The Killer Left

Fred Siegel looks at the new film on the Baader-Meinhof gang:

Aust’s film has been criticized in Germany and Israel for making terrorist thuggery too glamorous. But in order to capture Baader-Meinhof accurately, the film needs to convey its appeal at the time. From mental patients to left-wing ideologues, from rebellious teens to sexually frustrated professionals, the gang’s members captivated many Germans with derring-do and self-conscious theatricality. At the American premiere of the film in New York, Aust was asked by a member of the largely left-wing audience if Baader-Meinhof hadn’t been “criminalized by the state.” He responded coolly, “They were treated as criminals because they committed criminal acts.”