History YMMV / InglouriousBasterds

** Who are the actual protagonists? Are the Basterds the protagonists? Shosanna? Is Landa the VillainProtagonist? Or is Raine the VillainProtagonist? Can any of the characters be considered genuine good guys whom the audience can root for? Are the Basterds {{Anti Hero}}es, {{Sociopathic Hero}}es, or just [[PsychoForHire sociopaths]]?

* MisaimedFandom: Sadly, the Nazi characters tend to get the DracoInLeatherPants treatment to an overwhelming degree, and this slides into real-life Nazi apologetics uncomfortably often.

** [[spoiler:It would be really interesting to see [[AlternateHistory what the world would've looked like if Hitler died in 1944]], but sadly the film ends shortly after his assassination.]]

** Shosanna in a somewhat meta sense. She ''is'' one of the first-billed characters, but has far less screen-time than many of the others in the film, and yet still gets credit for having the most thorough character arc of the story and a very powerful performance.

* IdiotPlot: Stiglitz shooting Hellstrom in the balls instead of somewhere more immediately lethal. If he did that, the Basterds would have had two extra gunmen during the shootout (Hicox and Bridget) and likely come out on top.
** Hicox trying to pass off his accent as coming from a small German town nobody has heard of instead of simply saying that he grew up in England and / or travelled a lot (which would also have explained why he raises three fingers the British way rather than the German way) is pure DiabolusExMachina, and really is something that a seasoned spy would have thought of.
** Landa not considering that betraying the Nazis merely and transparently to save his own skin would lead to anything other than RewardedAsATraitorDeserves, plus it relies heavily on nothing going wrong even though neither "kill the Nazis" plan was his idea or under his control, and indeed both plans only worked because they happened to coincide. If the Nazis had survived, he would have been hated by ''both'' sides.
** The entire premise of the Nazi High Command taking a break from the war to visit a cinema in occupied France is pretty silly considering -- as the movie itself points out -- it is practically daring Germany's enemies to assassinate them, and on top of that all of them would be busy actually ''running the war''. Needless to say, such a thing never happened during the war itself, and at no point were the actual High Command ever together like that except for important military matters in heavily fortified German bases of operation.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: ''Oh so much''. If there's one thing you can expect from a Tarantino film (well, [[SignatureStyle you can expect many things out of a Tarantino film]]), it's an awesome soundtrack. "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)" by Music/DavidBowie stands out during a truly awesome montage sequence at the beginning of the movie premiere. You can watch Tarantino absolutely nerd out about the soundtrack [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOC9GrVewX0 here]].

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** Also, Fredrick Zoller. Is he the DoggedNiceGuy trying to help out his crush, only to get [[spoiler: [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished manipulated and shot over it]]?]] Or is he a creepy, annoying StalkerWithACrush, hounding Shosanna (a woman who repeatedly shows that she has no interest in him), believing that due to his fame, he is entitled to get whatever he wants? [[spoiler: His last scene where he yells and threatens her after getting fed up with her attitude lends credence to the latter interpretation, but on the other hand, some of his lines seem practically lifted from a cliched romance, and Tarantino has stated that, in any other time, they probably would have ended up together.]] Or is he a [[ShellShockedVeteran traumatized soldier]] trying to get away from his dark past through Shosanna, and watching himself kill repeatedly pushes him over the edge?
** Bridget's motives in aiding the Allies are never stated, they could plausibly be ''anything''. Is she a courageous and committed anti-Nazi? A bored actress who became a spy for the kicks? A pragmatic, female version of Landa who is trying to secure a life for herself in the inevitable Allied victory?
** Does Landa recognize Shosanna in the restaurant or does he simply treat every conversation as an investigation? Does he initially suspect her and get convinced by her cover story? Or does he in fact confirm her identity and do nothing about it because her cinema is being used for the premiere? If so, is his question he forgot to ask a subtle dig that means he plans to keep an eye on her?
** Was Landa ever a true believer in Nazi ideology and made a deal at the end because he knew the war was a lost cause or was he simply a psychopath that was born in the right place at the right time and used the Nazi ideology as a means to terrorize others?

