THE THIRD GENERATION

“Terrorism is an invention of capitalism to better protect its capital,” Fassbinder once declared. That theory is put to the test in this wildly anarchic satire of guerrilla violence in which a band of leftist radicals inadvertently become puppets of the West German government, which uses them to justify its authoritarian policies. Slapstick comedy (including a game of keep-away with a volume of Bakunin) and oddball habits (the terrorists dress like prewar gangsters and play Monopoly) blend with wild visions and grandiose philosophical speculations. The film’s intertitles are taken from bathroom graffiti; its cinematic references (to Bresson, Tarkovsky, and, especially, Godard) are sublime, and the action scenes are filmed with a razor-sharp pulp efficacy. Fassbinder’s blend of paranoia and whiz-bang wonder stands as one of his most provocative and explosively controversial explorations of power and control.