In the shootout in Eric's tavern there are a number of parties:
- five german enlisted soldiers, celebrating Wilhelm's son's birth (Maximilian)
- staff, namely Eric and Mathilda
- the gestapo officer (Dieter Hellstrom)
- Bridget von Hammersmark
- three Basterds: Hicox, Wicki and Stiglitz, disguised as Nazi officers
Mathilda is playing cards with the enlisted soldiers and Hellstrom and von Hammersmark are sitting at the Basterds' table. There are twelve people in total.
During the build-up to the shootout, we see Eric being very cognisant of the situation, pretending to read a book while reaching for this shotgun. It is unclear whether he can overhear the verbal exchange at the officer's table or not but he knows something's up.
From the screengrab it looks to me the shotgun is already loaded and ready to be fired.
When the shooting starts, the officers and Eric are the only ones who have their hands already on their loaded guns. Yet, Stiglitz has time to knife Hellstrom's neck, who already collapsed on the table after saying "auf Wiederseh'n to his Nazi balls", turn around and shoot at the enlisted soldiers. Some enlisted soldiers in turn have time to reach their pistols and shoot back. Mathilda has long jumped to the side to be out of the firefight.
Only at the end, when only Wilhelm, one more enlisted man, Wicki, Stiglitz and Mathilda are still standing, does Eric decide to get involved. He then apparently points his shotgun at Stiglitz and kills him.
(This picture doesn't show Stiglitz, but the camera pan reveals that he can only be aiming at Stiglitz.)
Only to be in turn killed by Wicki. Who then goes on to kill the other unnamed enlisted man while being shot at by that man at the same time.
Finally, Wilhelm mows down Mathilda and Wicki with his machine gun. But could easily have also killed Eric and Stiglitz with the exact same motion.
What I don't understand is: Why? Eric appears to be a French bartender with the goal of protecting himself and his staff who may or may not be his daughter (Mathilda).
His motivation depends on a series of sub-questions that I don't think can be answered individually:
- Did he know the three officers were disguised allied operatives?
- Who's side was he on? The Nazis or the Allies?
- Why did he step into the fight this late? Was he gauging the situation because he only had two shots?
- Why was Stiglitz his target? (Wilhelm being who eventually killed Mathilda)
I think the question boils down to this: Was he
- a collaborator or
- was he opposed to Nazis but failed to realise who Stiglitz and Wicki were?
