Inglourious Basterds (2009)
In Tarantino’s sprawling World War II-era fantasy film, Inglorious Basterds, Pitt leads an elite crew of Jewish-American soldiers through German-occupied France with one clear mission: to kill Nazis. Playing Lieutenant Aldo Raine, an ex-moonshiner from Maynardville, Tennessee, the no-nonsense leader tells his squad that they should each deliver him 100 Nazi scalps or die trying.
Raine, a man of the Great Smoky Mountains, goes by the nickname of “Aldo the Apache.” But he’s not the only soldier whose name precedes him. Take for example, Sergeant Donny Donowitz, aka “The Bear Jew” (Eli Roth), who fancies taking a baseball bat to the fascist opposition.
Pitt’s character doesn’t mince words. He has a clear distaste for the Third Reich, often smack-talking their troopers’ affinity for sauerkraut and schnitzel before carving a Swastika into their foreheads. Raine can have tact, like negotiating his team out of a dangerous basement, or use subtle brute force by sticking his finger into a fresh bullet wound in order to navigate difficult situations appropriately. Perhaps the most entertaining image of Lt. Raine is in the film’s final chapter, when the all-American boy cleans up in a white tuxedo and fails miserably at presenting himself as stuntman Enzo Gorlomi — brashly tossing out Italian fragments in his Tennessee drawl.
Inglourious Basterds earned eight Oscar nominations, with Christoph Waltz earning Best Actor in a Supporting Role honors for his role as SS Colonel Hans Landa.
