With Carlos fresh in mind, I watched this true story of the RAF, or Red Army Faction to you acronym averse. Formed in Germany in 1970 by Andreas Baader, his girlfriend Gudrun Ensslin, and journalist Ulrike Meinhof, the RAF was a violent left wing terror group, self-proclaimed "urban guerrillas" at war with world fascism. They were contemporaries of The Jackel, though much more active and bloody. The film covers their rise and the founders' eventual prison terms. It's an excellent companion piece with Carlos, if I do say so myself. (I did, just then.)
What an incredibly dynamic time the late 60s and 70s were and not for the usual reasons we associate with that era in this country. Europe was a hotbed of this kind of revolutionary spirit, the likes of which we have never experienced in America. That's not a bad thing because even at our worst we've managed to remain stable enough to counterbalance that kind of sentiment (ok, the Civil War, but I'm talking about once we got indoor plumbing). I'm certainly not romanticizing the misguided violence of these terror groups, but from a historical perspective, it makes for some exciting reading and viewing. PLUS
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