** Other than Creator/ChristophWaltz, many found the best performance in the movie to be that of Creator/MelanieLaurent's Shosanna, who was nominated neither for Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress by the Oscars, despite some thinking she would've easily been a Top 5 contender either way.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: ''Oh so much''. If there's one thing you can expect out a Tarantino film (well, [[SignatureStyle you can expect many things out of a Tarantino film]]), it's an awesome soundtrack. "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)" by Music/DavidBowie stands out during a truly awesome montage sequence at the beginning of the movie premiere. You can watch Tarantino absolutely nerd out about the soundtrack [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOC9GrVewX0 here]].
* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: Shosanna's ImagineSpot of Goebbels banging Francesca Mondino doggy style makes more sense in the script. The narration describes Francesca as both Goebbels' favorite actress ''and'' his mistress. But without any narration, we get introduced to Francesca, then immediately get a ''very'' awkward sex scene, and an equally awkward cut back to the present.

** Hugo Stiglitz the DeviousDaggers-wielding German Nazi-killer

* CreepyAwesome: Hans Landa is a terrifyingly competent figure whose famous deduction skills rightfully horrifies those around him.
* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: {{Lampshaded}} in a subtle, creepy way: there is a scene where Germans are watching a Nazi propaganda movie about a German sniper who killed massive numbers of Allied troops while behind enemy lines. They are laughing and enjoying themselves watching people from our side get slaughtered, while you're laughing and enjoying yourself watching people from their side get slaughtered. However, some audiences even laughed and hooted while the allies were being slaughtered. Laughter, she is an infectious drug, is she not? And the funniest part is that both reactions were probably predicted and intended.
* DracoInLeatherPants: The more psychotic Basterds like Sgt. Donny Donowitz and Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz tend to have their more [[SociopathicHero negative traits]] glossed over because [[AssholeVictim their victims are Nazis]]. This is at least somewhat understandable- they are *Jewish* Americans lashing out against the literal Nazis, after all. Then, you get the people using the Basterds' brutality to justify the Nazi villains like Col. Hans Landa and his men. Yes, ''really''.

** Lt. Archie Hicox. He only gets about 15 minutes of screen time but Creator/MichaelFassbender makes every second count.
** Shosanna in a somewhat Meta sense. She ''is'' one of the first-billed characters but has far less screen-time than many of the others in the film, yet still gets credit for having the most thorough character arc of the story and a very powerful performance.
** Donny, Hugo and Bridget also make plenty of lists of the films top 10 characters for a mixture of charming performances and awesome moments.
* EvilIsCool: Hans Landa. Despite being a Nazi officer, his intelligence, smooth and confident demeanor, as well as being a polyglot serve to make him one of the (if not ''the'') most memorable characters in the movie.

** Bridget Von Hammersmark is wearing a name card in the game that says 'UsefulNotes/MataHari'. Of course everyone knows that Mata Hari was a glamorous entertainer who led a double life as a wartime spy. However unlike the popular legend, Mata Hari was not a particularly competent spy and didn't contribute much to the war effort. [[spoiler: {{Foreshadowing}} that Bridget will ultimately meet a similar fate.]]

** Creator/DianeKruger was mostly reduced to doing roles that catered to her beauty such as ''{{Film/Troy}}'' and ''Film/NationalTreasure''. Here she shows off plenty of charisma and comic timing as Bridget von Hammersmark - proving that she had more to offer as an actress.

** German actor Creator/AugustDiehl played Gestapo Major Dieter Hellstrom in this movie. He [[PlayingAgainstType then went on to play]] two real-life figures detested by the Nazis: Karl Marx in ''The Young Karl Marx'' and a conscientious objector Franz Jägerstätter in ''Film/AHiddenLife''.
** Landa's brief interaction with [=LaPadite=]'s daughters becomes this after ''Film/{{Spectre}}'' in 2015, where [[Creator/ChristophWaltz Blofeld]] mentions at one point to [[Creator/LeaSeydoux Madeleine Swann]] how he visited her house to see her father one time.

