10 Insanely Accurate War Film Details
6. Aldo Raine's Devil's Brigade Patch - Inglorious Basterds
"Once we're in enemy territory, as a bushwhacking guerrilla army, we're gonna be doing one thing, and one thing only. Killing Nazis."
The leader of the eponymous group of fictional Jewish-American soldiers featured within Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds, Brad Pitt's smooth-talking Lieutenant Aldo "the Apache" Raine is a formidable commando.
By the man's own account, Raine climbed down from the Smokey Mountains, crossed five thousand miles of water, fought his way across half of Sicily and jumped out of a "f**king air-o-plane" just to get to where he is now. Suffice to say, he did not do this to teach the Nazis lessons in humanity.
Tarantino clearly sought to imbue his fictional charge with as much legitimacy as possible in order to underline Aldo's intimidating military status - highlighted by a red military patch that can be seen on Pitt's character's shoulder.
Said patch belongs to the Devil's Brigade, also known as the First Special Service Force and a WWII precursor to modern US and Canadian special forces units. Much like the Basterds in Tarantino's canon, the Devil's Brigade used small groups of men in raids, sabotage and guerrilla warfare - a tactic that continues to evolve to this day.