The final scene of Quentin Tarantino’s alternate-history World War II epic Inglourious Basterds announces the film as the iconic writer-director’s “masterpiece” in a pretty on-the-nose way. Critics have argued whether it really is Tarantino’s masterpiece, and the director himself might have had a change of heart as he’s made three more movies since then.
But from its breathtaking visuals to its fast-and-loose use of historical fact to its truly sinister antagonist, the film is undeniably cinematic. Every actor in Tarantino’s ensemble cast did a fantastic job with their role. So, here are all the major performances in Inglourious Basterds, ranked.
Eli Roth As Sgt. Donny Donowitz
Donny Donowitz, also known as “the Bear Jew,” is one of Tarantino’s most memorable characters, but Eli Roth also gives the film’s weakest performance in the role. Roth is primarily a filmmaker, and acting is more of a hobby, so you can hardly blame him.
The scene in which Donny slowly walks towards a proud Nazi, clanging his baseball bat on the wall of the tunnel before beating the Nazi to death is suitably triumphant and cinematic, nonetheless.
B.J. Novak As Pfc. Smithson Utivich
It’s tough not to see Ryan Howard when B.J. Novak appears in a scene in Inglourious Basterds. His dry delivery of his reaction to finding out the Germans’ nickname for him is “the Little Man” is priceless, but even that recalls Ryan’s scenes in the early seasons of The Office.
Martin Wuttke As Adolf Hitler
There have been many cinematic portrayals of Adolf Hitler, but only one that is burned alive by a Jewish refugee and riddled with bullets by Jewish soldiers. There’s an argument that Tarantino’s heavy-handed historical revenge fantasies are reckless and irresponsible, but there’s also an undeniable satisfaction in seeing them play out.
Martin Wuttke played Hitler sincerely in this movie. His passion for Nation’s Pride feels real, and his hysterical laughter in the theater is disturbingly authentic.
Til Schweiger As Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz
Til Schweiger had staunchly refused to wear a Nazi uniform for an acting job throughout his whole career, but he made an exception for the role of Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz in Inglourious Basterds because the character not only defects from the Nazis, but also kills a bunch of them in gruesome fashion.
With an unshakable grimace and callous eyes, Schweiger plays the part as every bit the hard-as-nails badass Tarantino wrote him to be.
Omar Doom As Pfc. Omar Ulmer
From his lyrical pronunciation of the name “Margheriti” to the look of grisly delight in his eyes as he guns down hordes of Nazis from a theater balcony, Omar Doom commanded the screen every time he appeared in Inglourious Basterds.
Even alongside a huge A-list talent like Brad Pitt or Christoph Waltz’s chilling portrayal of Col. Hans Landa, Doom held his own, and delivered a couple of memorable moments.
Jacky Ido As Marcel
Marcel is the projectionist who gets to light the cigarette that burns down the movie theater that kills Adolf Hitler and his closest confidants.
Although it’s Shosanna’s plot, Jacky Ido’s committed performance in a more minor role ensures that we see this as Marcel’s retribution against hate speech and ethnic cleansing as much as it is hers.
Daniel Brühl As Pfc. Fredrick Zoller
Daniel Brühl is one of the great actors of this generation. He’s given powerful performances in such films as Good Bye, Lenin! and Rush, and he also played one of the most sympathetic and underrated villains in the MCU. In Inglourious Basterds, he plays the Nazi sniper who’s being celebrated in the propaganda film Nation’s Pride.
Zoller takes a shine to Shosanna, who wants nothing to do with him, and they have a tragic anti-romance that ends in a hail of gunfire. Brühl plays Zoller as polite — charming, even — so when the killer in him comes out at the end, it’s even more disturbing.
Michael Fassbender As Lt. Archie Hicox
Throughout his whole career, Michael Fassbender has never given a bad performance. His movies haven’t always been good (Assassin’s Creed and the last two X-Men films are quite the opposite), but you can always find something real in his performance. So, it’s unsurprising that his turn as Allied spy Lt. Archie Hicox is captivating.
Coming from a German father and an Irish mother, Fassbender was able to dig into the nuances of Hicox’s language-juggling, and the little details of his accents and body language.
Diane Kruger As Bridget Von Hammersmark
As a German actor who goes undercover for the Allies, Bridget von Hammersmark is a fascinating character, and a difficult one to bring to life at that.
Diane Kruger plays the “Who Am I?” scene with a convincing facade, without ever losing sight of the underlying suspense created by the context of the scene.
Brad Pitt As Lt. Aldo Raine
Tarantino doesn’t give Brad Pitt as much of a chance to show off his range with the role of Lt. Aldo Raine in Inglourious Basterds as he did with the role of Cliff Booth in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but he does make glorious use of Pitt’s finely tuned, often-overlooked comedic instincts.
Raine is a very archetypal character — a gruff war veteran who wants to get the job done by any means necessary — and Pitt just rolls with that. He brings a real rhythm to Raine’s accent, as well as a healthy dose of Southern charm.
Mélanie Laurent As Shosanna Dreyfus
As the Jewish refugee who escapes from the slaughter of her family in the opening scene, Shosanna Dreyfus is a character who we immediately root for. Mélanie Laurent plays the character’s transformation into a vengeful badass brilliantly.
When Laurent feels the terror of Col. Landa entering a room she’s in or a car full of Nazis pulling up outside her movie theater, we feel the terror with her.
Christoph Waltz As Col. Hans Landa
There’s no debate that the greatest performance in Inglourious Basterds is Christoph Waltz’s terrifying, Oscar-winning turn as the nefarious villain, Col. Hans Landa. Waltz is the one who hooks you in from the offset with his masterful use of tension in the opening dairy farm sequence. Tarantino credits Waltz with saving his movie, as he came along when dozens of failed Landa auditions had the writer-director worrying that the part was unplayable.
No other actor could’ve balanced the tightrope line between polite pleasantries and silent rage that Landa walks during everyday conversations quite like Waltz did.