* IdiotPlot: Stiglitz shooting Hellstrom in the balls instead of somewhere more immediately lethal. If he did that, the Basterds would have two extra gunmen during the shootout (Hicox and Bridget) and likely come out on top.
** Hicox trying to pass off his accent as coming from a small German town nobody has heard of instead of simply saying that he grew up in England and / or travelled a lot (which would also have explained why he raises three fingers the British way rather than the German way) is pure DiabolusExMachina and really is something that a seasoned spy should have thought of.
** Landa not considering that betraying the Nazi's merely and transparently to save his own skin would lead to anything other than RewardedAsATraitorDeserves, plus it relied heavily on nothing going wrong even though neither "kill the Nazi's" plan was his idea or under his control, and indeed both plans only worked because they coincidently coincided. If the Nazi's had survived, he would have been hated by ''both'' sides.
** The entire premise of the Nazi High Command taking a break from the war to visit a cinema in Occupied France is pretty silly considering- as the movie itself points out- it is practically daring Germany's enemies to assassinate them, and on top of that all of them would be busy actually ''running the war''. Needless to say, such a thing never happened during the war itself, and at no point were the actual High Command ever together like that except for important military matters in heavily fortified German bases of operation.
* IronWoobie: Shosanna had her entire family slaughtered right in front of her and literally ran for her life for who knows how many miles, and she lives in fear that she could be discovered. But she keeps a cool head, low profile and her only display of this angst is a brief sob when she's finally free from Landa's interrogation. She also immediately comes up with a plan to get her revenge after this conversation.
* ItWasHisSled: [[spoiler:The movie is an alternate history where Hitler, Goebbels and loads of Nazis perish as Shosanna burns her cinema down with them inside it.]]

** Aldo "The Apache" Raines is the head of the Basterds. A ruthless, charismatic soldier who intends on tearing down the Nazis, Aldo leads his men behind enemy lines, performing daring raids to kill German soldiers while spreading fear throughout the Nazi ranks, including UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler himself. Aldo formulates Operation Kino to eliminate the entire Nazi high command, and when he bargains with Hans Landa to let the operation continue, Aldo promptly denies Landa the satisfaction of victory by carving a Swastika into his forehead, reasoning he's "been chewed out before" while retaining his sense of charm and composure to the end.
** Shosanna Dreyfuss is a Jewish girl who loses her family to the Nazis. When approached on using her theater in Paris as the site of a premiere for Joseph Goebbels' major new film, Shosanna and her lover Marcel opt to lock the Nazis inside the theater and burn it down. Shosanna proceeds to enact her plan near flawlessly, recording a message to all the Nazi leaders to see on screen that their fates are her vengeance and the vengeance of the Jewish people, ending up with the complete elimination of the Nazi leaders assured even before the Basterds get involved.
* MemeticBadass: [[http://bearjewfacts.tumblr.com/ The Bear Jew himself]]: [[http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=287 BONK!]] In universe, the Germans think he's the mythical Jewish Golem and Hitler orders that he not be referred to as The Bear Jew.

** The Basterds, together with Franchise/IndianaJones and ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, have become mascots for those who celebrated when a masked man punched self-proclaimed white supremacist Richard Spencer in the face on live television on January 20th.

* OneSceneWonder: Creator/MikeMyers as Ed Fenech, Denis Menochet as Perrier [=LaPadite=]. Rachtman, Hellstrom, and UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill.
* OvershadowedByControversy: The film was obliquely affected by the controversy of Creator/UmaThurman being forced into a dangerous car crash in ''Film/KillBill'', which drew increased scrutiny to the already infamous scene where Tarantino's own hands are the ones strangling Bridget. Creator/DianeKruger was quick to deny any wrongdoing, saying that Tarantino told her exactly what he had planned, a maximum of two takes where he would genuinely choke her for several seconds, and only went ahead with it after she agreed and stuck to his word.
* PeripheryDemographic: One thing Creator/QuentinTarantino and Creator/EliRoth didn't expect is the movie having such a large popularity among the yaoi fans. Though they both announced their immense approval of the fan fiction upon discovering it.

