MBTI: Aldo Raine- ESTP
Too obvious? Eh, well. Y’know how that goes.
Lieutentant Aldo Raine is a basterd. And a great one at that. With his merry band of underling basterds, Lt. Raine is dropped into enemy territory during WWII to just kill as many Nazis as they can get their hands on. Sounds like the American dream circa 1941, which may also be an ESTP one at that. Aldo’s raw charisma (if there is such a thing) points to the Promoter variant that only stops talking to get things done.
“Sound good?”
The above clip not only sums up the entire film but Aldo’s character as well. In charge of his roughneck squad of Nazi killers, Aldo rules not with an iron fist as lead Te users do, but through direct persuasion as ESTPs will do when they want to convince you of something. They don’t tell you what to do and make you feel like you have no other choice; they tell you what you already want to do and give you even more incentive to do it. You being inclined to listen in the first place is why they’re talking to you at all.
Aldo is straightforward and precise in what he’s saying but he doesn’t mind elaborating either. While Se (Extroverted Sensing) can shut up and get the job done, it’s really whatever activity is on hand that the user will dive into rather than all the stuff you’re used to reading that Se users love; X-treme sportzz, shootouts, holding their heads under ice water for extended periods of time. I mean, sure they all do that but if the activity at the time is simple conversation, the lead Se user is going to be everywhere with it. They are extroverts after all, and Se is all about living in the moment.
But Aldo’s auxiliary function of Ti (Introverted Thinking) is what also makes the ESTP so often labeled the jock. While the Se is all about living right now, the Ti breaks it down. We’ve talked about it before. Heck, my last article did this same thing but in reverse order. The difference in ISTP and ESTPs though is that ISTPs are logical with some crazy behind it (Ti/Se) while ESTPs are crazy with some logic behind it (Se/Ti).
Makes sense, eh?
Aldo adapts to the situation as ESTPs do and just because most of his men are dead by the second half of the film, they’re low on supplies, their mole has been shot in the leg, and he hardly even speaks Italian, it doesn’t seem to phase him to much that he and his crew will “have to” pose as Italian filmmakers if they want a chance at destroying the heads of the Third Reich.
Killing may not be the first chosen activity of the ESTP but guerilla warfare fits all the same. They’ve got to keep moving and hate the feeling of being restricted. Nobody likes being restricted, of course, but what work others may find comfortable or secure would bore the ESTP to death. The ESTP you know probably seems like he needs to refill on gasoline every several days like a Jeep Wrangler but other than that, they can go for days at work, play, and talk talk talk.
Basterds is also the perfect movie to show the differences between the ESTP and the nearly always present ENTP in a Tarantino film, which is otherwise filled with SPs, occasionally an SJ and pretty much never an NF.
While Colonel Hans “The Jew Hunter” Landa is clearly extroverted, he takes pride in the clever and theatrical ways in which he improvises on the job, tricking suspects into giving themselves away and laughing about it throughout. Notice that actor Christoph Waltz wasn’t picked for his physicality, but for his magnetic personality. He hardly has any action aside from strangling von Hammersmark (…Maybe an NF?). Other than that the most we get is dramatic gesticulation and a lot of talking.
Aldo, on the other hand, is likable in his simplicity. Though he certainly has his share of lines in the film, it’s really more about what the next move is. He makes his points very clearly even if he seems like he’s going off topic for a second. He’s clearly not afraid to get his hands dirty but he doesn’t mind negotiating beforehand if needs be. If you’re going with basic stereotypes, Landa is a “nerd that actually makes sense” and Raine is a “jock that isn’t an idiot.” The two don’t always appear as the basic stereotype (Or at least they shouldn’t) but when boiling it down to a small number of types, these kinds of things can be helpful.
EDIT: While both the ESTP and ENTP have the same auxiliary and tertiary functions (Ti and Fe, Extroverted Feeling), the ESTP leads with Se and ENTPs lead with Ne (Extroverted Intuition). Se is all about the moment as mentioned and Ne is all about ideas. So you’re more likely to find an ESTP doing without thinking and an ENTP thinking without doing.
Aldo also follows orders when his superiors tell him that Landa will be going home with the Americans as a war hero. Brilliant though Landa’s plan may have been, Aldo doesn’t let the opportunity pass him by to not only deal with (i.e., shoot) Landa’s subordinate but to permanently brand Landa a Nazi. A great, if not violent example of the ENTP thinking of everything but one last detail that blows up in his face and the ESTP that noticed even the tiniest opportunity to take hold of exploit it for all its worth.
Zombies Ruin Everything 
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