Sunday, 4 September 2016

Marxists Behaving Badly - The Baader Meinhof Complex, Lone Star and Hitman: Agent 47

An update on my latest movie viewing, first up is a German language film given to me a few years ago by my mate John.

The Baader Meinhof Complex

Interpreting a death of a protester at a rally and an assassination attempt on a left-wing leader as government crypto-fascism, Andreas Baader (Moritz Bleibtreu), Gudrun Ensslin (Johanna Wokalek) and Ulrike Meinhof (Martina Gedeck) form the Red Army Faction (RAF) to hit back.


The movie tries to be as even-handed to the protagonists as it can while not disguising the horror perpetrated by them (and, to some extent, to them), but can't help but paint Baader and Ensslin as a kind of left-wing Bonnie and Clyde, with Meinhof providing the ideology. The RAF dissolved in the late 90's, but a recent attempted bank robbery has been linked to some former members.

Hitman: Agent 47

A sequel to Hitman,  which I blogged about a couple of years back, this has Rupert Friend in the title role, taking over from Timothy Oliphant, who obviously got a better gig elsewhere. Trying to find her father, Katia van Dees (Hannah Ware) becomes a target of two mysterious organisations.


Although an inferior remake of the original, it's also not a half-bad pizza movie, mostly due to Zachary Quinto as the antagonist. And it could have been worse. It could have been Pixels.

Lone Star 

Made in the 1990's and written and directed by John Sayles, this is one of my all-time favourite films. Sheriff Sam Deeds (Chris Cooper) investigates the death of one of his corrupt predecessors, Charlie Wade (Kris Kristofferson), while rekindling a romance with a former flame (Elizabeth Peña).


Told mostly in flashback as Sam tries to establish how much his father, played by Matthew McConaughey, was involved in the death of Wade, the film is only a whodunnit on the surface and at it's heart centres around the unfinished romance between Sam and Pilar. A rare and beautiful film and highly recommended.

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