** Creator/LeaSeydoux has a bit role as one of [=LaPadite=]'s daughters before rising in fame.

* ShipsThatPassInTheNight: Donny/Utivich, one of the fandom's most popular ships, even though they exchange no dialogue. It's still possible because we only see a little of the Basterds and they probably had a lot more contact with each other than what is actually shown (a good reason to hold out for a prequel).

** In a non death sense, about half of the Basterds never get that much to do and outright disappear in the last third of the film.

** [[spoiler:It would be really interesting to see [[AlternateHistory how the world would've looked like if Hitler died in 1944]] but sadly the film ends shortly after his assassination.]]

** Since its 2009 release, few of Quentin Tarantino's other films have come close to following this one's near universal praise. ''Film/DjangoUnchained'', ''Film/TheHatefulEight'', and ''Film/OnceUponATimeInHollywood'' were a more divise than this, although still liked overall.
** Shosanna as well is considered one of Tarantino's best female protagonists, and is among the favorites out of the heroines he's created (alongside ''Film/KillBill'' and ''Film/JackieBrown'', that's saying something). ''Film/DjangoUnchained'', ''Film/TheHatefulEight'', and ''Film/OnceUponATimeInHollywood'' would receive criticism for their female protagonists not living up to those heights. Daisy in particular was frequently compared to Shosanna as a missed opportunity.

** Hugo Stiglitz the KnifeNut German Nazi-killer

*** Neither does Lt. Hicox, for that matter.
*** He actually does, in the small scene before the tavern where he rendezvous with them to form a plan.

* {{Applicability}}: [[ThoseWackyNazis The Nazis]] are utterly and completely destroyed by [[YouHaveToHaveJews Jews in a movie theater]]. Now, remind us, what did Hollywood do to the legacy of the Nazis?

* EvilIsSexy: Stiglitz, Hellstrom and Landa being charismatic and sexy. Even though they are murderers. It must be the German accents and the great performances from hot European actors.

* LoveToHate: Hans Landa. He's an absolutely ruthless cold-blooded Nazi, but Creator/ChristophWaltz's amazing performance makes him so enjoyable to watch, even as he's committing atrocities.

** Bridget Von Hammersmark is wearing a name card in the game that says 'UsefulNotes/MataHari'. Of course everyone knows that Mata Hari was a glamorous entertainer who led a double life as a wartime spy. However unlike the popular legend, Mata Hari was not a particularly competent spy and didn't contribute much to the war effort. [[spoiler: {{Foreshadowing}} that Bridget will ultimately meet a similar fate]].

* ItWasHisSled: [[spoiler: The movie is an alternate history where Hitler, Goebbels and loads of Nazis perish as Shosanna burns her cinema down with them inside it]].

** Everything Brad Pitt says in "Eye-talian."

** The prospect of dying [[spoiler:[[ShareTheMalePain by a bullet barrage to the crotch.]]]]

** Goebbels having sex. [[BrainBleach Please pass the bleach]].
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter:

** [[spoiler: It would be really interesting to see [[AlternateHistory how the world would've looked like if Hitler died in 1944]] but sadly the film ends shortly after his assassination.]]

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: ''Oh so much''. If there's one thing you can expect out a Tarantino film (well, [[SignatureStyle you can expect many things out of a Tarantino film]]), it's an awesome soundtrack. "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)" by Music/DavidBowie stands out during a truly awesome montage sequence at the beginning of the movie premiere. You can watch Tarantino absolutely nerd out about the soundtrack [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOC9GrVewX0 here.]]

** Losing Best Original Screenplay to ''Film/TheHurtLocker''. It also lost Best Picture, though it wasn't the favorite.
** Other than Christoph Waltz, many found the best performance in the movie to be that of Melanie Laurent's Shosanna, who was nominated neither for Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress by the Oscars, despite some thinking she would've easily been a Top 5 contender either way.
** Diane Kruger was also nominated for a SAG Award for Supporting Actress that failed to translate to an eventual Oscar nod.