| Col. Hans Landa | |
|---|---|
| Inglourious Basterds character | |
| First appearance | Inglourious Basterds |
| Created by | Quentin Tarantino |
| Portrayed by | Christoph Waltz |
| Information | |
| Aliases | "The Jew Hunter" |
| Occupation | Standartenführer |
| Nationality | Austrian |
Colonel Hans Landa is the primary antagonist[1] of the 2009 Quentin Tarantino film Inglourious Basterds. He is portrayed by Austrian actor Christoph Waltz.
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Standartenführer (Colonel) Hans Landa is 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 and its associated nickname.[2] Landa is cruel and ruthless, but charming, extremely polite, and diabolically intelligent. Besides German, he fluently speaks at least three other languages: English, French and Italian. Despite several loyalty awards within the SS, Landa has no real faith in Nazism or loyalty to the Third Reich. Landa is driven by sociopathic ambition alone. By the end of the film, he opportunistically switches sides and assists the Basterds in assassinating Adolf Hitler and his inner circle. Landa even manages to negotiate a hefty deal including a house on Nantucket Island, his military pension, public recognition as an operative working with the American Office of Strategic Services and to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Ultimately, Landa is punished for his actions by Lt. Aldo Raine, who carves a swastika into his forehead with a Bowie knife. This is a trademark which Raine and his men bestowed on captured Nazis whom they choose to spare. After listening to Landa scream in agony, Raine turns to his sole surviving soldier and proclaims, "You know something, Utivich? I think this just might be my masterpiece."[3]
Hans Landa appears to be the recipient of several high awards and decorations of Nazi Germany. He is seen wearing the Blood Order, indicating that he either participated in Hitler's 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, or that he had been a Nazi Party member since no later than 1932; his status as a veteran Nazi is reinforced by the Golden Party Badge, only worn by the first 100,000 NSDAP members, and the Honour Chevron, indicating Party membership before 1933. On his dinner dress uniform, he is seen wearing the Golden Knights Cross of the War Merit Cross with Swords, the highest possible grade of this order.[N 1] A listing of Hans Landa's decorations are as follows:
Quentin Tarantino has said that Landa might be the greatest character he's ever written. He originally wanted Leonardo DiCaprio for the part.[4] The director then decided to have the character played by a German actor.[5] The role ultimately went to the Austrian Waltz, who, according to Tarantino, "gave me my movie back," as he felt the movie could not be made without Landa as a character but feared the part was "unplayable."[6]
When Waltz auditioned for the role, he had no prior correspondence with Tarantino or producer Lawrence Bender, and believed that the character of Hans Landa was being used during the audition process to cast other roles. Waltz stated that he was most impressed with the dialogue and the depth of the character.[7][8] Waltz describes Landa's character as one who has an understanding of how the world works, stating that the swastika means nothing to him. He adds that he is not driven by ideology, and that if anyone were to call Landa a Nazi, he would clarify that he was not, stating that just because he wears a Nazi uniform does not mean that he believes in the Nazi ideology. In describing the ending between the Basterds and Landa, he describes him as "realistic to the point of being inhuman", adding that he understands that the world is not just one thing at a time, and even though these things may contradict each other, they do not necessarily have to.[7]
The character Col. Hans Landa was named after one of Tarantino's repeat customers when he worked at Video Archive, a now defunct video rental store in Manhattan Beach. The customer, Hans Landa, was an Austrian immigrant. Tarantino bonded with Landa over their mutual love of foreign films. Upon hearing of Landa's death, Tarantino paid his respects to him by naming the character after him.
Waltz won the Best Actor Award at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival for his performance. Due to his role as Hans Landa, Waltz has received many offers from directors to play roles in their films, enough for him to describe the situation as "wild".[7]
Film editor Hunter Stephenson commented that international viewers, Americans more so, would be surprised by Waltz's talent in this role, adding that he expected Waltz to get an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.[7]
In January 2010, Waltz won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. That same month he won a Screen Actors Guild Award in the same category. On February 2, at the announcement of the nominees for the 82nd Academy Awards he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, which he won on March 7.[9] On February 21 he won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor.[10]
Hunter Stephenson of /film describes Landa's calabash as an unsubtle metaphor of masculinity, and describes his love of milk as being leftover from an age of innocence and a primal link.[7]
Hans Landa has been compared to several other characters in fiction. His "larger-than-life cunning" and "European sensibility" have been compared to that of a Bond villain. Waltz himself has compared the character to Sherlock Holmes, due to the meticulous, theatrical way Landa searches for Jews and traitors. Landa was also compared to Die Hard villain Hans Gruber, due to his disdain for the inferior intellect of those around him.[7]
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