Analysis/Opinion The Nazis are a relentless, organized, indomitable force that is symbolized by two characters: Colonel Landa and Major Hellstrom.

Rating: 10/10 (20 March 2020)

"People should either be caressed or crushed. If you do them minor damage they will get their revenge; but if you cripple them there is nothing they can do. If you need to injure someone, do it in such a way that you do not have to fear their vengeance."
Niccolo Machiavelli
This is in simpler terms the ethos of almost every character of the movie. It is maniacal if not sadist the style of how the characters get their gruesome job done, and is as if their identity depended on it: the Jew Hunter, Aldo the Apache, Little Man, The Bear Jew. Tarantino effectively wrote a movie in which your sadist ways define you. Col Landa was the least infatuated with violence, but nonetheless clinically effective and inquisitively meticulous on his "detective" role. There are so many interesting gestures on how Col. Landa navigates a fine line between charisma, sophistication, politeness, and ruthless merciless violence. He is a predator with his prey in his jaw boisterously playing with it with his wordplay.
The movie is not a historical documentary: It is CLEAR fiction gentlemen. Many people are understandably annoyed, angry, enraged? The movies audacity to portray a fictional world where a guerrilla force terrorizes Nazis as retribution for all the atrocities they committed hits a special place in people. We have all at different levels felt at least uncomfortable at the pain and injustice of the suffering of Jews in the holocaust. Tarantino exploits that sentiment and makes you go on an emotional ride that gives you free reign to fantasize on the injustices; you care immediately for the characters.

The messages are clear on the onset. The Nazis are a relentless, organized, indomitable force that is symbolized by two characters: Colonel Landa and Major Hellstrom. Yes, Adolf Hitler is the leader of the party and is an excellent strategist, but the main focus of the power and extension of the Nazi prowess in the movie are these two characters; they are the main resistance to the Basterds intentions. Conversely, the Basterds and Shosanna are the architects of the sacrificial revenge exerted on the Nazis, and it is irresistible to not cheer and get animated by their success. This is the beauty of this movie that in many of the tense scenes the viewer gets so invested in the survival and success of the basterds that we can't help but justify their actions albeit being gory and borderline sadist.
The fantasy of a guerilla army stopping the genocide of the Nazi party is especially delicious, but an infiltrator that exemplifies all the positive qualities aforementioned in the form of Col. Landa was even more exquisite. Colonel Landa was a detective and a very pragmatic one at that, molding himself depending on who he was talking to, but permanently charismatic and vibrant. The Basterds, despite the opportunity to end the war that Landa provided them, were not satisfied with just letting Landa leave in peace and pleasure. They had to brand him as a person that was not able to escape the conceptual vengeance of their guerilla army. Yes, he betrayed the Nazi Party and rightly so, but, seriously, a man like Colonel Landa is not compatible with the philosophy of the Nazi Party, right?