Do we like Hans Landa?
A character from Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Our score: 0 out of 10. No. He's a polite, brilliant predator who serves the Nazi cause and treats human lives as a game. He's great to watch and awful to back.
Landa is an Austrian-born SS Standartenführer in Nazi-occupied France during WWII. He's known for his skill at finding Jews in hiding. He is cultured, speaks several languages and is unfailingly courteous, which makes him all the more menacing.
The film opens with him visiting a French dairy farm. In a long, polite conversation he shows how his charm and patience can break people down. Later he becomes the main opponent of both the Basterds, a team of Jewish-American soldiers, and a young woman with her own plans for the Nazis.
He scores a 0 because his cleverness serves only cruelty and self-interest. Waltz's performance won him the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. The character is a fascinating villain, but he's one we'd never back.