Inglourious Basterds (2009) - 12 questions

Question: After touring the cinema, why does Goebbels become so angry when someone mentions Lillian Harvey. Who is she?

Answer: Lilian Harvey was a British-born actress who made her career in Germany. While under Nazi scrutiny for having too many friends in the Jewish community, she'd helped a Jewish friend escape the country before escaping herself and performing for Allied troops. So yeah, Goebbels hated her. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilian_Harvey)

Question: Does Emmanuelle Mimieux know of the Bastard's plan to blow up the cinema and do the Bastards know that Emmanuelle Mimieux is going to burn it down, or are the plans not connected at all?

Answer: They're unconnected. As happens often in Tarantino's films, their storylines are completely separate until they intersect at that point.

Question: Why does Hugo Stiglitz kill the German officers in the first place? The film mentions his enlistment, but how is this related to his killings?

Answer: Based on his willingness to join the Basterds, we can assume he killed them because he didn't believe in what the Nazis were doing.

Question: Wouldn't it have made more sense in having Hickox and the two German Basterds pose as a camera man and his assistants instead of wearing Nazi officer uniforms when they met Bridget in the bar? I would think that an officer would draw more attention than civilians. Civilians wouldn't have been that strange a sight in a bar in France, would it? And if they were asked any questions about their purpose for being in France, Hickox could have been more convincing since he was the film buff. The other two could have played along as Hickox did most of the talking anyway, or am I missing something?

Answer: It would be easier for them to do as they wished dressed as officers in German occupied France. Night potrol wouldn't stop them, people wouldn't ask questions, because the officers were ruthless.

Question: Hitler refers to Bear Jew as a "Golem." What is that?

Answer: In Hebrew folklore, a Golem is an anthropomorphic creature made from the earth (stone, mud, clay, etc.) that can be brought to life by writing a specific word on its body or on paper and feeding the paper to it. It is then bound to obey the will of its creator. Golems are completely unintelligent, but unwaveringly obedient. Traditionally, they are very large and very strong; most likely because they were to have been used to perform tasks of brute strength that a human could not have accomplished.

Question: Is the German way of showing three fingers (thumb,index and middle fingers) created/made up for the movie or do Germans really do that?

Answer: They really do that. It's also the American Sign Language sign for "3" while three upraised fingers (index, middle, ring) is "W".

Question: What is the name of the card game that Von Hammersmark and the German soldiers were playing?

Answer: It's not really a card game per se (like Poker or Hearts). It's just a regular game that can be played with cards or any blank piece of paper. I've played it before and we just called it "The Name Game".

Question: Brad Pitt's character, Aldo Raine, has a scar on his neck, which is very visible in the first scene where he's talking to the Basterds. He says later in the movie that he was a bootlegger in his home state of Tennessee. Is the scar from a failed attempt to execute him by hanging?

Answer: According to the IMDb trivia on the film, yes.

Question: In the scenes leading up to the shoot-out in the bar, the German Major says that the Captain just gave himself away. I am assuming that he is referring to the fact that the Captain held up three fingers when asking for only three glasses. I don't see how this is a give-away. Can someone please explain?

Answer: It is explained shortly afterwards that a real German would hold up his thumb, index and middle fingers to indicate three. Since, the major already suspects the Captain of being a spy, holding up his index, middle and ring fingers to indicate three confirms this.

Question: Is Brad Pitt's character Jewish, like the rest of the Basterds?

Answer: Yes.

Question: All through the movie where the subtitles appear, the translation changes from scene to scene. In the movie "Oui" is sometimes translated as "Yes"; sometimes as "Oui". Same thing goes for other French words that switch translation with either the same French word or English. What's up with that?

Answer: This is done as an inside joke. Oui is well known as yes, so no need for translation.

Question: Is it ever implied what happened to the other Basterds? Obviously, Hugo and Wilhelm die in the Mexican standoff. Donnie and Omar die in the explosion. Aldo and Utivitch are seen at the end. But what of the missing Basterds?

Answer: The implication is only Aldo and Utivitch survived.