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| “ | You are now in the hands of the SS. My hands to be exact. | „ |
| ~ Hans Landa to an incapacitated Lt. Aldo Raine. |
| “ | I love rumors! Facts can be so misleading, where rumors, true or false, are often revealing. | „ |
| ~ Landa to Lapadite while interrogating him. |
| “ | I love my unofficial title, precisely because I have earned it. | „ |
| ~ Landa speaking about his nickname "The Jew Hunter". |
Col. Hans Landa, also known as The Jew Hunter, is the main antagonist of the 2009 Quentin Tarantino film Inglourious Basterds. He is a Standartenführer in the Schutzstaffel (SS) and was one of Adolf Hitler's best agents before betraying the latter, as well as Aldo's arch-nemesis.
He was portrayed by Christoph Waltz, who also played Benjamin Chudnofsky in The Green Hornet, August Rosenbluth in Water for Elephants, Cardinal Richelieu in The Three Musketeers, Mandrake in Epic, Bert Hanson in Horrible Bosses 2, Walter Keane in Big Eyes, Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the James Bond rebooted film series, Léon Rom in The Legend of Tarzan, Miles Sellars in Most Dangerous Game and Count Volpe in Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio.
Biography[]
Once upon a time... in Nazi-occupied France[]
Hans Landa is first introduced when arriving at Perrier LaPadite's farm, to search the residence for any hiding Jews. After he asks permission, he enters LaPadite's house, where he meets the former's daughters. He sits at the kitchen table and asks for a glass of milk, as LaPadite operates a dairy farm. Landa then politely asks LaPadite to send the girls outside, so that they could have a talk. He then asks to switch to English (so that any hiding Jews in the house would not know what they're saying). LaPadite, obviously nervous, asks for permission to light his pipe and Landa permits it.
Landa begins to ask LaPadite if he knows anything about the Dreyfus family, as well as their names and ages, which LaPadite gives him. Landa asks for another glass of milk before he leaves, and then begins to talk about how he loves his nickname, "The Jew Hunter". He explains to LaPadite that the Jews are similar to rats, saying that he doesn't consider it an insult. He goes on to elaborate his statement before coming to the conclusion that his ability to find Jews is far more advanced than that of regular German soldiers', and that he is aware of "humans being are capable of once they've abandoned dignity".
At this point, Landa suddenly asked for permission to smoke his pipe. He pulls out a huge Sherlock Holmes-like pipe. Landa then starts to tell him that in order to cross LaPadite's name off the list, he would have to have his men search his house. However, he tells LaPadite that any information that will make his job a lot easier would not be met with punishment, quite the contrary, it would be met with reward, that his family will no longer be harassed in any way by the Germans during the Occupation. Visibly convinced, LaPadite confirms to Landa that the Dreyfuses are under the floor of his house. Landa asks him if they do not speak English, since he hasn't heard any noises during the conversation.
LaPadite confirms his suspicions and Landa asks him to return to French and continue the masquerade. Hans Landa thanks him in French for the hospitality and for the milk and says that they're now finished. He exits the door, seemingly to call the girls, but he actually calls his men, and points them the place where to shoot. As he wishes to everybody "Adieu", his men shoot through the floor, killing the Jews. However, one girl, Shosanna, somehow survives and crawls through the basement vent and flees in horror, crying. Landa goes to the front door, puts his suitcase on the doorsteps and aims his Walther P38 at her, soon realizing that she's run too far for him to shoot. Instead he smiles and sarcastically says to himself, "bupsti" (the German equivalent of "oopsie"). Landa then shouts, "Au revoir, Shosanna!", as Shoshanna flees further into the distance.
German Night in Paris[]
Hans Landa arrives at the restaurant where Joseph Goebbels, Francesca Mondino, and Fredrick Zoller are talking to Shosanna Dreyfus, now known as Emanuelle Mimieux, about her cinema. Zoller introduces Landa to Mimieux, telling her he is running the security for the film premiere. He kisses her hand, while Shosanna tries to remain calm.
As the Germans leave, Landa explains that he would like to have a conversation with Mimieux. Zoller rudely asks why, and Landa (both offscreen) is surprised by the private's attitude. Landa then sits at the table with mademoiselle Mimieux. He then orders two strudels and a glass of milk for her. He asks Mimieux about her cinema and if it's true that a black man operates the projectors. When Mimieux confirms that it is, Landa tells her that she will be the one to operate the projectors on the day of the premiere.
He then says he had another question for Mimieux and briefly stares at her. After saying he cannot remember what the question was, he leaves.
Operation Kino[]
Hans Landa is called into the village of Nadine, to investigate a shootout between several German soldiers and the Basterds. He identifies Hugo Stiglitz and Wilhelm Wicki. He tells the soldier that accompanies him that they were part of the Basterds, responsible for killing German soldiers. But he notices that there's something odd about the incident. He then sees a woman's shoe, and deduces that someone is missing. After signaling everyone to leave, he finds a handkerchief with an autograph from Bridget von Hammersmark.
Revenge of the Giant Face[]
Hans Landa, is at the film premiere, drinking some champagne. He sees Bridget von Hammersmark with 3 of the Basterds, Donny Donowitz, Omar Ulmer and Aldo Raine, who are masquerading as Italian escorts. He speaks with von Hammersmark and her escorts, and sees through their disguises. He takes von Hammersmark to a private room and tells her to put her foot on his lap. He puts the shoe he found at the tavern on her, and then strangles her to death. He then has Aldo captured, along with another Basterd named Utivich. He takes Aldo and Utivich to an empty building and speaks with them. Aldo asks where Donny, Omar, and von Hammersmark are. Landa tells him that von Hammersmark got what she deserved, and that Donny and Omar are still at the theatre with bombs strapped to their legs.
