So Much Blood!

Intro to the Bear Jew

Like in most of Tarantino's films, blood, is practically a need more than a want. However, instead of adding it for overall shock value, this film uses an excess of blood to add perhaps a bit of humanity back into an evil backdrop. Too much blood?Never! The brutal acts in almost all the scenes of this film are directed towards officers of the Nazi party making them crucial in arousing passionate Hell-Yeahs from the audience.

German soldier gets clubbed to death

Perhaps one of the best scenes of the movie is when the Bear Jew is introduced. The Bear Jew (Donny Donowitz) is the poster child of Jewish revenge. As part of a troop(nicknamed 'The Basterds by German soldiers) aimed at killing any Nazi that stumbles on to their path, the Bear Jew is probably the most- lets just say- enthusiastic of the bunch. Rather than scalping German soldiers his killed,  which is how The Basterds do their biding, "He beats German soldiers with a club" wait...no " He bashes their brains in with a baseball bat" either way the end result involves a lot or red gooey stuff. The aim of The Basterds is to strike fear onto the Nazis the way they do through intimidation and torture. No one needs to tell us of the atrocities committed by the Nazis and their Fuhrer, sixth grade should have taken care of that. So when Donny picks up that old beaten up bat and hits a home run off the heads of every German officer his righteous baseball bat graces, you could say its pretty justified and its probably the only humanity Nazis will ever experience in their lives. This fact resonates well with us because its exactly what we think about when we are first learning about WW2.

Stiglitz killing German officers

Another example would be Hugo Stiglitz, a man who matches Donny Donowitz vigor ,but who out numbers him in scalping and overall rampage. This guy is as brutal as they come. Hugo was interestingly a German enlisted soldier who killed 13 Gestapo officers ( Nazi Germany secret state police). My favorite scene is when the film shows what looks like a blooper reel of Stiglitz killing those officers, it was laughably ridiculous. I couldn't look away and I found myself looking up the scene on YouTube daily just to re-live the moment all over again.
Hugo is the most interesting of the group because he was once part of the German army. One can't help but ask did he go into the army with the intent of killing German officers?or did he realize that he was part of the bad side of history. Regardless you see that Stiglitz possess a level of humanity through his killing by killing those perpetuating evil.

Aldo Raine gives Landa a swastika

Finally we come to the scene where Lt. Raine  carves a swastika on Col Landas forehead.Originally Landa had surrendered and made a deal with an O.S.S commander  where in he tries to get away with war crimes claiming he was a double agent and part of "Operation Kino" meaning his crimes would have been a necessary evil to his cover with the Germans. His conditional surrender ,among others, included the purchase of land in Nantucket Island. Of course this does not sit well with Lt Raine. Raine asks Landa, "I image you gonna take off that handsome looking SS uniform of your, ain't ya?"Landa is silent. "That's what i thought...if i had it my way ,you'd wear that goddamn uniform for the rest of your pecker suckin life...but...that aint practical...so I'm gonna give you a little somethin you can't take off. Aldo Raine whittles a swastika on Landas forehead proclaiming it his masterpiece. This part was surprisingly the only part where I cringed .Aldo has Landa pinned beneath him while he squirms in agony. Aldo feels he cannot let Landa get away with his war crimes and live a comfortable life on Nantucket Island so he brands him for the rest of his life. Aldo's determination symbolizes an endless quest to hold those responsible for the suffering in the world by giving him a dose of humanities revenge.