The Baader-Meinhof Complex is a film based on the German best selling non-fiction book of the same name by Stefan Aust. It is concerned with the most prominent years of the militant group the Red Army Faction (RAF), who operated in West Germany largely in the 1970s. The film also traces their uprising as a student faction in the late 1960s. Although unsuccessful, it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2009.

This is an impressively made film, but it's also quite challenging to the viewer, in as much as it's an extremely long film, running in at meaty 150 minutes, and it is rather sluggishly paced to boot. On the plus side, though, it is extremely well researched and reportedly is an excellent adaptation not only of the original novel, but of the events as they happened. The only complaint that I have read in regard to accuracy is that it makes the group look too sexy and attractive; too self-consciously cool in the way a gangster film would. Still, some claim that the Baader-Meinhof Group were simply that cool, and thus to portray them any other way would be deceptive in of itself.

There are some interesting remarks about terrorism that are no doubt relevant in a post-9/11 world, but overall it is quite vague in this regard, and in fact quite vague as a piece of narrative. It doesn't serve up easy answers for those looking for an unambiguous piece of historical document; like history itself, it is oblique, esoteric, and very enigmatic. It has a superb cast, including German stars such as Moritz Bleibtreu (Run Lola Run) and Bruno Ganz (who played Hitler in Downfall), but it doesn't make enough of an effort to connect emotionally with the audience, and thus feels a bit limp.