An incredibly well made piece of crap.

Yea, you can appreciate production and the execution of some of the action scenes, but a distinct lack of emotional engagement from these characters, as directed in this objectively compact manner, really ends up exposing shallow character content, with a motivation for making it arising more Pulp Fiction than Che (the latter of which I'm not particularly fond of either, only referenced in context to portraying the heart of the revolutionary). It seems like a shame, this movie could have been important had it connected more..someday far away it may need to be told again.

Now that you mention it, it did seem like new characters appeared out of nowhere without much explanation as to who they were and what their motivations are. I spent most of the movie wondering what the names of most of the characters were, wether RAF members or Police officers trying to catch them.

Has anyone in this topic ever seen the classic film, "The Battle of Algiers"? Much like that, this is a movie where the main character is history itself, rather than the names of the people who write it.

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I know what gold does to men's souls.

I think, you're right. I kind of like this movie, but I think, it is hardly understandable what the *beep* all these people coming out of nowhere are doing, when you have not read the book or do not know anything about this piece of german history. I never understood why this one - compared to the remarkable "Downfall" by the same production team - was even nominated for the Oscar.

I veer toward Laughingman 1466's review. This film did little to explore the motivations, personal or political, of the protagonists in the way that Life of Others did so beautifully. Too many shouty cardboard cut-outs and the sequential action had a whiff of B-movie exploitation with a director a bit too interested in sexy women with big machine guns. Perhaps he's been playing Lara Croft games a bit a more than he should be.

I thought the movie ws brilliant. I had only a very vague idea of who these people were, but the movie basically told their story. Personally, I think the film made it clear enough what their motivation was. And even though it's true there are a lot of characters who suddenly appear in the middle of the film, I don't think we needed to know their names or their backgrounds to understand or appreciate the story.

I guess some people would've preferred a more traditional way of telling the story, and that's alright, they're in their right to not have enjoyed this film.

Perhaps a documentary about the subject from an American context would suit you more. I'd like to suggest to you: The Weather Underground.

I've been loving too much, caring too little -- TormentoR.

I sympathise with the OP somewhat whilst not agreeing that the film was crap. I really wanted to know more about Ulrike Meinhof when I was watching the film. I thought her membership was the most interesting; an intelligent and reflective woman who joined a group of younger people that seemed to have disdain for her and her kind and who ended up as fanatical. Her decision to relinquish the care of her children and never see them again, abandoning them to a most uncertain fate, was breathtaking as was her tacit agreement to have her lover Peter murdered.

I felt that many of the other characters were more explained by their behaviour and reactions, but Meinhof remained an enigma. Also, I would have liked to have seen more of the four during their incarceration at Stammein (?) prison when they were able to interact with one another during their trial.

But I loved the film.

Away with the manners of withered virgins