system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Inglorious Bastards] What is Perrier LaPadite chopping in the opening scene? He's using an axe and hitting a stump. There's nothing on the stump. He's just hitting it with an axe. He sits beside the empty stump for a short time and we can see there is nothing there.

We see the empty stump from several angles and he even asks for water so that he might wash up. 

He washes up and we once again see that he was not fulfilling anything by hitting the stump with an axe. 

For no particular reason.
gpt
Its an old school way of removing a stump. 

He had no vehicle to remove it (Like we would use a tractor today), digging it out would take a long time, fuel is hard to come by to burn it to ash, and again since its a war he probably had no explosives. 

So what you do is daily or every few days you take a few chops at the stump to expose it to the elements. Over a month or two you can remove a shit ton of wood simply by chopping letting the wood get soft, chop again, let it get soft, chop again... etc etc.