Lucio Inglourious Basterds favorite character

My favorite character would have to be Colonel Hans Landa. He captures my attention from the beginning of the movie in the first scene. The performance of Christoph waltz is magnificent because he is able to portray a very unique character in Landa. Like the majority of Nazi officers Landa has a hatred of Jews, but he is completely aware that he has no real reason for this hatred. He knows that what he does is wrong yet he does it anyway because he truly enjoys it. There are absolutely no rationalizations in his mind about his actions. And one more thing, he is extremely intelligent and very good at what he does. The first scene of the movie is what best demonstrates these attributes. In this scene, Landa manages to be absolutely despicable yet brilliant at the same time. That is what makes the scene so intriguing to me. Landa approaches the house in his uniform with his crew. Their uniforms symbolize their unity and authority over everyone else and bring fear into the eyes of the citizens. Landa, however, enters the house alone to question the family. I think this means that he is the head of the group, but it also symbolizes that he is somewhat different from the others. He sits down at the table and is brought a glass of milk while the others stand around him. This demonstrates even more his power and the fear he brings out of others. He interrogates the family about their neighbors who were Jewish, but he is aware the entire time that the Jews were being hidden in the house. He went along with his deceiving smile and false friendliness to trick and manipulate the man. In the end, he gets the man to admit what he was doing and kills the Jews hidden in the floor, but one escapes