a hack who’s convinced he’s a genius, and as such his films are always worth watching.  And they are.  Always.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 24th, 2009 at 12:05 am. It is filed under Blog, Directors, Drama, Jett Loe, Jett Loe Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.