Inglourious Basterds/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • 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?
  • 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 Best Original Screenplay to The Hurt Locker. It also lost Best Picture, 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.
    • Hugo Stiglitz could qualify depending on what his motive for killing people really 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. Except it's not.
    • The very second that Marcel locked the theater doors and took his place behind the stage, it became apparent that the heroes couldn't lose.
      • Not necessarily; the locked doors meant that everyone in the main cinema was dead, but Hitler had his own opera box with guards outside, so he could have got away, with the death of the other senior officers being an acceptable bit of artistic licence.
    • 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. He ALMOST gets away without a scratch (and what a scratch it is!).
  • Memetic Badass: The Bear Jew himself: BONK!
  • Memetic Mutation:
  • Moral Event Horizon: Zoller, when he finally snaps. If he did not, Shoshanna shooting him in the back probably would've been too contemptible, even for a movie such as this one. 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.
      • Erm? The man knows he's about to be murdered in cold blood by sadistic war criminals, after having watched them murder most of his men. At this point, any obligation he has to be polite to them has long since expired. Would it have made any difference if he'd gone out telling them "Go fuck your mothers?"
  • 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: subverted. After Shosanna shoot's Zoller, she looks over at his body while sad dramatic music plays making him seem so very sympathetic. As she leans in out of remorse, the whole emotional scene is stopped with Zoller shooting her repeatedly in the gut.
      • Then again, a surprising number of people feel he's completely justified in this case, as he'd been nothing but nice to her for the whole film, and she'd been a complete asshole to him in return. When he finally snaps and berates her, she shoots him several times in the back. Seeing one of the few sympathetic characters go down like that could be considered a Tear Jerker in itself. That said, she never tried to string him along, and the fact that he refused to accept her telling him no and then trying to strong-arm her into a relationship with him negates this.
        • She told him to leave her alone from the beginning, and even (some) of her reasons for it. She didn't play with him or anything. I consider it disgusting, that a girl should accept a wooing just because it is "friendly". Guys who don't accept a "no" AREN'T friendly.
          • Agreed. Also, notice Zoller's choice of words when he's shouting at her. It's not any sort of an Anguished Declaration of Love, it's a domineering threat that clearly establishes that he thinks he's Entitled To Have Her because of everything he's done, none of which she asked him for.
    • 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 is carved into his head. 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 Lt Hicox blows his cover 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 her shoe and her autograph was extremely stupid, though it's understandable she might not think of that under the circumstances.
  • Squick: A number of examples throughout:
  • 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 Zoller stirring after getting shot by her. She leans in close to check on him, as if in remorse. She gets blasted.
    • Then again, she has no way of knowing if he's armed.
    • What did she think he was going to do? Weep in her arms?
  • The Woobie: Zoller, strangely enough.
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