Great Characters: Colonel Hans Landa (“Inglourious Basterds”)
Colonel Hans Landa in the movie Inglorious Basterds (written and directed by Quentin Tarantino) is one of the most memorable Nemesis characters in recent cinema. As portrayed by Academy Award-winning actor Christoph Waltz, Landa is a chilling figure:
An IMDB plot summary:
In Nazi occupied France, young Jewish refugee Shosanna Dreyfus witnesses the slaughter of her family by Colonel Hans Landa. Narrowly escaping with her life, she plots her revenge several years later when German war hero Fredrick Zoller takes a rapid interest in her and arranges an illustrious movie premiere at the theater she now runs. With the promise of every major Nazi officer in attendance, the event catches the attention of the “Basterds”, a group of Jewish-American guerilla soldiers led by the ruthless Lt. Aldo Raine. As the relentless executioners advance and the conspiring young girl’s plans are set in motion, their paths will cross for a fateful evening that will shake the very annals of history.
The opening scene alone is worth the price of admission. Who can forget Landa seated at the farmer Perrier’s kitchen table with a family of five Jews hidden just below the floorboards:
“The feature that makes me such an effective hunter of the Jews is, as opposed to most German soldiers, I can think like a Jew where they can only think like a German. More precisely, a German soldier. 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. The Führer and Goebbels’ propaganda have said pretty much the same thing. But where our conclusions differ, is I don’t consider the comparison an insult. Consider for a moment the world a rat lives in. It’s a hostile world, indeed. If a rat were to scamper through your front door, right now, would you greet it with hostility? I suppose I would.”
What was your reaction to Colonel Hans Landa?
Thanks to Marc for the suggestion of Landa for the Great Character series.
