I think "Baader" has little to offer for viewers who haven't got any knowledge about the "Rote Armee Fraktion", a leftist German terrorist gang of the early Seventies led by Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Ulrike Meinhof. Too many events that are important for the development of the main characters are only vaguely indicated or alluded to. ***SPOILERS AHEAD*** I have read quite a lot about the RAF, so I didn't have this problem. Some sequences of the movie are excellent and intriguing, like for example the Palestinian training camp or Baader's merciless speeches to "soft" gang members. But overall the movie hasn't got enough density to explain how and why Baader and his comrades finally came to blow up US military facilities. The ending of "Baader" offers an interesting twist: The real Andreas Baader committed suicide in jail five years after his arresting. He's generally considered to be one of the most evil villains in post war German history. The fictional Andreas Baader in this movie is shot dead by the police while trying to arrest him. If this would have really happened, Baader might be considered as some sort of Robin Hood by a considerable part of today's German population.
Review of Baader
