# Brad Pitt in inglourious Basterds is the most enigmatic performance I've ever seen **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 7, 2019, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brad-pitt-in-inglourious-basterds-is-the-most-enigmatic-performance-ive-ever-seen/832165 "2019-04-07T10:27:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2019, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brad-pitt-in-inglourious-basterds-is-the-most-enigmatic-performance-ive-ever-seen/832165/81 "2019-04-09T19:14:51Z")
I agree that Landa probably believes that he is an honorable man. But he is incorrect, because it appears his definition of honorable is “whatever Landa does” which doesn’t seem to be that uncommon in sociopaths. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2019, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brad-pitt-in-inglourious-basterds-is-the-most-enigmatic-performance-ive-ever-seen/832165/82 "2019-04-09T20:39:31Z")
The thing is, there are cultures that have a very strict sense of what “honorable” means. And what makes people effective in those cultures is when they figure out ways to get what they want while still obeying those rules of honor. So if you have a hated rival you can’t just murder them in secret, and you can’t just challenge them to a fight. You have to maneuver them into a position where they insult you, and THEN you can challenge them to an “honorable” duel and kill them. You killed them, but everyone in your society has to agree that you killed them according to the rules. Landa ultimately doesn’t exactly care about “honor” in this sense. Yes, he follows his twisted and perverse code of honor. But that’s only because it makes him feel all the more superior to others when he can beat them while still following his “code”. He follows his code because it’s dueling left handed. If he uses his right–over too quickly. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2019, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brad-pitt-in-inglourious-basterds-is-the-most-enigmatic-performance-ive-ever-seen/832165/83 "2019-04-09T20:50:25Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > Every performance in the movie is a masterclass. The only ones that don’t necessarily compete in intensity is between Shoshanna and the German soldier. They’re fine but not completely entrancing. Edit: on second thought, they’re really well acted, the characters are just more normal people who aren’t as intense our unique as the more compelling and enigmatic characters. > > But Landa, Lapeditte, Raines, Hammersmark, whoever it is that Fassbender played… Even Maybe Mike Meyers… All career defining performances. Tarantino managed to get an incredible performance out of everyone. > > Landa vs LaPeditte, the bar scene, Raine vs Landa, Landa vs Shoshanna, Landa vs Hammersmark. Somehow this one from has like 8 of the best 20 well acted high tension adversarial scenes committed to film. > > Every time I watch it I like it more. It’s now in my top 5 all time. I like Raine’s Italian…“Bone jerno”…and how the member of the team with the 3rd-best command of the language doesn’t speak a word. “I said he was 3rd-best…” Notice how Hammersmark says that they can carry it off because Germans have no ear for accents; and then they immediately encounter Landa, absolutely fluent in Italian (his 4th language in the film). Such a great film. Although I always close my eyes when the Bear Jew dispatches the German with a baseball bat. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brad-pitt-in-inglourious-basterds-is-the-most-enigmatic-performance-ive-ever-seen/832165/84 "2019-04-10T06:42:41Z")
**manson1972** , twice now people have specifically mentioned [Honor Killings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_killing) but you haven’t acknowledged the practice, much less the (insane/ridiculous/evil) reason for it or why it’s called that. Seems like a disingenuous dodge to completely ignore that in a thread where you repeatedly (and incorrectly) assert that “honor” can only describe good things. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brad-pitt-in-inglourious-basterds-is-the-most-enigmatic-performance-ive-ever-seen/832165/85 "2019-04-10T12:20:12Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > I think the problem is that you seem to think that a nazi could be honorable. [It’s possible.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rabe) > [@](#): > > [John] Rabe and his zone administrators tried frantically to stop the atrocities. […] Rabe’s attempts to appeal to the Japanese by using his Nazi Party membership credentials only delayed them; but that delay allowed hundreds of thousands of refugees to escape. The documentary Nanking credited him for saving the lives of 250,000 Chinese civilians. Other sources suggest that Rabe rescued between 200,000 and 250,000 Chinese people. I bring this up not because I have a dog in this fight, but because it is an amazing bit of history. And to point out that if you are doing something that makes a card-carrying Nazi the good guy, then you must be pretty good at evil. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2019, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brad-pitt-in-inglourious-basterds-is-the-most-enigmatic-performance-ive-ever-seen/832165/86 "2019-04-10T13:34:46Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > **manson1972** , twice now people have specifically mentioned [Honor Killings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_killing) but you haven’t acknowledged the practice, much less the (insane/ridiculous/evil) reason for it or why it’s called that. > > Seems like a disingenuous dodge to completely ignore that in a thread where you repeatedly (and incorrectly) assert that “honor” can only describe good things. Ok, if you must have my opinion on it. It’s stupid, and the people who call it “honor killings” are morons. Happy? ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brad-pitt-in-inglourious-basterds-is-the-most-enigmatic-performance-ive-ever-seen/832165/87 "2019-04-11T05:32:43Z")
He adopted the affectations of an upperclass gentleman, and probably was one before the war. One of those affectations is that a gentleman always keeps his word. It doesn’t at all matter if you happen to be selling out your own mother for profit at the same time. Gentlemen are funny like that. He should have realised he was dealing with an officer, but not a gentleman. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brad-pitt-in-inglourious-basterds-is-the-most-enigmatic-performance-ive-ever-seen/832165.md?page=4)