t the home of Perrier LaPadite. The colonel persuades the Frenchman to identify the family of Jews he is hiding under the floor boards and kills them via his gunmen. The colonel sees one of the girls escaping called Shosanna and leaves her to run.In Italy, 1944, American Lieutenant Aldo Raine recruits eight Jewish - American to kill as many Nazi soldiers as they can, at an ambush Raine holds captive at least one Nazi soldier to get information about upcoming forces and when he refuses ‘the bear Jew’ (nicknamed by the Nazi’s) comes out and savagely kills the Nazi. Interrogating one other Nazi officer Raine carves a swastika (Nazi sign) onto his head and allows him to leave telling his story of ‘The Basterds’ to Hitler and others.
Avenging her family’s death Shosanna holds a Nazi premiere in which she kills everyone there including the Nazi commanding officers and Hitler. The Basterds are also there but Raine and another ‘Basterd’ are held captive by Colonel Landa who surrenders to them. Raine then kills Landa’s other man and carves a swastika into Landa’s head.
Characters – Straight from the beginning you can see that SS Colonel Hans Landa is set out to be the antagonist of the action thriller. He comes across as not a very physic
al action man but more of a cunning psychological man who can twist the minds of his victim. There are two clear Protagonists during the film. Raine who connotes a strong and physical hero seems to be the saviour of the film and although he kills a lot of men he does it for ‘the good side’. The other protagonist is Shosanna, although this is not clear at the beginning of the thriller, she helps in the final end to the war and avenges her family.Narratives – The first enigma of the thriller is the killing of the Jewish family and how Shosanna escapes, another follow on enigma from this is obviously the cinema blowing up by Shosanna. Another Enigma is when Colonel Hans Lander hands himself over to ‘The Basterds’, an act that was not anticipated by the audience.
Cinematic – In terms of the cinematography used, the director a lot of long shots in many scenes, this is so that the audience can see the whole of the scene in which connotes a lot of stuff going on in these scenes. There are also a lot of close ups used throughout the thriller. An example would be when Colonel Hans Landa is speaking to Perrier LaPadite and is telling him to show the Colonel where the Jews are hiding; there is a close up of the colonel’s face which shows intensity and that same thing is about to take place is that situation.
Themes – The themes of the thriller show that the hero (Protagonist – Shosanna) must overcome objects to defeat the villains of the Nazi army. An obstacle is shown when the Nazi soldier comes up to the screening room of the cinema and ends up shooting Shosanna, this obstacle puts the whole operation of killing the Nazi’s in danger but because she has an accomplice that obstacle is overcome and she defeats the villains.
