Summary
- "Inglourious Basterds" is considered one of Tarantino's best movies and a masterpiece due to its unconventional style and ultraviolent narrative structure.
- The movie's boldness in killing off Hitler has made it memorable and shocking even over a decade since its release.
- The film features memorable quotes from characters like Aldo Raine, Hans Landa, and Ed Fenech, contributing to its popularity and quotability.
Quentin Tarantino made Inglourious Basterds with the intention of making a masterpiece, and there are plenty of Inglourious Basterds quotes that stand up with any of his movies. It remains one of his best movies and is as close to a masterpiece as he has directed in his career. Tarantino wrote and directed this World War II movie in the style of a spaghetti western, and the result was a weird, unconventional, ultraviolent movie with a novelistic approach. The ensemble cast and intertwining storylines make the narrative structure a delicate tapestry – it’s Pulp Fiction set in the Second World War, just what Tarantino fans would want.
Inglourious Basterds remains one of Quentin Tarantino’s most popular movies, and the boldness of killing off Hitler meant that fans would not forget Tarantino’s World War II epic. Over a decade after it hit theaters, Inglourious Basterds quotes remain easy to remember just as the movie still has the capacity to shock audiences who discovered it late. From Brad Pitt's Aldo Raine quotes to those from the villain Hans Landa and a few other Inglourious Basterds quotes from supporting cast members, there is no shortage of quotable moments from the war epic.
20 "Nazi Ain't Got No Humanity."
Aldo Raine
The Aldo Raine quotes in Inglourious Basterds all paint him along the same lines. Raine is a smart man, but he has one purpose in his life and only one thing matters to him. Aldo is a Nazi killer, and he does it because he feels he has to in order to make this a safer world. However, when a person kills as many people up close and personal as Aldo, he has to find a way to make it okay, at least in his own mind. To Aldo, a Nazi has no humanity, which helps him convince himself that he is doing the right thing as the bodies pile up.
19 "Let's Discuss The Prospect Of Ending The War Tonight."
Hans Landa
In Hans Landa's mind, the entire goal of Nazi Germany wasn't to prolong the war; it was to end the war and turn the world into its own image. He was a detective who believed he was doing the right thing by his government and he was not a villain at all - but a man seeking peace. While men like Aldo Raine were out in the woods slaughtering every Nazi they found to end the war, Hans was in his role as a hunter also fighting for the same reason. This movie was about ending World War II, and this quote was Hans Landa planning to end the war in his own way, although he ended up on the losing side of the proposition.
18 "Down With Hitler."
Ed Fenech
There were some interesting casting decisions that Quentin Tarantino made for Inglourious Basterds. One of these was Tarantino signing comedian Mike Myers to one of his rare movie roles. This role was of General Ed Fenech, a whiskey-swirling career General with a ton of metals on his uniform. As Winston Churchill sits in the background, Fenech delivers the marching orders for Hicox, the actor going undercover in Nazi Germany. These Inglourious Basterds quotes see Fenech delivering over-the-top lines about defeating Nazi Germany, and he ends it with the ultimate order - to take down Hitler.
17 "If The Shoe Fits."
Hans Landa
There were Inglourious Basterds quotes that almost have as much to do with this being a Quentin Tarantino movie as it did with the movie's story itself. This was the case with a line by Hans Landa and its connection with Tarantino's very well-known foot fetish. As with all Tarantino movies, there is at least one shot that really focuses on a close-up of a woman's feet. When it comes to the Inglourious Basterds quotes, Hans Landa loved to try to spout out poop culture and well-known quotes, and in this case he pulled out the line about "if the shoe fits," which was a nice wink by Tarantino and his detractors about his foot fetish.
16 "I’ve Been Chewed Out Before."
Aldo Raine
At the end of Inglourious Basterds, some Aldo Raine quotes showed the real difference between the Nazi German military and the Allied Forces military forces - at least in this movie. Hans Landa thought he had a deal with the Allied Forces to save his life, but Aldo Raine had other things in mind. When Aldo let Hans know he wasn't getting out of this in one piece, Hans had a quote revealing how Germany deals with people who break the rules, saying Aldo would be shot for disobeying an order. However, Aldo said he might get chewed out at the worst, and he has been chewed out before.
15 “We Ain’t In The Prisoner-Takin’ Business; We’re In The Killin’ Nazi Business.”
Aldo Raine
“You probably heard we ain’t in the prisoner-takin’ business; we’re in the killin’ Nazi business. And cousin, business is a-boomin’.”
From his very first on-screen appearance, Lt. Aldo Raine makes it very clear that the titular death squad’s mission is plain and simple: killing Nazis. He puts together a team of eight Jewish American soldiers to head behind enemy lines and start killing Nazi officers and collecting their scalps until Hitler gets the message and backs down. This was also a key statement for the Aldo Raine quotes because no one could have expected that Hitler would die in the movie, which eventually meant that Aldo's business came to an end thanks to his contributions.
