Why did Colonel Hans Landa let Shosana escape in the beginning?

Why did Colonel Hans Landa let Shosana escape in the beginning? - Sad isolated young woman looking away through fence with hope

Why did Colonel Hans Landa let Shosanna escape at the beginning of Inglourious Basterds if it was his duty to find and eliminate the jews at that area. I found it rare because he was proud of his job, and I'm pretty sure his job wouldn't be well evaluated if it's known that he let someone escape.

I don't think it is related to the fact he probably later used her to achieve his plan, a lot of time passed since that moment and the end of the movie.

Is it just a plot hole or could there be another more interesting reason?



Best Answer

As explained in the Inglorious Basterds screenplay:

  DRIVER
  Why did you allow a enemy of the state
  to escape?

  COL LANDA
  Oh, I don't think the state is in too
  much danger, do you?

  DRIVER
  I suppose not.

  COL LANDA
  I'm glad you see it my way. Besides,
  not putting a bullet in the back of a
  fifteen year old girl, and allowing
  her to escape, our not nessessarlly [sic]
  the same thing. She's a young girl, no food,
  no shelter, no shoes, who's just witnessed
  the massacre of her entire family.
  She may not survive the night. And after
  word spreads about what happened today,
  it's highly unlikely she will find any
  willing farmers to extend her aid.
  If I had to guess her fate, I'd say she'll
  probably be turned in by some neighbour.
  Or, she'll be spotted by some German
  soldier. Or, we'll find her body in the
  woods, dead from starvation or exposure.
  Or, perhaps-she'll survive. She will
  elude capture. She will escape to America.
  She will move to New York city.
  Where she will be elected, President of
  the United States

And in the spirit of the movie, Landa is The Jew Hunter. He's good at what's he's doing, but he also likes it. An escaped jewish girl is another prey for him. So he can hunt a little longer. For me it was part of showing Nazis as not "following orders", but people who are evil on their own. Who find and seek pleasure in tormenting other people.

Quote copied from www.scriptslug.com




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What happens in the opening scene of Inglourious Basterds?

He further commented on Late Show with David Letterman that Inglourious Basterds is a "Quentin Tarantino spelling". Tarantino has said that the film's opening scene, in which Landa interrogates the French dairy farmer, is his "favorite thing" he's "ever written".

How did Colonel Landa recognize Shoshanna?

In the first part of Inglourious Basterds, Colonel Landa kills Shosanna's family and she escapes. He is known as the Jew Hunter and never lets any Jews escape him. Later when he meets her under her assumed name "Emmanuelle", he makes references that suggests that he does recognize her.

Why does Hans Landa let Shoshanna go Reddit?

2) Shoshana: She held up during the entire line of questioning, and had a believable back-story and answers to his questions. So Hans lets her go. The Audience KNOWS he knows, because he ordered for her a glass of milk.

Why did Landa order milk for Shoshanna?

So when he orders Shoshanna a glass of milk and the Strudel with cream he is not doing it as a test to see if she is jewish. He is doing it to show he knows she is jewish and he wants to force her to abandon her dignity by not eating kosher. He orders the glass of milk because he knows she grew up on a dairy farm.



Why did Hans Landa let Shoshanna escape?




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