Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Let's be realistic.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Germans have a quality wave of movies that reached wold audience in the early 21st century, after the Run Lola Run hit. This movie is perhaps not the best of the best, but is interesting, original and gives a story of one turbulent era with great detail and precision.

By 1960ies, most of Western countries had recovered from the wounds of World War II, settled down, acquired nice residences and furniture. Their children, who were tangibly provided, wanted to move beyond accepted norms and fight with injustice both internally and externally. Due to Cold War and socialist propaganda, many started to believe that Lenin, Mao, Che, Ho Chi Minh and others were / had been real "tenders" for the poor and the oppressed, hence the world revolution must be boosted...Such is the background where the Rote Armee Fraktion or RAF operated, often with fatal destruction. Most of members were probably naive and wanted to make a (fast) difference, but at least leaders got knowledge and money from e.g. Arab terrorist groups and Stasi, and when bearing in mind that "leftist" extremism has caused much more casualties than "rightist" (incl. Hitler), then I personally can't justify any violent means for improving the world - concurrently admitting that the West made at least PR and foreign policy mistakes during that period...I find the film well directed and performed, the cast is evenly strong and versatile, although Moritz Bleibtreu and Bruno Ganz were the only ones I remembered. The pace, however, is uneven: sometimes tensions fade, and the 2 hour 15 minutes film covers too long period of activities, making some events short and sketchy to comprehend. At the same time, I can realise that the filmmakers wanted to focus on members' minds and motives, to show why and how they chose the way did. Realism is still maintained (with alternating documentary scenes) and - contrary to some critics - I see no glorification of those activists, their finale is a decent warning to e.g. the youth possessing discontent with current situation in the world...

"The Baader-Meinhof Group" is a provocative, brutal, German film meticulously directed by Uli Edel "Last Exit to Brooklyn" (1990), written by Bernd Eichinger "Downfall" (2004), and stars some of Germany's best actors: Martina Gedeck, Moritz Bleibtreu, Johanna Wokalek and Bruno Ganz. These talents come together to tell the story of the founders of the Red Faction Army (RAF), one of Germany's violent left- wing anti-capitalist group against western imperialism in Germany, whose logo is a combination of a Red Star and an MP5 sub-machine gun. Working off of transcripts and real-life accounts, Uli Edel simply re-creates the story and history of the Red Army Faction in accordance with the historical record, while never imposing judgment or opinions. Germany in the 1970s: Murderous bomb attacks; the threat of terrorism and the fear of the enemy infiltrating high levels of government is rocking at the very foundations of the fragile German democracy. The radicalized children of the Nazi generation are led by Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, and Gudrun Ensslin who are fighting a violent war against what they perceive as the new face of fascism: American imperialism supported by the German establishment--many of whom have a Nazi past. Their aim is to create a more human society, but by employing the use of terrorism and the threat of violence, they lose their own humanity in the process. "The Baader Meinhof Complex" is visually riveting with fantastic action scenes, and at times can become almost emotionally overwhelming. Edel propels the complex narrative and its myriad ricochets, and it surprisingly holds together quite well. That being said, the sheer length and constant brutality and bloodshed mount, making the viewing of last third of the film laborious. An impressive, well done period piece, but "The Baader-Meinhof Complex" is diluted by too many events, with too many characters, distributed over too much time.

I knew about the Baader-Meinhof gang but it wasn't the big story in the U.S. that it was in Europe. Youth unrest was widespread at the time and, although the Red Army Faction might have been the most violent group in the West, it wasn't as unique here as it was in Germany and nearby countries. So I didn't know when I went to see the film what to expect. Was I going to see an actual documentary? Was it fiction based on 'real events," an increasingly popular form that sometimes puts a premium on accuracy and sometimes on drama at the expense of accuracy. While watching the film, I had no idea how close any of it was to the truth. I knew about Rudi Dutschke and I remembered Ulrike Meinhof, mainly because she was the public face of the gang. But I don't recall knowing who or what Baader was, and I certainly never heard of any of the others. I was interested to learn afterward that the film closely tracked a major book on the history of the gang. It makes quite a good movie, and the people in it are fascinating., particularly Andreas Badder, Mrs. Meinhof and Gudrun Essenlin. Baader appears to have been a charismatic and mercurial man who is thrilled by the chances he takes. Ulrike Meinhof as portrayed in the film is smart but unstable. Gudrun Essenlin, Baader's sexy, free- loving girlfriend, is the ideological firebrand. With Rudi Dutscke in London recovering from an assassination attempt, the others may be willing participants in robbery and murder, but they are followers not leaders. The dramatic arc of this film is said to be modeled on actual events but, if that's true, history proves to be unexpected artful. Tension is sustained all the way, the major characters are highly individualized, the acting is quite good, the cinematic values are high and, while the musical choices are sometimes jarring (Janis Joplin singing "Lord won't you give me a Mercedes-Benz, the film is as the over-line says a fascinating reconstruction of a fraught period in history. Looked at from 30+ years later, the deadly career of the Baader- Meinhof crowd seems juvenile and also quaint.