(*2 Stars*) During my years playing college basketball, I had a teammate that I shared a locker with who would tirelessly coax me into sniffing his tremendously odorous sneakers after each practice. Following a bombardment of insults and gender-threats that would cause even the Macho-Man Randy Savage to quiver in his florescent, knee-high, corset-laced wrestling boots, I would eventually concede to inhaling the repugnant scent. Now while there is a moment of exhilaration while smelling something so perverse, I end up leaving the contest not with a new profound appreciation for rancid aromas like I’m some kind of fart aficionada (let’s see, two parts bean and could that be a hint of asparagus that you blow my way?), but more or less depart just as stupid as I was prior to my nasal maltreatment.
This stimulating yet unenlightening experience very much parallels the 2008 German film by Uli Edel, Der Baader Meinhof Complex. The movie, which stars Moritz Bleibtreu, Martina Gedeck and Johanna Wokalek, and is written and produced by Bernd Eichinger, was adapted from a German best selling non-fiction book and was selected as the official German submission for the 81st Academy Awards in the category Best Foreign Language Film. Aside from the fact that the Academy is about as competent at selecting best pictures as the guy who opted for Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan during the 1984 NBA draft, the film bolsters an impressive resume and is crammed with 2 ½ hours of semi-gripping entertainment (including an opening scene on a nude beach!…who would ever have thought reading subtitles could be so difficult…like playing a game of vertical Pong). However, similar to a baby with a wet diaper full of poo-poo surprise, you feel bogged down when leaving the theater, contemplating as to why did I just see that?
For those of us who stopped paying attention in history class after World War II and whose only correlation to Germany is Hitler, Heidi Klum, bratwursts, and techno music (what? You never learned that the Nazis were highly trained in glow stick warfare?), the film does an appropriate job of acclimating the audience to Germany during the 1970s: a horrendous period when bomb attacks, the perils of terrorism, and the alarm of enemy infiltration are shaking the groundwork of the still fragile German democracy.
The movie focuses on the fanatical offspring of the Nazi generation commanded by Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof and Gudrun Ensslin (a terrorist trio that lack a harmonious makeup like three testicles or Yin and Yang and Wang; with a pair of them overcome with rage typified by momentary outbursts like they have Terets, while the character of Meinhof possesses the charm and intrigue of a dead hamster). These founders of the militant group the Red Army Faction (RAF) have declared war against what they perceive as the new face of fascism--American Imperialism--and all those who sustain it, namely the German government, the majority of whom have a Nazi past. The movie tracks their efforts to fashion a more humane society through the use of terror and bloodshed, which eventually leads to their own loss of humanity.
What gave me goose bumps during the film was the director’s ability to conceive a storyline from the terrorist’s point of view that causes you to tear at your morals like Hulk Hogan dismantling his shirt. This inward skirmish may be attributed to the phenomenal acting displayed in the movie, but one cannot help but empathize with the factions honorable beginnings to take action to change what they believe in, opposed to rambling incessantly to no avail. However, one’s sympathetic stance dissipates as quickly as it began like an adolescent erection, when one witnesses the atrocities, brutal savagery, and hypocritical lifestyle that overload the screen. The film effectively portrays a terrorist group’s ability to lose sight of their cause while amassing so many killings.
By the conclusion of the movie, you feel inclined to strap a bomb to your chest (and bladder) and detonate the device due to the overwhelmingly praiseworthy tribute the film seems to be giving to the terrorist group. As the botched attempts accrue to secure their freedom and endless debates endure to advocate better prison living conditions for their posse (while in the scene previous they decimate victims at close range with machine guns), you try to refrain from screaming out like you always wanted to do to that kid who burped the alphabet in elementary school: “ENOUGH!” Finally (and I do mean finally), the film abruptly ends and you sit there examining your peers as they stare back at you, as if you are having a telepathic conversation asking one another “Is it okay to leave now?”
Although I believe this film’s acting, script, and cinematography are unmatched, I sit here perplexed by the meaning of it all. Is there some overall message I can abstract from the picture? Or is this some obscure documentary about uprising of terrorism in Germany during a time when I was still hanging out in my dad’s testicles? If so, what can history teach me that may be applicable today? All in all, if you plan on seeing the film, do not expect to leave changed or even in a good mood. And if you are looking for mindless entertainment…well…you could have found that at home sniffing around in your smelly shoes.
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