Marco Abel examines how German film history and historiography have configured political cinema, arguing that two conceptions have roots in the revolts of the “long 1968” and the era’s models of political, or leftist, filmmaking: experimental films seeking to assault viewers’ senses and intellect, and “thematic,” message-driven films dealing with weighty issues of Germany’s past and present. Films falling into neither category are often misconstrued as apolitical. Bringing nuance to this dominant conception of the “political film,” Abel’s account offers a revisionist view of German cinema on the political Left.