# Inglourious Basterds (Spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 21, 2009, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inglourious-basterds-spoilers/507254 "2009-08-21T23:37:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inglourious-basterds-spoilers/507254/61 "2009-08-24T18:22:25Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > I read that there is talk of a prequel, not sure what it would cover. Maybe just another WW II story with some of the same people. My guess is that it would involve Harvey Keitel and the scar on Aldo’s throat. They probably go together. My guess would be that Aldo would be hanged by the army for some crime involving excessive brutality to the enemy and after the trap drops, Keitel’s character shoots the rope and gives him his new mission. Of course I’d expect Tarantino to go for something a little less cliched. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inglourious-basterds-spoilers/507254/62 "2009-08-24T18:39:43Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > At the very least, I’d imagine he thought she was a jew due to her reaction to him. If he’s the best detective Germany has to offer, I’d imagine he has a pretty good instinct for those things. Wouldn’t he have either arrested or killed her though? ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inglourious-basterds-spoilers/507254/63 "2009-08-24T18:49:03Z")
Was it common for Jews to just be gunned down like in the first scene? Or was that more common if they were hiding? ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inglourious-basterds-spoilers/507254/64 "2009-08-24T18:51:57Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > Wouldn’t he have either arrested or killed her though? Not enough evidence yet. He knows where she works and lives - she’s not going anywhere with the livelihood of a theater to keep her there until he can verify everything. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inglourious-basterds-spoilers/507254/65 "2009-08-24T19:09:06Z")
One of my geek moments was when the music started playing during the opening credits- “Hey, that’s _Green Leaves of Summer_!” It was the theme to John Wayne’s The Alamo ([YouTube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOdZUHEvIJc)) and I’ve read it was one of JFK’s favorite songs. (\*The Alamo \*theme was a favorite song, _Camelot_ was a favorite musical— no wonder he got shot- his favorite play was probably JULIUS CAESAR.) ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inglourious-basterds-spoilers/507254/66 "2009-08-24T19:13:17Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Was it common for Jews to just be gunned down like in the first scene? Or was that more common if they were hiding? It probably depended on where they were found, whether you had the ability to transport them, etc,.. There were no shortage of Jews just gunned down but it’s something I associate more with the eastern front. (The first part of the movie took place in 1941- the [Wann See Conference](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wannsee_Conference)wasn’t until 1942, so the infrastructure of the train deportation and gas ‘showers’ and crematoriums wasn’t in place yet.) No way of knowing of course, but Walz is such an intriguing character it’s not impossible that, like Hannibal Lecter, the thought of using Jewish girls in brothels (which was done) offended him aesthetically, or that like the Basterds (and Mickey & Mallory in the Tarantinoverse) he liked the notion of “leave one alive to tell the tale”. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inglourious-basterds-spoilers/507254/67 "2009-08-24T19:14:24Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > In my opinion, he did not know. I think he just liked milk, and that was the connection in her mind for the horror she witnessed. I thought he knew…after all, he ordered espresso for himself. He was presented as pretty much knowing everything, and he had let her go once before. I liked the movie overall, and was engrossed in the story. It was suspenseful but didn’t feel as crazy-tense as Pulp Fiction did, maybe because of the time distance. I was bothered by the fakeness of the blood when Aldo cuts the guy at the end. If you’re going to linger on it with a huge screen full of blood, make it look real more real. And meant to say, I did kind of revel in the revenge fantasy of seeing Hitler get fucked up. But I can see the point up-thread of the audience enjoying the same thing the Nazis were. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inglourious-basterds-spoilers/507254/68 "2009-08-24T19:18:12Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > And meant to say, I did kind of revel in the revenge fantasy of seeing Hitler get fucked up. Though I really wanted to see him scalped and taken alive. [Cut to the White House where FDR tells Eleanor “Darling, our company and our grandchildren have gone… bring out Der Gimp”.] ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inglourious-basterds-spoilers/507254/69 "2009-08-24T19:20:11Z")
