Inglourious Basterds: What The Ending's "Masterpiece" Line Really Means
Inglourious Basterds ends with Aldo Raine carving a swastika on Hans Landa’s forehead, calling it his “masterpiece” – and here’s what that really means. Quentin Tarantino has explored different genres throughout his career, and in 2009, he tried something new with Inglourious Basterds, which told an alternate version of history, specifically of World War II, with his signature style of narrative and violence.
Inglourious Basterds follows different subplots with one common goal: kill as many Nazis as possible, including Hitler. At the core of the movie are two main plans to get rid of Hitler: one by a group known as the “Basterds”, led by Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), and the other by Shosanna Dreyfus/Emmanuelle Mimieux (Mélanie Laurent), a Jewish cinema owner whose family was murdered by an SS officer. Said character is Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), a cold-blooded man known as the “Jew Hunter”. Aldo and what was left of the Basterds had a close encounter with Landa in the final part of the movie, and things took a turn at the end.
Aldo and the Basterds traveled around following German soldiers, capturing them, and scalping them, and those who lived to tell the story left with a swastika carved on their forehead. This was done as to not let them forget what they did while serving Hitler, even if they never wear a uniform again. Towards the end of Inglourious Basterds, Landa found out the plans of the Basterds and took Aldo and Utivich (B.J. Novak) prisoners. Landa made Aldo contact his superior with the OSS to make a deal: Landa would let the Basterds' plan of killing Hitler continue in exchange for safe passage through the Allied lines, full pardon, and other benefits after the war. When they reached Allied territory, Landa and his radio operator surrendered, but Aldo shot the latter and ordered Utivich to scalp him. As for Landa, Aldo carved a swastika into his forehead, saying it was his “masterpiece”.
Aldo and company had been wanting to catch Landa for a long time, and even though he agreed to his deal, there was no way he was going to let him free without some sort of punishment. Aldo was proud of finally being able to get back at Landa for everything he had done, thus why finally marking him with a swastika was his “masterpiece”. Some viewers have pointed out that Landa’s “branding” seemed agonizing, even though that’s the only on-screen swastika carving in the whole movie (the one done to the soldier that tells Hitler about it was done off-screen). It’s possible that Aldo carved the swastika a bit deeper on Landa’s forehead as to further punish him and might have even done it slower to make Landa’s agony even bigger – and that’s also why he calls this particular work a “masterpiece”.
Aldo and Utivich looking down at an agonizing Landa, admiring the swastika on his forehead with pride is a very powerful final scene, as the Basterds ultimately won, even if only two of them survived. Aldo Raine spent all of Inglourious Basterds preparing for the moment where he could get revenge on a character like Hans Landa, so it’s not surprising that he considers it his masterpiece.