History Fridge / InglouriousBasterds

* It's safe to assume that Landa and his men clear out immediately after shooting the Dreyfuses -- so that means Perrier [=LaPadite=] and his family will have to remove their bodies themselves. Possibly a deliberate RewardedAsATraitorDeserves by Landa -- punishing [=LaPadite=] by forcing him to look upon the faces of the people whose lives he traded for his and his family.
** The same could be said with the damages to the [=LaPadites'=] house when shooting through the floorboards, although to a MUCH lesser scale.

** In addition to the above, 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, clearly having never once been forced to actually feel any sort of tangible reprisal for the atrocities he's committed.

* 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. It's a new propaganda film that brings all the Nazis together into one room. 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.
** It's also heavily lampshaded in the scene between Hicox, Fenech, and Churchill, where one of the prerequisites for Hicox being considered for a role in Operation Kino is his familiarity with contemporary German cinema, both before and during the Nazi regime, and how it has been weaponised as a tool to further their goals and ideology; only when he demonstrates that he knows what he's talking about does Churchill give the go-ahead for him to be briefed on the mission.
* 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, he 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.

** Fridge Funny. In Italian, the word 'Buongiorno' is not used to say hello in the evening. After 6 pm, it is replaced with 'Buona sera'. Landa, as a fluent Italian speaker, would probably know this -- making Aldo's introduction even more of an EpicFail.
* 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.

* Imagine what would happen if Landa didn't abdicate at the last moment, and instead called off the operation ''and'' also found out about Marcel/Shoshanna. He would kill them in a minute, but if he somehow couldn't, and Frederick didn't kill Shoshanna either, the message at the end of the film would still play, revealing Shoshanna not just to be a Jew, but also an attempted terrorist. She would be instantly recognised by Frederick or Goebbels and definitely executed on spot. Also, in his rage Hitler or Goebbels could also command to burn the cinema down, so the cinema would have been burned down and Shoshanna would have died no matter what.

* Imagine what would happen if Landa didn't abdicate at the last moment, and instead called off the operation ''and'' also found out about Marcel/Shoshanna. The message at the end of the film would still play, and if Shoshanna hadn't got killed right before, she would be instantly recognised and definitely executed on spot. Also, in his rage Hitler or Goebbels could also command to burn the cinema down, so the cinema would have been burned down and Shoshanna would have died no matter what.

** In addition to the above, 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, clearly having never once been forced to actually feel any sort of tangible reprisal for the atrocities he committed.

* 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 had been 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).

* 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. It's a new propaganda film that brings all the Nazis together into one room. 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.
** It's also heavily lampshaded in the scene between Hicox, Fenech and Churchill, where one of the prerequisites for Hicox being considered for a role in Operation Kino is his familiarity with contemporary German cinema, both before and during the Nazi regime, and how it has been weaponised as a tool to further their goals and idealogy; only when he demonstrates that he knows what he's talking about does Churchill give the go-ahead for him to be briefed on the mission.

* The Basterds impersonating Italians at the ''Nation's Pride'' premiere makes allot 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).
** Fridge Funny. In Italian, the word 'Buongiorno' is not used to say hello in the evening. After 6 pm, it is replaced with 'Buona sera'. Landa as a fluent Italian speaker would probably know this - making Aldo's introduction even more of an EpicFail.
* 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.

* 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. So, the Bastards inadvertently allowed the Nazis to essentially get away with the most infamous atrocities of their entire regime.

* It's safe to assume that Landa and his men cleared out immediately after shooting the Dreyfuses - so that means Perrier [=LaPadite=] and his family will have to remove their bodies themselves. Possibly a deliberate RewardedAsATraitorDeserves by Landa -- punishing [=LaPadite=] by forcing him to look upon the faces of the people whose lives he traded.
** Same could be said with the damages to the [=LaPadites'=] house when shooting through the floorboards, although to a MUCH lesser scale.

** It's also heavily lampshaded in the scene between Hicox, Fenech and Churchill, where one of the prerequisites for Hicox being considered for a role in Operation Kino is his familiarity with contemporary German cinema, both before and during the Nazi regime; only when he demonstrates that he knows what he's talking about does Churchill give the go-ahead for him to be briefed on the mission.

* The Basterds impersonating Italians at the ''Nation's Pride'' premiere makes allot 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 not withstanding) 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.

** 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.

** Same could be said with the damages to the [=LaPadite's=] house when shooting through the floorboards, although to a lesser scale.

** Same could be said with the damages to the LaPadite's house when shooting through the floorboards, although to a lesser scale.

* The Basterds impersonating Italians at the ''Nation's Pride'' premiere makes allot 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 not withstanding) 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).
* Fridge Funny. In Italian, the word 'Buongiorno' is not used to say hello in the evening. After 6 pm, it is replaced with 'Buona sera'. Landa as a fluent Italian speaker would probably know this - making Aldo's introduction even more of an EpicFail.

* Fridge Funny. In Italian, the word 'buongiorno' is not used to say hello in the evening. After 6 pm, it is replaced with 'buono sera'. Landa as a fluent Italian speaker would probably know this - making Aldo's introduction even more of an EpicFail.

** And the reason he asks for [=LaPadite=] to send his daughters outside for their conversation - obviously to prevent any of the girls trying to send subtle signals to the Dreyfuses hiding under the floorboards or trying to help their father form a cover story. But the darkest reason is so that the Dreyfuses will think theirs are the footsteps of the soldiers coming in to shoot them.

* Recall the scene in which Stiglitz is rescued from prison. Stiglitz remains calm and does not even look as Nazis are violently gunned down all around him. He only bothers to look up when the Basterds come out of hiding. Why is this? He doesn’t notice the violence done against he Nazi guards, because he was already fantasizing about it, so it didn’t even register!

* 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's safe to assume that Landa and his men cleared out immediately after shooting the Dreyfuses - so that means Perrier [=LaPadite=] and his family will have to remove their bodies themselves. Possibly a deliberate RewardedAsATraitor deserves by Landa - punishing [=LaPadite=] by forcing him to look upon the faces of the people whose lives he traded.

* 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 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.

* When Donny Donowitz beats a German solider 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 had been 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).