Aldo could have saved a very special mustache pelt on a key chain or something. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inglourious-basterds-spoilers/507254/70 "2009-08-24T20:41:51Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > In my opinion, he did not know. I think he just liked milk, and that was the connection in her mind for the horror she witnessed. I’m doubtful that he knew also. I mean obviously the audience is supposed to wonder if he knows during the scene, and be all dramatically tense about it, but when it turns out his final question is trivial, at that point I think we are supposed to breathe a sigh of relief that he does not know. It wouldn’t make sense to let her go in order to help his plan to kill Hitler. Because he didn’t have that plan until he captured the Americans. Killing Hitler would have been of no use to him without the connection of the Americans to get him a deal. It’s doubtful he recognized her as the only time he saw her she was far away with her back ot him. The only way he would have known who she was is if he happened to have done some sort of background check already. The only other factor is that he also let her go in the beginning of the film and we don’t know why. Maybe she was too far? Maybe he saw it as a game? Maybe it’s in the deleted chapter about her escape and inheritance of the theater? If we knew why he let her go that time we might surmise some reason that he does know her in the later scene and lets her go. But the way it stands now it’s most likely just a reversal of the first scene - he doesn’t know, oh it turns out he does know! now it’s he knows, oh it turns out he doesn’t know! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Weird\_One](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@The\_Weird\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Weird_One)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inglourious-basterds-spoilers/507254/71 "2009-08-24T21:19:12Z")
> [@drastic\_quench](#): > > I wasn’t sure what the audience was supposed to take away from the ignorance and futility of having two simultaneous plots to destroy the Nazi theatre patrons. There was never a doubt that Shoshana’s plan was going to work. I disagree. Shoshana told her boyfriend to light the film “after I give the signal,” which left open the possibility that she would be physically prevented from doing so. In fact she was, but the signal she gave was in the film, so the plan went forward anyway. There was also the distinct possibility that Landa knew or would realize who Shoshana was and arrest or kill her. Personally, I thought the gore factor was pretty high, but I have a strong distaste for realistic violence in film and looked away a few times to avoid the worst of the scalpings and beatings. I definitely wouldn’t take a 13-year-old to see it. YMMV. > [@jrepka](#): > > Maybe this was too obvious, but I was fascinated by the way we watched these horrible Nazis (or, as Aldo put it, Gnat-zees) laugh and cheer at a movie about a sniper killing hundreds of soldiers, then were put in the same situation of cheering as the movie-goers on the screen are being burned, shot, and blown up for their transgressions. I hope it wasn’t too obvious, because it took me a while to pick up on it. Not sure if it was a critique of the audience, of Tarantino, or of humanity in general. > [@Paul in Qatar](#): > > What is funny about people burning in a cinema? Scalping? Of course things like Fargo go over my head for the same reason. I didn’t find the violence funny, and I don’t think it was meant to be, although the movie had lots of other funny moments. I think if the violence itself was meant to be funny, it would’ve been more over-the-top, as Tarantino in Kill Bill. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/898d66/32.png) [@Johnny\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Q)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inglourious-basterds-spoilers/507254/72 "2009-08-24T22:08:56Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally Posted by drastic\_quench > I wasn’t sure what the audience was supposed to take away from the ignorance and futility of having two simultaneous plots to destroy the Nazi theatre patrons. There was never a doubt that Shoshana’s plan was going to work. And you have to allow for the possibility that those behind either plot had no knowledge of the other’s. Nothing like several independent plots to do the same thing to make things interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inglourious-basterds-spoilers/507254/73 "2009-08-25T00:00:00Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > Uh, and scalpings. Those were extremely graphic. Forgot about those- probably the most graphic part of the movie. Depends largely on the 13 year old therefore; I definitely would have enjoyed it when I was 13 but it may be disturbing to some. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inglourious-basterds-spoilers/507254/74 "2009-08-25T02:08:54Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > I thought he knew…after all, he ordered espresso for himself. He was presented as pretty much knowing everything, and he had let her go once before… No, the milk was for himself and the espresso was for her. He did tell her to wait for the creme before eating her strudel. I don’t think he had any idea who she was. BTW Did the Nazis do anything to the black population in France like they did to French Jews? