10 Fan Theories About Tarantino Movies That Make Perfect Sense

Tarantino may have a few Oscars under his belt, winning Best Original Screenplay for both Pulp Fiction and Django Unchained, but he’s yet to win the much-coveted Best Director or Best Picture award despite his films routinely receiving critical acclaim. It must sting a little.

According to Redditor cadian16th we can tell just how much those Oscar snubs hurt Tarantino’s feelings by examining Inglourious Basterds a little more closely. Firstly, the fact Tarantino made a World War II-set film at all is a jab at the Academy Award judges’ tendency to favour war films especially those featuring a tonne of nasty Nazis (see Schindler’s List and Life Is Beautiful).

Then there’s the Nazis in Inglourious Bastards who represent the Academy and meet their deaths watching a propaganda film that panders wholly to their tastes. Hans Landa, meanwhile, is a stand-in for the kind of brownnosing director who is willing to sacrifice all their integrity to make Oscar-baiting movies designed to appeal to judges.

As for where Tarantino himself fits into the theory? He’s apparently represented by Lieutenant Aldo Raine – a force to be reckoned with who upsets the Nazi status quo. When Aldo carves a swastika into Hans Landa’s forehead at the end of Inglourious Basterds and proclaims, “I think this just might be my masterpiece”, Tarantino is himself declaring his film Oscar-worthy and perhaps even daring the Academy to recognise it while knowing it would probably lose out to another, more conventionally Oscar-friendly movie.

Which funnily enough is exactly what happened at the 2010 Academy Awards when Inglourious Basterds lost out on Best Picture and Best Director. Poor Quentin.