14 “Gorlami!”
Aldo Raine
In the third act of Inglourious Basterds, Aldo Raine and a couple of the Basterds join Bridget von Hammersmark at the premiere of a new Nazi propaganda movie to assassinate Hitler. They pose as Italians, but Aldo is hopelessly terrible at speaking Italian. The movie’s use of spies botching foreign languages and social customs to build tension is hilariously deconstructed with Brad Pitt’s painful butchering of Italian words. It was one of the funny Aldo Raine quotes that showed how much he was a fish out of water when he wasn't in the woods scalping the Nazis.
13 “I, On The Other Hand, Love My Unofficial Title, Precisely Because I’ve Earned It.”
Hans Landa
While a lot of the characters in Inglourious Basterds don’t like the nicknames they’ve been given – like Utivich and his nickname “the Little Man” – Hans Landa loves his. He’s been nicknamed “the Jew Hunter,” and he explains that he enjoys it because he’s earned it. However, at the same time, he also made it clear that he never gave himself the name. To Hans, he was a detective hunting down criminals for his beloved Nazi Germany. He wanted to call himself a detective, but had no problem with the moniker his ruthless actions earned him.
12 “Watching Donny Beat Nazis To Death Is The Closest We Ever Get To Goin’ To The Movies.”
Aldo Raine
“Actually, Werner, we’re all tickled to hear you say that. Quite frankly, watching Donny beat Nazis to death is the closest we ever get to goin’ to the movies.”
On one level, Inglourious Basterds is a love letter to the power of cinema. Quentin Tarantino believes that cinema had a major influence on World War II. Hitler was a massive film buff and propaganda was a huge part of his political strategy. And when Werner accepts his fate at the hands of the Bear Jew, Aldo Raine smiles and says that watching the Bear Jew beat Nazis to a pulp is “the closest we ever get to goin’ to the movies.” It was a nice callback to the fact that this was a movie and Tarantino knew that these men would remember what they were missing by doing their work to win the war.
11 “Can You Americans Speak Any Other Language Besides English?”
Bridget von Hammersmark
As far as the most iconic characters in the Tarantino oeuvre go, Bridget von Hammersmark doesn’t get nearly enough love. As a German movie star spying for the Allies, she’s a fascinating character caught in a series of daring, intense situations. Multilingualism is a big theme in Inglourious Basterds, as the languages spoken by spies are taken seriously for the first time in the genre’s history. At one point, Bridget jokingly asks, “Can you Americans speak any other language besides English?” It showed that, while she knew her job, she didn't have to respect either side as the war raged on.
10 "So, You're 'The Jew Hunter.'"
Hans Landa
“A detective. A damn good detective. Finding people is my specialty, so naturally, I work for the Nazis finding people, and yes, some of them were Jews. But ‘Jew Hunter?’ It’s just a name that stuck.”
Pretty much every character in Inglourious Basterds has a nickname. Aldo Raine is “Aldo the Apache,” Donny Donowitz is “the Bear Jew,” and Hans Landa is “the Jew Hunter.” However, while the former two embrace their nicknames, Landa rejects his. Instead, he believes he is a detective whose work involves tracking down Jews, simply due to the demands of the time. It was another case of someone believing they were the hero of their own story, even if their actions were despicable and horrific and they had to know better.
9 "Teddy F****** Williams Knocks It Out Of The Park!"
Donny Donowitz
“Fenway Park on its feet for Teddy f***in’ Ballgame! He went yardo on that one, out to f***in’ Lansdowne Street!”
Quentin Tarantino’s original choice to play Donny “The Bear Jew” Donowitz was Adam Sandler, which certainly would’ve been interesting. It would’ve forced us to see the typically family-friendly comic in a new light – a violent one. In the end, Sandler decided to do Funny People with his old roommate Judd Apatow instead and Tarantino cast fellow director Eli Roth in the role, and he played the character as a loudmouthed Bostonian. As a result, this young Northern American held the American pastime close at heart and name-dropped World War II-era baseball hero Ted Williams in his mind when he was killing Nazis.
8 "Each And Every Man Under My Command Owes Me 100 Nazi Scalps."
Aldo Raine
“And I want my scalps. And all y’all will git me one hundred Nazi scalps, taken from the heads of one hundred dead Nazis. Or you will die tryin’.”
Brad Pitt’s opening monologue as Lt. Aldo Raine, explaining the mission to the Basterds, is one of the best Tarantino has ever written. It ends with his demand that all the men bring him the severed scalps of one hundred dead Nazis, which establishes his attack method as an Apache one, as that’s what the Native American warriors used to do. These Aldo Raine quotes do one of two things. First, it shows that Aldo is a pure American Southerner and keeps those values close at hand. Second, it shows that he will do anything to bring down every single Nazi that he comes across without missing a beat.
