As Donny enters the scene, tension is built more effectively, with a one-point perspective used on the shot of the archway and the Nazi, drawing our focus further in as the camera zooms. The music also builds here, increasing our anticipation of the impending violence. It is also celebratory music, with cheering from the Americans on Donny’s entrance, further reinforcing that murder should be celebrated here. The cheers continue during his beating, treating it as though they are watching an actual game of baseball. Raine can also be seen eating here, demonstrating how casual, what should be a sickening and nauseating act, has become. There is disappointment when one of the Basterds shoots a Nazi, with Raine saying “Damn it, Hirschberg”. In this context, a quick death is not satisfying, where they seek indulgence in pain and suffering. Dana Stevens argues the dehumanizing murder of Nazis “unproblematically offers up sadistic voyeurism as a satisfying form of payback”.[10] This aspect of the film’s celebration of the Basterds’ violence remains widely criticized by critics, with David Denby arguing that “By making the Americans cruel, too, he escapes the customary division of good and evil along national lines, but he escapes any sense of moral accountability as well.”[11] Additionally, the audience becomes complicit in the violence of the Basterds, due to our support of them as the ‘good guys’, while their violence is arguably more sadistic than anything shown by Nazis throughout the film. Naturally the Basterds have very different ideological motivations behind their murder, arguably explaining the nature of said murder, but presenting their actions as morally defensible is undoubtedly problematic.

In addition to the similar brutality in these two scenes, the moral ambiguity of who the ‘bad guys’ are is strengthened in the final scenes of the film (2h20m), in which the power dynamic shifts between the Americans and the Nazis, and the brutality continues unaffected by victory. Following the scene in which Landa has the Basterds tied up, using them to leverage a deal for his own immunity, these roles are reversed after crossing the American lines with the ‘bad guy’ Landa as victim and Basterds as unprovoked cruel killers and torturers. More so than any other scene, this unequivocally exhibits the belief that in war you are permitted to act however you choose, given that you are the ‘good guy’ and your enemy is the ‘bad guy’. The camera angle here is crucial, as “the low camera position of the final shot espouses the point of view of the mutilated Landa”[12], making the viewer sympathise with Landa and fear Raine. However, it has been argued that Raine remains the ‘good guy’ in this scene. Given that the audience is informed of Landa’s character and actions, Raine’ cruelty can be seen as retribution. Charles Taylor suggests that this cruel practice of Raine does have “a moral point. Lurking behind that bit of pulp outrage is the reality of the Nazis who disappeared into South America or into American intelligence programs”.[13]