Inglourious Basterds/YMMV


 * Acceptable Targets: The Basterds call all German soldiers "Nazis" and seem to take glee in killing them. In reality, not all German soldiers were party members. Tarantino has claimed that he intended some of the Basterds' actions to be morally ambiguous, and most of them are outright war crimes. In general, there's no clear consensus on whether the audience is supposed to fully support all of the brutal actions taken against the "Nazis."
 * Alternate Character Interpretation: A lot of it. For instance, who are the actual protagonists? Are the Basterds the protagonists? Shoshanna? Is Landa the Villain Protagonist? Or is Raine the Villain Protagonist? Can any of the characters be considered genuine good guys whom the audience can root for? Also, is Landa a Magnificent Bastard or a Complete Monster? Is Raine a Magnificent Basterd? Are the Basterds Anti Heroes, Heroic Sociopaths, or just sociopaths?
 * The radio man was clearly the good guy
 * Applicability: The Nazis are utterly and completely destroyed by Jews in a movie theatre after the end of the war. "This movie is based on a true story" indeed.
 * Award Snub: Losing to The Hurt Locker. It also lost, though it wasn't the favorite
 * Complete Monster: Actually, a major theme of this movie is what qualifies for them. Colonel Landa, Hitler, and so on are the ones who could expect to be them. However, the Basterds may or may not qualify to many audiences given the fact that they're doing it to people who perpetrated the Holocaust.
 * Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels. Unlike Hans Landa (who has a few redeeming qualities despite being a ruthless mass-murderer), the fictional portrayals of these two notorious figures are nothing short of repulsive. While watching the propaganda film, Nation's Pride, they are seen laughing hysterically as American soldiers are gunned down in combat on screen. After taking into consideration the lengthy list of war crimes both of these Nazis had committed up to that point in time, there is no doubt that they lie firmly within this trope.
 * However, Hitler and Goebbels laughing at Americans getting killed is possibly a You Bastard to the audience, since there's a good chance we've been laughing (or at least approving) as Nazis getting killed.
 * Hugo Stiglitz.
 * Depends on what his motive for killing people is. It seems unlikely he's just a Serial Killer, since he doesn't seem to have any victims apart from Gestapo officers, nor does he seem to have a single M.O as most serial killers do; the only thing his killings have in common is that they're very gruesome. If he's killing Nazis because he hates everything they stand for, then this makes him more of a Sociopathic Hero than a Complete Monster.
 * Crazy Awesome: Hugo Stiglitz is pretty much the German Tallahassee.
 * Shoshanna Dreyfus, hands down. Risking everything to execute an attack on the Reich and actually going through with it, even though it costs her her life - while wearing red dress and putting on war paint to David Bowie.
 * Crowning Moment of Funny: "That's a BINGO!"
 * Draco in Leather Pants: Sgt. Donny Donowitz, Col. Hans Landa, and Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz. Yes, really. In that order, in terms of how many Mary Sues each of them gets.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: Hugo Stiglitz.
 * Evil Is Sexy: Stiglitz, Hellstrom and Landa being charismatic and sexy. Even though they are bad murderers. It must be the Cherman accents and the great performances from hot European actors.
 * Ho Yay: When Hitler congratulates Goebbels on Nation's Pride, he addresses him as "my dear." Goebbels is so overcome with emotion at hearing this that he begins to weep.
 * Like You Would Really Do It: We all know that Hitler died in his bunker in Berlin in 1945, and most of the Nazi brass was put on trial for war crimes or committed suicide, so it's a Foregone Conclusion that the theatre plot is doomed to fail just to maintain the historical record.
 * The very second that Marcel
 * Not necessarily;
 * Of course, Hitler himself is not very pleased with this turn of events
 * Magnificent Basterd: Hans Landa is a possible example, as he gets personally involved in many of his Gestapo investigations and ultimately takes a huge risk for personal glory..
 * Memetic Badass: The Bear Jew himself: BONK!
 * Memetic Mutation:
 * "WE'RE GOIN' TO BE DROPPED INTO FRANCE DRESSED AS CIVILIANS. WE'RE GOIN' BE DOIN' ONE THANG AND ONE THANG ONLY, KILLIN' NAT-ZEES."
 * SOUND GOOD?!
 * NEIN, NEIN, NEIN!
 * That's a BINGO!
 * EVERYTHING Brad Pitt says in "Eye-talian."
 * "BON-JERN-O!"
 * Moral Event Horizon: However, some view him as just a man with a misguided crush. This interpretation is supported by Word of God: Daniel Bruhl describes his character as a straightforward Dogged Nice Guy: "He's sweet and he's handsome.... He has to fight hard to get Shoshanna, and he does so throughout the film."
 * Our introduction to Donnie is witnessing him mock, berate, and brutally beat to death an unarmed German prisoner-of-war on his knees who courageously refuses to betray his comrades. The sadistic war-crimes committed by the Basterds cements their role as significantly more villainous than the average German soldier, despite being the protagonists of the film.
 * Said prisoner may himself not be immune: "Fuck you, and your Jew dogs!". While it's easy for some to rationalise this, as he's just had his entire platoon wiped out and had to see most of them be scalped, that doesn't change the fact that it was still a total dick move.
 * Narm Charm: Raine's Southern accent is one of the most exaggerated on film. It's still really damn cool in a way. It gets hilarious when he tries speaking Italian. His accent is actually pretty spot on for a rural East Tennessean accent. Even today, people in and around his hometown of Maynardville, Tennessee really do talk like that. It probably helps that Quentin Tarantino was born in nearby Knoxville. Reality Is Unrealistic, apparently.
 * Periphery Demographic: One thing Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth didn't expect is the movie having such a large popularity amongst the yaoi fans. Though they both announced their immense approval of the fan fiction upon discovering it.
 * Tear Jerker:
 * Played completely straight with the farmer at the start of the film.
 * The Scrappy: Major Hellstrom, apparently.
 * Ships That Pass in The Night: Donny/Utivich, one of the fandom's most popular ships, even though they exchange no dialogue. It's still possible because we only see a little of the Basterds and they probably had a lot more contact with each other than what is actually shown. (A good reason to hold out for a prequel.)
 * Smug Snake: Where Landa more likely falls. The gaping flaw in his plan  His plan doesn't work out the way he thought it did either, and to the extent it succeeds does so as much for his incompetence as his treachery, failing to recognise the vengeful girl whose life he ruined years ago.
 * Major Hellstrom definitely falls into this category. His handling of the situation after  is laughable, especially since there were other options that apparently don't occur to him.
 * Some might consider Bridget Von Hammersmark to be one of these, even though she's one of the good guys. She generally seems disdainful of the intelligence of the people she's working with, although given the way things turn out, this might be justified. However, her leaving behind  was extremely stupid, though it's understandable she might not think of that under the circumstances.
 * Squick: A number of examples throughout:
 * The scalping and mutilations performed by the Basterds, sometimes given very close and detailed attention.
 * The prospect of dying
 * Pressing someone to reveal information by
 * Goebbels having sex. Please pass the bleach. At least the woman's hot.
 * They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The titular characters appear for only a very small percentage of the time. The plot is mostly about a completely different character and her tribulations while running a theatre in occupied France.
 * What an Idiot!: Shoshanna's reaction to.
 * The Woobie: Zoller, strangely enough.
 * They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The titular characters appear for only a very small percentage of the time. The plot is mostly about a completely different character and her tribulations while running a theatre in occupied France.
 * What an Idiot!: Shoshanna's reaction to.
 * The Woobie: Zoller, strangely enough.
 * The Woobie: Zoller, strangely enough.
 * The Woobie: Zoller, strangely enough.