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inglourious-basterds-spoilers/507254/75 "2009-08-25T02:34:00Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > BTW Did the Nazis do anything to the black population in France like they did to French Jews? There wasn’t a deliberate genocide, but many were basically used as slave labor. There were also many biracial citizens of France and Germany, many of them the children of African and African-American soldiers by German and other European women, who were sterilized. [Wiki article with some good links.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Blacks_in_Nazi_Germany_and_the_Holocaust) ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inglourious-basterds-spoilers/507254/76 "2009-08-25T04:30:33Z")
> [@Kalhoun](#): > > Okay, I (and a very jaded “I”, at that) had to avert my eyes during the baseball bat scene. It was not only ultra-graphic, but was a strong statement on what gang mentality and war can do to people. Again, I found it a bit odd that the head looked _less_ bashed in once the beating had stopped anf the camera had moved in closer than it did during the actual beating. > [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Did Landa know the theater owner was really Shoshanna? Is that why he ordered milk for her? On the other hand he didn’t do anything to her, but maybe he was going to after the movie premiere. The way she reacted to the milk she seemed to think he knew who she was. > [@alphaboi867](#): > > No, the milk was for himself and the espresso was for her. He did tell her to wait for the creme before eating her strudel. I don’t think he had any idea who she was. No, he ordered espresso for himself and milk for her. I think maybe whether he knew or not was kept deliberately vague, so that we’d be wondering, just like Shosana must have been, if the jig was up. He could have ordered anything in the world for her, but he chose to order her a glass of milk. Tha would normally not make the top 5 or even maybe 10 on my list of what to order a woman, especially if I’m drinking something else. Then when he said he had one more question to ask … (long pause) … but could not for the life of him remember what it was, so it must not have been important. That was like a cat playing with a mouse. (Art Spiegel reference? Probably not.) I’m still a bit undecided myself, but I think he probably did know and had something planned for her for later. Maybe he simply did not want to spoil the film premier for Hitler. Or even then was thinking of killing him and thought this would be his one chance? > [@obfusciatrist](#): > > There was the scene where Hitler explained to Goebbels why he would be attending the screening and in it he mentioned that the Allies were on the beach. I took that to mean that this was after D-Day and that things weren’t looking so good and so boosting the morale of the French lines was the goal of the premier in Paris and Hitler attending. There’s also the fact that when Landa formally surrendered, he pointed out they had reached the American line. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inglourious-basterds-spoilers/507254/77 "2009-08-25T04:35:21Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Again, I found it a bit odd that the head looked _less_ bashed in once the beating had stopped anf the camera had moved in closer than it did during the actual beating. Yes, I noticed that too. In the wide angle of the shot, the last blow they show appears to completely shatter (explode? pop? pulpify? What’s the right term here?) the head, but when they then cut to a close up, it’s a normal head again with just a bloodied face. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inglourious-basterds-spoilers/507254/78 "2009-08-25T05:04:55Z")
Der strudel szene, vas wery, werrry distürbing! It’s sexuality was corpuscular and perverse. It was the first “food rape” I have ever seen. Loved it, hated it. There were some things that rescued it from mediocrity. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inglourious-basterds-spoilers/507254/79 "2009-08-25T05:27:00Z")
Notice, she had to wait for the (whipped) cream, more dairy product tension… MELK. (also, that whipped cream was wayyy overwhipped. It was real whipped whole cream, no sugar… but 15 beats too many.) ---
**Author:** ![unwashed\_brain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a9adbd/32.png) [@unwashed\_brain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unwashed_brain)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inglourious-basterds-spoilers/507254/80 "2009-08-25T12:07:16Z")
Add me to the crowd who thinks Landa didn’t know who Shoshanna was in the restaurant scene. The only time he ever saw her was from the back. He ordered her a glass of milk, which on the surface seems an appropriate complement to the strudel. That’s all the movie gives us. The tension in the scene for me involved whether she was going to reveal something during his routine questioning - not whether he recognized her. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inglourious-basterds-spoilers/507254.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inglourious-basterds-spoilers/507254.md?page=5)