OK, so this a quick recommendation of an 18-year-old movie that I stumbled upon the other night on Prime. But it’s a recommendation of a still topical movie during these polarized political times, both in the U.S. and Europe: ‘The Baader Meinhof Complex,’ a German film about the infamous Red Army Faction, better known as the Baader Meinhof Gang, which terrorized West Germany for decades, starting in the late 1960s. Watching the film, it’s hard not to think of how the movie’s plot progression – which basically tracks left-wing ideologues’ transformation from ‘60s armchair radicals to cold-blooded terrorists – applies to today’s politics. Specifically, how it applies to the rise of political extremism in general. Today, I happen to believe the most extremist threat to our democracy comes from the storm-the-Capitol right. But it’s also disturbing to see an increasing number of people on the left embracing a party that’s partly, if not largely, dominated by outright Marxists. Ultimately, one of the movie’s main messages, as I saw it, was how easily a radical political movement can drift from passionate rhetoric to murderous action. It’s happened before — and it can happen again. … I definitely recommend ‘Baader Meinhof Complex,’ especially to fellow history buffs and political junkies. ….

Btw: The Wikipedia entry on ‘The Baader Meinhof Complex’ extensively quotes from the late Christopher Hitchens’s original high praise of the film in Vanity Fair. Roger Ebert admired the movie, but identifies some of its faults. And here’s the NYT’s Fred Kaplan on the film.