Was the German soldiers' reaction during the bar shootout realistic?

In the Bar Shootout Scene in Inglourious Basterds, two things do not match up,

First: there is one German officer knowing the bastards are spies, so when the first shot is fired why the Nazi soldiers start shooting the Basterds? how could they tell who is not German or is a spy at the moment (they are all drunk too)?

Second: With the fact that all other Nazi soldiers except the officer are way too drunk, they react to the shooting too soon for the fact I mentioned and they shoot with accuracy while being drunk.

So are those possibly directing/writing errors?

plot-explanation inglourious-basterds

Best Answer

It would be safe to assume that the German soldiers at the tavern were all deployed in the same region and hence knew each other.

First : When first shots are heard the drunk soldiers see that the German officer, who was their senior in rank and who was known to them is being shot at by some strangers who are in uniform but who are not known to them. This is enough for them to get in action and fire on the strangers who shot the Officer. It is also possible that could hear the conversation taking place at that table. Remember that the bar owner is able to hear the conversation. They could have known that the German Officer was interrogating the strangers.

Second : We can't say exactly how drunk they were and how well they could shoot when they were drunk. We don't know how accurate there shots were. may be they fired many times and some shots found the target. Also please note that there wasn't a lot of distance between them so they had to fire at a very close range which should not be difficult for the soldiers.