7 "My Name Is Shosanna Dreyfus..."
Shosanna Dreyfus
“...and this is the face of Jewish vengeance!”
Revenge is a common theme in Quentin Tarantino’s work. But it’s not revenge in the sense of Charles Bronson in Death Wish, which is to say revenge against some fictional person for some fictional wrongdoing. It’s a historical revenge fantasy. He’ll have a bunch of Jewish American soldiers and one Jewish refugee killing Hitler, or he’ll have African slaves in the Deep South killing white slavers. It was a bold move by the writer-director to actually change the course of history and literally kill off Hitler, but it’s one that the audience goes along with. It all started with these iconic Inglourious Basterds quotes.
6 "Oooh, That's A Bingo!"
Hans Landa
One of the character traits that makes Hans Landa a human character and not just an evil, soulless, heartless Nazi is the fact that he’s only vaguely familiar with English expressions. He can’t remember the phrase “Looks like the shoe’s on the other foot,” so he just asks Aldo Raine, “What’s that English saying about shoes and feet?” And when he’s celebrating the fact that he’s captured Aldo, and he’s able to cut a deal with him to go down in the history books as a hero, he doesn’t know that it’s just “Bingo!” and says, “Oooh, that’s a Bingo!”
5 "Say 'Auf Wiedersehen' To Your Nazi Balls!"
Hugo Stiglitz
Inglourious Basterds is easily one of the most rock ‘n’ roll war movies ever made. Usually, war movies are dark and gritty and treat the subject of war very seriously and delicately. But Inglourious Basterds has an electric guitar on the soundtrack, it has freeze frames and cutaways, and every character in the cast is cool. Hugo Stiglitz is an example of one of those cool characters, as he made himself infamous among the Nazi community for slaying several of them. As far as sign-offs during assassinations go, these Inglourious Basterds quotes were unforgettable.
4 "You Know, Fightin' In A Basement Offers A Lot Of Difficulties..."
Aldo Raine
“...number one being, you’re fightin’ in a basement!”
According to Quentin Tarantino, the basement scene in Inglourious Basterds was only supposed to be a couple of pages long. However, he started writing the “Who Am I?” game that the officers all play together in the basement, and it ballooned to about twenty pages. What’s effective about that is that it’s so long that you’ve forgotten there’s any danger by the time someone pulls out a gun and a firefight breaks out. The longer you wait for the scene to devolve into violence, the higher the tension. It also helps that these were some fantastic actors, headed by Michael Fassbender there for these Aldo Raine quotes.
3 "What A Tremendously Hostile World That A Rat Must Endure."
Hans Landa
“Yet, not only does he survive, he thrives. Because our little foe has an instinct for survival and preservation second to none. And that, Monsieur, is what a Jew shares with a rat.”
The whole opening sequence of Inglourious Basterds is one of the most memorable Tarantino scenes ever filmed. Although it’s just a couple of guys talking over a glass of milk, we know that one of them is a vicious, cold-hearted Nazi officer and there are Jewish refugees hiding under the floorboards, so a layer of tension is added. This scene stretched on to an almost unbearable length as viewers had an idea that things would not go well for the family in hiding. All the while, Hans Landa's story was horrific and mesmerizing.
2 "You Get That For Killin' Jews?"
Donny Donowitz
Quentin Tarantino understands that everyone is the good guy in their own mind. A lesser writer would write S.S. officers as if they’re aware of their own evil, but not Tarantino. He writes S.S. officers who believe they are nobly fighting for their country in a just war because that’s what they’ve been told. That’s exemplified perfectly when the Bear Jew asks Sgt. Werner Rachtman if he got his Iron Cross medal for “killin’ Jews,” and he counters that he got it for “bravery” – right before the Bear Jew caves his head in with a baseball bat. Everyone is a hero in their own story, until the Bear Jew takes a swing at them.
1 "You Know Somethin', Utivich?
Aldo Raine
“I think this just might be my masterpiece.”
There are a couple of meta, self-aware Inglourious Basterds quotes that point to Quentin Tarantino’s intentions with the film. Tarantino thought it was going to be his masterpiece, and he threw in a few not-so-subtle hints. During the screening of the film-within-a-film Nation’s Pride, Hitler leans over to tell director Joseph Goebbels, “Extraordinary, my dear. Simply extraordinary. This is your finest film yet.”
But the most obvious suggestion is the final line of the film, one of the Aldo Raine quotes in the movie. After carving one last swastika into Hans Landa’s forehead, Aldo Raine said, “You know somethin’, Utivich? I think this just might be my masterpiece.” Whether this was Tarantino praising his own movie or just a wink with a look at Aldo's mission in life, it was something no one could overlook as it ended Inglourious Basterds.