Baader (2002)

Director:

Christopher Roth

Writers:

Christopher Roth (writer)
Moritz von Uslar (writer)

Release Date:

17 October 2002 (Germany)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Plot Keywords:

Shot In The Chest | Shot In The Back | Cigarette Smoking | Medication | Misogynist

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Can Taylanlar	...	Mario (as Chan Taylanlar)
Frank Giering	...	Andreas
Laura Tonke	...	Gudrun
Hinnerk Schönemann	...	Victor
Sarah Riedel	...	Inga
Angie Ojciec	...	Claudia (as Angie Ojciek)
Bastian Trost	...	Jan
Sebastian Weberstein	...	Erwin
Ludger Blanke	...	Polizist
Birge Schade	...	Ulrike
Wolfgang Riehm	...	Tagesschausprecher
Wolfgang Ritter	...	Vollzugsbeamter
Ellen Schlootz	...	Maria
Andreas Hofer	...	Ziebland
Rudi Knauss	...	SPD Bezirksvorsitzender

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

Germany | UK

Language:

German | English | French | Arabic

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

Finland:K-13 | Germany:12 | Italy:T

Company:

72 Film

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In the scene where the RAF members are filming each other with a Super-8 camera on a roof-top in Paris, the camera model is a Canon 310XL. This camera wasn't introduced until August 1975, but the scene is set in 1969.

Movie Connections:

Features 48 Stunden bis Acapulco (1967)

Well made biopic with sometimes questionable storyline

A beautifully filmed and excellently played film that conveys in the first half a lot about the life, the thinking, the hopes, and the dreams of those who later became known as the terrorists of the RAF. I like the ironic approach of both script and direction towards these people who thought about themselves as revolutionaries when they were still only a group of bourgeois youngsters looking for their way. The characters were excellently drawn and the dynamics inside the group - especially the psychological pressure put on the others by Andreas Baader - were well conveyed.

The film has some important flaws though, especially concerning the script and the plotline.

I did not understand for example why the storyline had to stray away in the second half from the historical events to a mythical depiction - like in the 'heroic' ending or in the obviously fictitious meeting between police chief Krone and Baader in the night on the road.

But the major flaw of this film is for me that it never addressed all the murders and abductions the RAF conducted, it never put forward that very moment when they really became a lot of unscrupulous terrorists from a bunch of disoriented young people dreaming about the revolution.

All in all a watchable, well made biopic that still leaves a bad taste in the mouth as it abandons at times an exact depiction of historical events to myths and fairy tales.