Fresh
It doggedly refuses easy ways out, and it has the guts, brains and critical eye to plumb the roots of terror and its bloody consequences.
Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News
The Baader Meinhof Complex
2008 · 2h 29m · R
Action, Crime, Drama, History, Thriller
Directed by
Uli Edel
Overview
When German police viciously quell a protest against the shah of Iran, popular journalist Ulrike Meinhof rebels against her dishonest marriage, walks away from her children and joins radical anarchist Andreas Baader. Together with Baader's girlfriend, Gudrun Ensslin, they form the violent Red Faction Army, and together perpetrate a slew of terrorist attacks as a way of disrupting the fabric of what they see as an increasingly fascist state.
Director and cast
- Uli Edel Director
- Martina Gedeck as Ulrike Meinhof
- Moritz Bleibtreu as Andreas Baader
- Johanna Wokalek as Gudrun Ensslin
- Nadja Uhl as Brigitte Mohnhaupt
- Stipe Erceg as Holger Meins
- Niels-Bruno Schmidt as Jan Karl Raspe
- Vinzenz Kiefer as Peter-Jürgen Boock
- Simon Licht as Horst Mahler
- Alexandra Maria Lara as Petra Schelm
- Bruno Ganz as Horst Herold
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
85%
Tomatometer
Fresh
The Baader-Meinhof Complex is not an easy film to watch; its violence is ugly and brutish. And there's a lot of it.
Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic
Fresh
Part thriller, part social history, this tense 2008 drama traces the rise and fall of the Baader-Meinhof gang.
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader
Fresh
It'd be nice to see an American filmmaker commit a similar reckoning with the Watts riots, the Weather Underground, or the Black Power movement, not simply resort to cant and kitsch but to really interpret those moments.
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
Fresh
There are some literally killer performances here, most notably Johanna Wokalek as Gudrun.
Tom Long, Detroit News
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IMDb
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Rotten Tomatoes
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Metacritic
72
Comments
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