Writing in VL-5/03, reviewer Frank Swietek said: “Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta's 1975 adaptation of Heinrich Böll’s novel, set in a West Germany terrified by the crimes of the Marxist Baader-Meinhof gang, may be even more thematically relevant to contemporary audiences, with its depiction of the public vilification of a naïve young woman who enjoyed a brief tryst with a suspected terrorist (the young Jürgen Prochnow, with a billowing head of hair).
Katharina Blum (Angela Winkler) suffers harsh interrogation from the authorities, particularly by gruff Inspector Beizmenne (Mario Adorf), after they storm her apartment the morning after(though the terrorist is gone)–but her treatment at the hands of the yellow press, represented by unprincipled reporter Werner Tötges (Dieter Laser), is even worse. Although mounting an effective indictment against unethical journalistic practices, the film’s spotlight on the inclination to sacrifice basic civil rights in the fight against terrorism carries the greater resonance in the present international climate.
Unfortunately, the power of the subject matter is diminished somewhat by the filmmakers’ clinical, detached style and Winkler’s studied performance, which keep the viewer at an emotional distance (as does the ’70s party music, which really feels dated, although the modernistic background score by Hans Werner Henze remains cutting-edge).” Featuring a new 4K digital restoration, Blu-ray extras include a 2002 interview with Schlöndorffand von Trotta, a 2002 interview with the director of photography Jost Vacano, excerpts from a 1977documentary on author Heinrich Böll, and a booklet with an essay by film critic Amy Taubin. Recommended, overall.