Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds is a classic of modern cinema. It may well be the best in Tarantino’s already incredible filmography, and at the very least, has the best villain he has ever created. The 2009 war film has a stellar cast performing a host of unique and interesting roles, which each actor bringing their own personality to their characters. With Tarantino’s writing and directing skills completing the packing, we were always going to be in for a quotation goldmine.
We’ve collected ten of the most powerful quotes from the film, whether they are weighted with threatening aggression, emotional weight or deeper meaning.
Tarantino is no stranger to some fourth-wall-breaking meta-jokes. One of the finest moments he ever created comes right at the end of the film, where Brad Pitt’s Aldo Raine says, “You know something, Utivich? I think this just might be my masterpiece”. This doubles up as Tarantino giving himself a pat on the back for creating such an incredible feat of cinema.
“Now if one were to determine what attribute the German people share with a beast, it would be the cunning and the predatory instinct of a hawk. But if one were to determine what attributes the Jews share with a beast, it would be that of the rat. If a rat were to walk in here right now as I'm talking, would you treat it to a saucer of your delicious milk?”
Obviously, the actual content of this line is horrific, but the malice and arrogance Waltz delivers the line with is so intimidating.
Mike Myers looks basically unrecognizable in his role of Ed Fenech in Inglourious Basterds, and he doesn’t stick around for very long either. Despite this, his decision to toast “Down with Hitler,” is short but sweet; poignant but straight to the point. It basically sums up the plot of the entire film.
“I'm putting together a special team. We're gonna be doing one thing, and one thing only. Killing Nazis.” This is what sets up to the presence of the Basterds themselves in the film. Aldo Raine is the leader of a team of vicious mercenaries, and as he states, they have one intention: to kill Nazis. Now that’s powerful.
Hugo Stiglitz was one of the members of the Basterds that Raine personally sought to recruit to his team. His cool mannerisms and seeming ability to disconnect from violence made him the perfect member.
His sassy quip of “Say 'Auf Wiedersehen' to your Nazi balls” also helped him to prove his worth on the team with both humor and power.
“Each and every man under my command owes me one hundred Nazi scalps. And I want my scalps!” There are multiple levels of power to Aldo’s demand for Nazi scalps. It firstly shows his power over his subordinates. He wants his scalps. It also doubles up as a confident threat to the Nazis: we are going to kill you, and take your scalps. Very few people are able to speak so directly.
“So, gentlemen, let's discuss the prospect of ending the war tonight” is a line spoken by Hans Landa, arguably the greatest villain in cinema history. He seems like a man motivated by pure evil, but this line changes things somewhat.
He was happy to give up on his entire Nazi ideology in order to be regarded as a hero to the Allies. Despite this weakening the menace of earlier in the film, it shows a completely new motivation which is pretty much just as sinister.
Shosanna Dreyfus is first introduced to us as she successfully ran from Hans Landa at the very start of the film. The fact that she is a catalyst in the death of Hitler means we can basically trace the Nazi downfall to Landa himself. Her monologue to her partner is incredibly moving. “I am going to burn down the cinema on Nazi night. And if I'm going to burn down the cinema, which I am, we both know you're not going to let me do it by myself. Because you love me. And I love you. And you're the only person on this earth I can trust.”
Tarantino is no stranger to including foot-based scenes in his films, as most people are aware. Landa’s interaction with Bridget Von Hammersmark is a very literal foot-based interaction. “What's that American expression? 'If the shoe fits, you must wear it,'” says Landa. The shoe did indeed fit, and it led to his brutal execution of the actress.
This powerful anti-Nazi monologue quite literally speaks for itself. It is the type of speech that is clearly indicative of Quentin Tanatino's writing style.
“Nazi ain't got no humanity, they're the foot soldiers of a Jew-hating, mass-murdering maniac and they need to be destroyed. We will be cruel to the Germans, and through our cruelty, they will know who we are, and they will find the evidence of our cruelty in the disemboweled, dismembered and disfigured bodies of their brothers we leave behind us. And the German won't be able to help themselves but imagine the cruelty their brothers endured at our hands and our boot heels and the edge of our knives and the German will be sickened by us, and the German will talk about us, and the German will fear us, and when the German closes their eyes at night and they're tortured by their subconscious for the evil they have done it will be with thoughts of us they are tortured with.”
