The Baader-Meinhof Complex is a big-budget action flick filled with explosions, shootings, nudity and violent confrontations. Anyone familiar with the true story of the Baader-Meinhof Gang knows that this portrayal is by no means an exaggeration. The Baader-Meinhofs, who actually went by the name Red Army Faction (RAF), were a group of Communist terrorists who committed several acts of violence until they were captured in 1972. More terrorists, inspired by the “first generation” of the RAF, engaged in even more violent attacks in 1977. Although we see clearly what inspired the terrorists, the film does not depict them in a sympathetic light. Yet just showing them as human beings at all appears to have made some Americans uncomfortable, as the film, despite its popularity in Europe, does not have a U.S. distributor.
