Ankur – Page 19

‘The Baader-Meinhof Complex’, ‘The Wave’, and ‘The Mist’ film reviews

The Baader-Meinhof Complex (originally Der Baader Meinhof Komplex) explores the growth and downfall of a radical leftist group in 60s / 70s Germany called the Red Army Faction (RAF) that engaged in terrorist acts as a form of political protest. It is named after its two main leaders, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof. Unless you are German, it’s unlikely that you will be familiar with the events depicted in the film – based on real-life events – which makes the film an interesting lesson in modern history. In tone, it reminded me of Munich due to the similar subject matter – the attack on the Munich Olympics is acknowledged in this film too – except in this case the film focuses on the terrorists. The Baader-Meinhof Complex does a good job of explaining the motivations of the terrorists without glorifying them. Recommended watch for any history buff.

Rating: 3.5 / 5

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The Wave (originally Die Welle) is yet another German film that does not shy away, does not tread lightly. The setup for the film is an anti-establishment teacher in a high school who decides to offer a class on autocracy as a way of showing how fascism could have taken hold in Hitler’s Germany in a supposedly-democratic country, and things escalate quickly when the students let the power go to their head. While not quite as disturbing as the Stanford prison experiment (and films based on it), it is nevertheless considered a classic in Germany for depicting how national socialism can take root even in the modern-day world. The film just feels a tad contrived to be a rated as a “good” film.

Rating: 2.5 / 5

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The Mist – based on the novel of the same name – is perhaps the worst Stephen King film adaptation that I’ve watched. Not having read the novel, I’m not quite sure whether the fault lies in the source material or the adapted screenplay failing to capture the essence of it.

A freak storm unleashes a species of bloodthirsty creatures on a small town, where a small band of citizens hole up in a supermarket and fight for their lives.

The synopsis of the film sounds so C-grade movie that the only reason why I gave it a shot is because of the Stephen King pedigree. The monsters are silly, the suspense is lacking, and the special effects are bad without reaching hilarity-ensuing levels of Birdemic. The only saving grace is the crazy religious nut, who added an element of drama to the film.

Rating: 2 / 5

Why I love…Linkin Park

I can almost imagine the sound of readers clucking in disgust at the words “Linkin Park”. But wait! Hear me out.

My first exposure to Linkin Park was, funnily enough, through the TV channel Cartoon Network at the age of 12: they used to show cartoon music videos in the commercial breaks, some from their own in-house cartoons; or, in the case of Linkin Park, Pts.OF.Athrty from their album Reanimation. The video was a wondrous love-child of Star Wars (with its giant walking robots akin to those on ice planet Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back), The Matrix (with flying Sentinel-like robots), and Halo. The 12-year-old in me loved it!

That age, when we are tweenagers, is when children start making conscious choices about the music that we listen to. Linkin Park’s angsty, screaming lyrics in their first two album releases Hybrid Theory and Meteora appealed to the teenager-me immensely. Talking to friends, they often tell me they went through a similar phase of loving their music at that age. Meteora was undoubtedly the high point in the band’s discography, with all-time classics such as Faint and Numb that have an insanely addictive head-banging energy to them. Their next release, Minutes To Midnight, is perhaps when most people lost interest since they cranked out an album with “more of the same” vibe. Then, with A Thousand Suns and LIVING THINGS, Linkin Park has moved even further away from their core fan-base of nu-metal lovers.

To me, however, it is this very evolution in their style that endears them so much to me. Over the years, I fell in love with many great rock bands – Nine Inch Nails, The Dandy Warhols, Foo Fighters, Rage Against The Machine, Limp Bizkit, Muse, A Perfect Circle – to present day, when my music taste decidedly skews towards indie music. But in none of those cases did the bands start and grow along with me. Much like Harry Potter fans reminisce about how it was such a huge part of their life while growing up – and still is – I feel the same way about Linkin Park. And they do throw in food for thought in their later albums to show how they have grown à la the track The Radiance which makes a political statement by quoting Robert Oppenheimer’s opinion on the Trinity test (the first atom bomb explosion ever).

Part of the allure of the band for me is that I have a huge man-crush on Mike Shinoda. This primarily stems from the fact that he’s an accomplished graphic designer to boot and I have a keen interest in that field. Shinoda has designed most of the cover artwork for Linkin Park albums, as well as private artwork that he’s exhibited. One of the lesser-known gems of his career is a side project hip-hop band called Fort Minor, and if you haven’t heard them already I highly recommend you to check it out. (My favourite is Petrified.)

Linkin Park isn’t a “cool” choice: it’s mainstream, it’s not that path-breaking in the rock genre, it’s not a classic choice like The Beatles nor is it a quirky, lesser-known band with hipster cred. But it’s still my choice for an all-time favourite band.