3. Col. Hans Landa - Inglourious Basterds (2009)
A group of Jewish soldiers are assembled into an ad hoc company by Aldo Raine who wants 100 Nazi scalps. They decide to kill off the creme de la creme of the Nazi hierarchy in a an explosion in a film theatre, but they are dealing with some pretty low life Nazis - like Hans Landa - played by Christoph Waltz who deservedly won an Oscar for his turn as the unscrupulous Standartenführer. Landa is known as the Jew Hunter due to his uncanny ability to locate where Jews are hiding all over occupied France. Landa is not really into the Endlösung side of things, he will capture and kill Jews, but he doesn't have a vendetta against them - they could be anyone. He is just following orders. Despite holding no grudges against Jews, he nevertheless pursues them in a systematic way. Landa is a cruel man who hides this beneath a demeanour of politeness, charm and high intelligence. He is fluent in German, English, French and Italian, and this often works in his favour. Highly decorated, Landa has no great love of the Nazis and opportunistically changes sides to help in the plot to blow up the Nazis in the cinema. He demands recognition of this feat - asking for a home in America and some souped up political jobs and titles. There is a twist in the tale. Aldo Raine is mindful of the fact that Landa is responsible of the deaths of countless Jews in France. He grabs him, and with a bowie knife cuts the sign of the swastika on Landa's forehead forever branding him a Nazi for all to see. So he does get a bit of a comeuppance, although I reckon he could grow a fringe to hide it. Landa is a great Nazi villain. If he had antisemitic thoughts, he would just be another boorish Nazi, but he is a careerist, hunting out Jews because that is what his job demands - there is no passion behind it. His moral ambivalence and keen intelligence make him a formidable opponent but also a useful ally as the soldiers learn as they plot to blow up the movie theatre. However, because he was an agent of Nazi Germany and killed Jews under the Auspices of the Third Reich, he deserves the Swastika he gets in his forehead.