INGLORIOUS BASTERDS: Was Lapadite (the French farmer) punished? (open spoilers)

[Captain_Amazing]

@Sherrerd

I see this as looming larger in Landa’s calculations than others in this thread apparently do. From the troopers’ point of view, Landa would be sparing collaborators-with-enemies-of-the-state. They didn’t know about any promises Landa has made–and more importantly, they wouldn’t care about such promises. Lapadite flouted Nazi decrees, and Lapadite must pay.

So? If the troopers have been with him for some time, then they know how he works, and if they’re, like I recall they are, then why does Landa care what they think? The question is, will his superiors care? And I don’t think they will? They know his reputation, and it’s sufficient to give him a lot of leeway. If you do your job well, idiosyncrasies like that can be tolerated.

[Ogre]

@The_Other_Waldo_Pepper

I think he spared the farmer, as the ending’s kinda absurd otherwise: it makes sense for Landa to strike that deal if he’s always been the Guy You Can Do Business With, but it’d be weird for him to figure the Basterds will stick to the bargain – and be shocked when they mess him up – if he’s typically been a Pray-I-Don’t-Alter-It-Further dick after the other side has come through for him.

Nail on head. In order for his reaction at the end of the movie to make any sense, he would almost have had to leave Lapadite alive.

[AClockworkMelon]

@AK84

Lands is not evil, he is just effective at his job and he enjoys it. The fact it is “Jew Hunting” is irrelevant, I think.

If your job is hunting families down to exterminate them, there’s a good chance you’re evil. If you enjoy it, you’re evil.

[Little_Bird]

@Elendil_s_Heir

Interesting question; I hadn’t thought this before. I suspect Landa let the French farmer live; word would get around in the area that he was a man of his word and it would make Landa’s job (catching fugitive Jews) easier. He probably would have warned the farmer, though, that this was a one-time deal - if he later learned that the farmer was again hiding other Jews, the farmer and his family would die just as unpleasantly as the fugitives.

Agree 100%. Killing the farmer gets him nothing. Letting the farmer live gives him the reputation of a man who keeps his word and gives anyone else hiding Jews the incentive to turn them over.

[bucketybuck]

@Sherrerd

I see this as looming larger in Landa’s calculations than others in this thread apparently do. From the troopers’ point of view, Landa would be sparing collaborators-with-enemies-of-the-state.

But the film already shows us that Landa doesn’t care about this, remember that he also lets Shoshanna go!

Instead of shooting at the clearly visible girl or ordering his soldiers to give chase, those soldiers watch as Landa just laughs and shouts “farewell” to the fleeing Jew. If he doesn’t care what they think about that then I doubt he cares about Lapadite.

Besides, this is the guy tasked with security for Hitler himself, and a guy secure enough to just flat out murder a highly visible German film star based on his own suspicions. I doubt any mere soldier wants to get on his bad side, he could do whatever the hell he wanted.

[Malthus]

@The_Other_Waldo_Pepper

I think he spared the farmer, as the ending’s kinda absurd otherwise: it makes sense for Landa to strike that deal if he’s always been the Guy You Can Do Business With, but it’d be weird for him to figure the Basterds will stick to the bargain – and be shocked when they mess him up – if he’s typically been a Pray-I-Don’t-Alter-It-Further dick after the other side has come through for him.

This is convincing.

[Hail_Ants]

Nitpick: Being that I don’t think anyone has pointed it out, but in the thread title you spelled ‘Basterds’ right (i.e. wrong) but you spelled ‘Inglorious’ wrong (i.e. right!)

[Lakai]

@The_Other_Waldo_Pepper

I think he spared the farmer, as the ending’s kinda absurd otherwise: it makes sense for Landa to strike that deal if he’s always been the Guy You Can Do Business With, but it’d be weird for him to figure the Basterds will stick to the bargain – and be shocked when they mess him up – if he’s typically been a Pray-I-Don’t-Alter-It-Further dick after the other side has come through for him.

This is what I thought as well. Landa seems genuinely shocked when Lt. Raine breaks his promise. His reaction wouldn’t make sense if he had a habit of breaking his own promises.

It’s also a running theme in the movie that the Basterds might be less honorable than their Nazi counterparts. One notable example is the scene where we are introduced to the Bear Jew. The soldier he kills with a bat does not give up the location of the other soldiers and dies with honor.

[dropzone]

Landa wasn’t the only German in France. Someone else would use the knowledge of what Lapadite did as an excuse to kill him, so whatever Landa said, when he left Lapadite was a dead man walking.

[Moe]

@The_Other_Waldo_Pepper

I think he spared the farmer, as the ending’s kinda absurd otherwise: it makes sense for Landa to strike that deal if he’s always been the Guy You Can Do Business With, but it’d be weird for him to figure the Basterds will stick to the bargain – and be shocked when they mess him up – if he’s typically been a Pray-I-Don’t-Alter-It-Further dick after the other side has come through for him.

I’m also very convinced by this argument. In fact, I think from now on when I watch it, I’ll see these 2 scenes as very deliberately paralleling each other.

[bucketybuck]

@dropzone

Landa wasn’t the only German in France. Someone else would use the knowledge of what Lapadite did as an excuse to kill him, so whatever Landa said, when he left Lapadite was a dead man walking.

Plenty of Germans in France, but how many are actually going to have a grudge against some isolated French farmer in the middle of the countryside?

[Skald_the_Rhymer]

@AK84

Lands is not evil, he is just effective at his job and he enjoys it. The fact it is “Jew Hunting” is irrelevant, I think.

That’s nuts. Of course Landa is evil. He’s efficiently enjoying hunting down and murdering innocent people. That’s what EVIL means.

[Sherrerd]

@bucketybuck

Instead of shooting at the clearly visible girl or ordering his soldiers to give chase, those soldiers watch as Landa just laughs and shouts “farewell” to the fleeing Jew. If he doesn’t care what they think about that then I doubt he cares about Lapadite.

That’s an excellent point.