It's no secret that legendary director Quentin Tarantino has a knack for creating phenomenal characters. The outlandish ensembles of personalities he has managed to put together over the years -- from the violent Vega brothers, to freed slave Django Freeman -- have defined each and every one of his films. Everyone has his or her favorite Tarantino character, and the filmmaker himself is no different. The silver screen icon recently revealed his personal favorite character from any of his films to date, and it's a bit of a left-field choice, though we wholeheartedly agree with him.
According to a report from Screen Daily, Quentin Tarantino recently made an appearance during an event at the Jerusalem Cinematheque and admitted that his own favorite Tarantino character hails from the frames of his 2009 effort Inglourious Basterds. He said:
Landa is the best character I've ever written and maybe the best I ever will write. I didn't realize [when I was first writing him] that he was a linguistic genius. He's probably one of the only Nazis in history who could speak perfect Yiddish
So it seems that, amid all of the silver screen personalities that Quentin Tarantino has crafted over the years, his personal favorite is Hans Landa a.k.a The Jew Hunter from Inglourious Basterds. He rationalizes his love for the character by referencing Landa's intelligence, and his ability to speak the very language of the people he hunts.
We're inclined to agree with the director on this one. Hans Landa isn't just a great character by Tarantino standards; he's arguably one of the best movie villains of the last decade. He sets himself apart from the average cinematic bad guy by having an unnerving patience, and ability to get inside other people's heads. Every time he graced the screen in Inglourious Basterds, we all knew something bad could potentially go down -- and more often than not, it did.
Of course, Quentin Tarantino doesn't deserve all of the credit for Hans Landa's amazing characterization. While the Inglourious Basterds villain originated within the demented mind of the director, Christoph Waltz ultimately brought him to life in an undeniably chilling performance. The actor brought equal amounts of charisma and menace to the part that allowed Hans Landa to seem magnetic and personable in one moment, and terrifyingly sinister in the next. He even won the film's only Oscar for his portrayal.
Simply take a look at the below seen from Inglourious Basterds and you'll instantly be reminded of the sheer terror Hans Landa can induce in other characters -- as well as the audience:
Quentin Tarantino has created a veritable army of memorable characters throughout his long and storied Hollywood career. From Reservoir Dogs, to The Hateful Eight, each and every one of his films seems to introduce new, classic personas into his own cinematic universe. As long as Tarantino continues to craft amazing films, we have a feeling that he's going to continue developing equally amazing heroes and villains to populate those films.
