'''As a Fridge subpage, all spoilers are unmarked [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff as per policy.]] Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.'''

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[[folder: Fridge Brilliance ]]

* When Donny Donowitz beats a German soldier to death with a baseball bat, the image is reminiscent of the scene in the Creator/StanleyKubrick film ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'' where a primitive hominid beats to death a hominid from a rival tribe with a bone. The scene in Kubrick's film is scored to Richard Strauss’s composition ''Thus Spake Zarathustra'', which is based on the book of the same name by German philosopher Freidrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche's book describes the rise of the “super man” in human affairs, a concept that is reflected in Kubrick's film through the depiction of the early "human" learning to dominate others through superior intellect and will. Nietzsche’s book was adopted as a key philosophical text by the National Socialist party in Germany, who interpreted it as addressing the superiority of the German/Aryan races and their capacity to dominate other, inferior, races of Europe, including the Jews. Therefore, the image of a Jewish-American soldier beating down a German soldier appropriates Kubrick's image to create a highly ironic reversal of the "Nazi" interpretation of Nietzsche’s text (the real Nietzsche would have approved any reversal, since he loathed antisemitism and German nationalism -- the Nazi use of his work would have outraged him).
* When the Nazis are killed, it is during a violent propaganda movie in which a war hero slaughters hundreds of Allied troops, which invokes cheering from the Nazis. This is eventually paralleled by two Allied war heroes mowing down Nazis, which would certainly involve lots of cheering from the actual film's audience.
* Hans Landa's dissertation on "what Jews will to do survive" is a monologue on his internal ethics. He has been shown, repeatedly and in horrifically suspenseful drawn-out detail, that he is more than willing to say and do anything as long as it benefits him. And if there is no immediately obvious long-term benefit, then he merely plays along until such time as he can make use of it.
* Landa's smug invocation of "if the shoe fits you must wear it" foreshadows his own fate. He's forced to wear a swastika cut into his forehead. He betrayed the Nazis, but the metaphorical shoe fits, and fits well.
* When the young German soldier who the Basterds let live is branded, he isn't heard making a sound, fully accepting the pain so long as his life is spared. By contrast, Landa screams his lungs out throughout the entire ordeal. Having expected to come out on top as always, he isn't prepared to have to make the same trade for his life.
* Landa does not, in fact, strangle Bridget von Hammersmark for treason. He strangles her because he was already planning to defect and let the Basterds kill Hitler -- and already planned to cast himself in the role of the planner and hero. The role that Bridget herself had, in fact, occupied. He killed her so that she wouldn't be able to take the credit or expose that he wasn't really the mole in the Third Reich.
* The film has a theme of the power of cinema. The Nazis are repeatedly shown to be obsessed with cinema, spreading their rhetoric through films. Frederick is attracted to Shosanna after spotting her at her cinema. The premier of a new propaganda film brings all the Nazis bigwigs together into one room. Hicox proves his worth for Project Kino by displaying his knowledge of German cinema. The physical material of cinema is used to kill the Nazi high command. Even Shosanna's death is indirectly caused by the power of cinema: after shooting Frederick, Shosanna watches his performance in ''Nation's Pride'' and is visibly moved to pity him. When he begins to stir, she takes one last glance at the movie screen before going to his side and subsequently getting shot.
* Early in the film, Hicox states that one of his two books is on the works of German film director G.W. Pabst. When Hellstrom questions him about his origins, Hicox references ''The White Hell of Piz Palu'', a film co-directed by Pabst. Later, Hellstrom forces him and the Basterds to play a celebrity card game, and Hicox writes down G.W. Pabst's name. Pabst's film is also referenced by Shosanna and Zoller outside Shosanna's theater.
* The Basterds impersonating Italians at the ''Nation's Pride'' premiere makes a lot of sense, aside from von Hammersmark's assertion that Germans probably won't speak Italian. In his RousingSpeech to the squad, Lt. Raine mentions "fighting through half of Sicily", implying the troops served in the Sicilian campaign of World War II (part of the larger Italian campaign, which was still ongoing during the Normandy Invasion). As a field officer, Lt. Raine would have been required to study Italian to communicate with the locals, explaining why he's the most fluent (horrible accent notwithstanding) of the Basterds. Donowitz, a senior NCO, is the second-best. And Omar, an enlisted private, didn't bother to learn any Italian (hence, the third-best -- excellent accent notwithstanding).
* One of the names on the cards is Mata Hari -- the infamous FemmeFataleSpy. This parallels Bridget von Hammersmark in more ways than you'd think. Mata Hari was not that successful a spy and was easily found out, just as what happens to Bridget.
* It isn’t readily apparent, but [=LaPadite=] managed to fool Landa at the end of their conversation. During the scene when the camera pans downward, toward the Dreyfuses, notice that Shosanna seems to be some distance away from anyone else. When Hans Landa makes it clear that the gig is up, [=LaPedite=] realizes that he can only save Shosanna. He points out to Landa the precise locations where the other Dreyfuses are hiding, as he’s been left with no choice. But he subtly omits the fact that Shosanna is a short distance away from the others. This is why the massacre leaves her covered in blood but physically unscathed.

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[[folder: Fridge Horror ]]

* The Holocaust is happening at the same time as the events in this film. Even if Hitler gets killed early to create an AlternateUniverse, millions of people still died, and for all their bravado, the Basterds are too late to actually save those lives. There's also no guarantee that Hitler's death would stop the killings yet to come.
** Heinrich Himmler, the leader of the SS and a top contender to succeed Hitler in the event of his death, is absent in the film. If he's still alive, then the Basterds might have handed over the keys of the Third Reich to him, since one of the German High Command casualties is Martin Bormann, Himmler's arch-rival and the only one who could undermine his good stance with Hitler. And according to ''Film/{{Valkyrie}}'', killing Hitler but not Himmler is equivalent of [[FromBadToWorse replacing a madman with a lunatic]].
** And, on a more tragic note, the early destruction of the Nazi high-command will actually mean that those who are left will have enough time to destroy any records of the Holocaust they can get their hands on. So, the Bastards inadvertently allowed the Nazis to essentially get away with the most infamous atrocities of their entire regime.
* Those medals Donny wears around his neck in his introduction scene are German dogtags. He's presumably beating people to the point they're no longer recognizable, and taking the dogtags as trophies -- he's intentionally depriving their families of a funeral, and his kills of a proper burial. This would be particularly cruel in the eyes of a religious Jew, as Judaism emphasizes giving the dead a proper burial as soon as possible.
* In the unlikely event that Landa and his men simply leave [=LaPadite=] and his family without further punishment, they'd still be left with a trashed house full of the corpses of the people they tried to save.
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