He has Aldo contact his superior at the OSS and negotiates his surrender and allowing the mission to proceed in exchange for immunity, medals, American citizenship, and a house on Nantucket Island. Aldo's superior agrees to his demands and the mission goes as planned, with the theatre blowing up and the Nazi High Command being killed, most likely ending the war. Landa and his radio operator drive Aldo and Utivich into Allied territory, and then surrender to them. Aldo tells Utivich to cuff Landa. Landa asks if that's really necessary, and Aldo replies that he's a slave to appearances before shooting the radio operator and having Utivich scalp him, to Landa's shock. Landa finally loses his composure and tells Aldo that he will be shot for this. Aldo says that he will most likely be "chewed out" and that he's been chewed out before. Aldo, knowing that Landa plans to take off his Nazi uniform someday, tells the frightened Landa that he will give him something he can't take off. He then carves a swastika into Landa's forehead as he screams in agony. After finishing, he tells Utivich that "this just might be my masterpiece."
According to Tarantino, Landa survives the war and is recognised as a hero by the US for his role in Hitler's assassination. He retires to Nantucket Island, where he ends up roped into solving a series of murders as an amateur master detective.
Personality[]
| “ | 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, 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. | „ |
| ~ Hans Landa |
An Austrian SS officer assigned to the Sicherheitsdienst. He is nicknamed The Jew Hunter in reference to his keen ability to locate Jews hiding throughout Occupied France. Egotistical and ambitious, Landa takes a great deal of pride in this reputation, lauding his nickname "the Jew hunter" and using it to compare himself to Reinhard Heydrich. When the tide of the war turns against the Nazis, he scoffs at it, alluding that his job is to find and capture people and the fact that they are Jews is of no consequence to him. Landa is cruel, highly intelligent, relentless and ruthless but when needed, charismatically charming and polite. He uses a very methodical and Holmesian approach in his search for hidden Jews. Besides speaking German, he is also fluent in at least English, French and Italian. He is also sarcastic and seems to have a knowledge (albeit flawed) of English language idioms, such as "That's a Bingo!" or "If the shoe fits, you must wear it."
Landa appears to be an opportunistic individual, acting only out of pure self-interest. In the beginning of the film, he subscribes to Nazi ideology as a means to power and wealth, having been a member of the Austrian Nazi party at least since 1934 (possibly even having taken part in the assassination of Engelbert Dollfuss.) By the end of the film, he unreservedly breaks his oath to Adolf Hitler and switches sides to assist the Basterds in assassinating Hitler and the Nazi Party elite inside a movie theater. In return for his role in the plot, Landa first demands and receives full immunity for his war crimes, a house on Nantucket Island, a Colonel's military pension, public recognition as an agent working with the American Office of Strategic Services and to be awarded the Medal of Honor. He also insists that the surviving Basterds also receive Medals of Honor, either to placate them, or more likely mock them, since they'd know that the medals were owed to Landa, giving him a sense of power over them.
After Shoshanna's family is murdered by his troopers, Landa takes aim at her back when she is fleeing; instead of executing her, he lets her leave with a sarcastic French farewell to taunt her. It is unclear why he spared her, as it may be he didn't believe her to be any threat or was just felt it was crueler to let her live. When they reunite years later, he appears to not recognise Shoshanna, although either is pretending or holds suspicions, since every action he takes with her is to provoke a reaction, from dismissing her friend (possibly lover) Marcel's competency because of his ethnicity, to coaxing her into eating German food to reinforce the Nazi occupation to her. When she doesn't break, he possibly realises that she has a plan to disrupt the movie screening for the Nazi high command, thus even before meeting the Basterds, he is plotting a way to switch to the winning side, and his intellect and ability to read people convinces him that Shoshanna could be useful.
Perhaps Landa's greatest flaws - that doesn't advantage him - are his overconfidence and underestimation of his enemies; his confidence is justifiable to an extent because of his intelligence, but there are some events that can't be logically predicted. When he had Aldo bound and head covered, he didn't expect Aldo would be able to fight back; it was ineffectual in the long-term, but Aldo's headbutt wounded Landa's pride. While he was correct in believing the deal he made with the Allies would protect him from ever being held accountable, he also believed Aldo would remain subservient to his OSS superiors believing their punishments equated the Nazis' for disobedience. Thus Landa was taken by surprise when Also killed his accomplice Hermann citing that, despite Landa's beliefs, he'd be "chewed out" rather than shot since the deal he made was for his benefit not Hermann's. While Aldo allowed Landa to live - as per the deal- he still punished him for his actions by carving a swastika into his forehead with a Bowie knife, ironically marking the apolitical careerist as a Nazi for life. Unlike the medals he mockingly got for them, the scar will be something he can't take off.
Trivia[]
- Quentin Tarantino called Hans Landa 'one of the greatest villains he has ever written, and one of the greatest characters that he will ever write'.
- He also said that Landa was "the only Nazi that could speak a perfect Yiddish".
- Tarantino has even said that he nearly cancelled Inglourious Basterds at one point due to fearing that he wasn't going to find the ideal actor to play Landa.
- Leonardo DiCaprio was also considered for the role of Hans Landa as he is capable of speaking fluent German.
- According to Tarantino in a 2019 podcast, Landa survives the end of the film and is labelled a hero in the US and the history books for his role in the death of Adolf Hitler, and retires to Nantucket Island, where he is roped into solving a series of murders as an amateur master detective.
- It's heavily implied that Hans knew who Shoshana really was but allowed her to live, either to continue tormenting her or because his plan to assassinate Hitler depended on her theatre being chosen for the Nation's Pride premiere.
- Some audience members have suggested that Hans was actually homosexual and his ill-fated accomplice Hermann was his romantic partner.
External Links[]
- Hans Landa on the Wikipedia
