"The fascination of Horror" | Analysis of Hans Landa

Undoubtedly the first and essential thing that the character projects is elegance and bearing. This is thanks to the uniform manufactured in real life by the Hugo Boss company, designed by SS officer and artist Karl Diebitsch, in addition to also being involved in the design of a large part of the SS insignia, he also joined the project the graphic designer Walter Heck (1932).

Within the repertoire of uniforms used by the SS, black stood out. It looked plainly dark and gloomy. The color being popular in fascist and national socialist movements, introduced by the blackshirts (Italy), and traditionally used by the guard cavalry of Prussian emperors and kings. (Leibhusaren).

This first analysis will be of one of his scenes, as I see more interest in this article, I will publish the second part.

The character has great gifts of charisma at first. Of course this is only clear evidence of a false appearance, since we are talking about the nicknamed "Jew Hunter." He tends to persuade his victims, initially presenting himself with an air of security, cordiality, and politeness, trying at first to make them feel comfortable, and then, in an unpredictable way, beginning to mentally torture them.

The colonel also presents a deep-rooted sense of non-verbal deduction. His abilities transform him into a lie detector, since upon entering a Jewish house, he begins his exhaustive investigation. When talking to the father of the family, Landa speaks metaphorically, referring to the Germans as hawks and the Jews as rats.

All this with the intention of generating some discomfort and tension in the place. It is worth emphasizing what he himself said, that he decides to look where others do not. This refers to the information that he is able to have in his hands. And to make the message even clearer, he knows the fact that the father used to smoke with a pipe, immediately after which Landa takes out a larger one to smoke, implying a metaphor of power and superiority.

We could also group this with the fact that he is a perfect reader of his environment. Since when he takes a first look at the family, he notices that they are nervous, he even sees one of the daughters looking at the ground while looking at her father, an undoubted act of nerves. Landa with the excuse of greeting her for looking like the most Aryan in the family (The Aryan race was the one preferred by the Nazis), using this as an excuse to grab her hand and kiss her, at the same time he tends to check the young woman's pulse.

He performs the same action when they offer him something to drink, to which he asks for milk, and when he grabs the hand of another of the sisters, he also proceeds to check her pulse.

At this point, Landa already knows that they hide people under the floor, an act previously revealed by one of the Jew's daughters, when she incessantly looked at the ground, at the same time that she appeared nervous when exchanging glances with her father. However, Landa chooses to continue talking.

Perhaps the latter is what identifies the character, his desire to create terror and observe the fear in the faces of his victims.

Last and least important, mention that Landa is a polyglot, speaking German, French, English and Italian. A clear sign that the man is intelligent and cultured.

In fact, in order not to raise the suspicions of the people who were underground, he begins to speak in French, ordering the father to humor him and giving way to his men to end the lives of those people.

At the end of the scene, one of the daughters runs away terrified, carrying with her blood stains belonging to her family.

Landa, on the other hand, decides not to pull the trigger and let her go, since he knows that they will meet again, so he proceeds to shout "See you soon."

Definitely, Hans Landa is more than a villain, since I would say that he is an investigative genius. He knows how to prey on his victims and obtain all kinds of information just with non-verbal language. On the other hand, a psychopath, ruthless, narcissistic, lacking in empathy, with a notorious superficial charm. The character is also a work of art by Tarantino himself.