Brad Pitt had minor appearances in films as early as 1987, but his first major role came in 1991 when he appeared in Thelma & Louise as JD, an attractive young drifter who seduces one of the title characters. Due to this, he was defined early in his career as a young heartthrob and took roles of a similar nature.
Pitt’s career took a turn for the better when he took lead roles in the films Interview with the Vampire and Legends of the Fall, both in 1994. From there on, his roles became much more complex, and soon enough, Pitt was established as one of Hollywood’s best leading actors. He’s been nominated for over a hundred awards, including three times for Best Actor at the Oscars, and has won 61 times in multiple award ceremonies.
He’s been named as one of the most powerful celebrities by Forbes and as one of the most influential people in the world by Time Magazine. His star power has since reached out to not only producing a number of highly successful films, but also for a slew of notable humanitarian and political causes.
Pitt’s status as one of Hollywood’s most dominant lead actors remains strong as ever to this day. In addition to an acclaimed lead roles in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood earlier this year, Pitt’s latest foray into the spotlight is Ad Astra, a sci-fi space drama in which he goes on a pursuit of his long-lost father, played by Tommy Lee Jones.
To coincide with the release of Ad Astra, here are ten of Pitt’s most notable films, listed in alphabetical order. While Pitt has numerous cameos in a major amount of successful films that are just as good as the films listed here, this will strictly focus on films in which he plays either a lead or major supporting role:
1) Allied
Robert Zemeckis’ war drama finds Pitt as a Canadian air force pilot during World War II who’s partnered up with Marion Cotillard as a French resistance fighter who infiltrate enemy lines together, posing as a married couple. The premise is a bit cheesy, though Zemeckis’ grandiose approach to the material does give it a great sense of adventure and excitement. Though the main selling points of the film are the performances of Pitt and Cottilard, who go seamlessly together. The two have a natural chemistry that is instantly mesmerizing and consistently engaging, that it’s easy to buy these two as a couple. Probably one of the most underrated entries in Zemeckis’ filmography, if one’s able to get past the somewhat predictable setup, it’s actually a joy to watch.
2) Burn After Reading
The Coen Brothers’ dark comedy is a bit polarizing for just how silly and weird it tends to get at times, with many of its characters going into cartoon territory, but honestly this is one of their finer, and most underrated, outings. The film is a series of bumbling errors that snowball into one giant mess, as Pitt and Frances McDormand play two personal trainers who accidentally wind up with the financial records of a former CIA agent, played by John Malkovich, and soon get in over their heads with a number of other oddball individuals. The situations many of these characters find themselves in are ultimately bizarre, with plenty of twists that may throw some audiences off, but if one just accepts it for what it is and goes along for the ride, it’s certainly a lot of fun.
3) Fight Club
This may just be the very definition of a cult classic, and remains one of Pitt’s finest roles as the cool Tyler Durden, who along with Edward Norton’s unnamed narrator, form the titular club which soon turns into an anti-corporate organization bent on a revolution. Audience’s love of the many earlier scenes focused on the actual fighting tend to overshadow the film’s overt political and social commentary, which leans heavily into its anti-materialist message, so it’s easy to forget just how culturally important and timely the movie can be. It discuses many topics that are still relevant to this day and features some fantastic performances from Pitt, Norton, as well as Helena Bonham Carter as the Narrator’s love interest Marla, and is ultimately a standout achievement for director David Fincher.
4) Fury
It can feel a bit familiar with its Saving Private Ryan-style approach, with a young nonviolent soldier, played by Logan Lerman, placed into a group of seasoned military troops that are led by Pitt. But that doesn’t take away from just how powerful and emotional this film can be. David Ayer’s war drama remains one of the director’s finest works, as it perfectly captures the horrors of war and the effect it can have on even its most hardened of soldiers. The film features a great cast that includes the likes of Shia LeBeouf, Michael Pena, and Jon Bernthal in supporting roles as the rest of the squad, all of whom with dominant, conflicting personalities that add to this sense of claustrophobia as Lerman feels trapped in the middle of this war. Brutal, thrilling, and extremely well-acted, this is one of the most harrowing depictions of war on film.
5) Inglourious Basterds
The third World War II film of Pitt’s to make this list, director Quentin Tarantino takes a revisionist approach to the subject and gives it an exploitative edge to it. However, while it’s far from realistic, that doesn’t take away from just how damn good it is. Pitt leads the titular group of Jewish-American soldiers, who lay low as they infiltrate enemy lines and instill fear into the Nazis by scalping them. The film was slightly off-putting for general audiences at the time, mainly due to how it hid the Basterds are actually one of two major storylines in the film, the other being of a young Jewish girl, played by Melanie Laurent, whose family was killed by the Nazis early on and has revenge plans of her own. Though once that settled in, it has gone on to be considered one of Tarantino’s best films, if not his absolute best. It’s wildly over-the-top, extremely intense, and even at times really funny, it’s a hell of a ride and is one of the only acceptable instances where a war movie can be described as fun.
6) Moneyball
A rare sports movie that focuses more so on the behind-the-scenes aspect of the game, rather than the actual team. Based on the story behind the Oakland Athletics’ 2002 season, Pitt stars as general manager Billy Beane, who’s faced with a limited budget for the baseball team and along with his assistant general manager, played by Jonah Hill, calculates a new method to recruit new players and uses it to build a team of players perceived as unorthodox. With a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin, part of what makes this film so much fun to watch is its razor sharp dialogue, with humorous exchanges and tense arguments. This is Pitt at his most easy-going and he certainly has a blast with this, and plays a big part in why this is one of the finer sports dramas that all audiences can appreciate.
7) Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Pitt’s second collaboration with Quentin Tarantino is another piece of revisionist history. It’s received some notable criticisms, mainly for its portrayals of Sharon Tate and Bruce Lee, as well as its more noticeably slower pacing, even for a Tarantino film. Like with Tarantino’s other pieces surrounding alternate takes on history, it’s another one of those films that needs to be appreciated for what it is, rather than for its historical accuracy. The film focuses on Leonardo DiCaprio as aging television star Rick Dalton, although it’s Pitt who steals the show as Dalton’s best friend and stuntman Cliff Booth, and he has the majority of the film’s best scenes, especially in the last hour or so. It’s not the absolute best work of Tarantino’s but it’s a fun love letter to the Golden Age of Hollywood that shows the director at his most mature, while still finding ways to inject his signature tense and over-the-top violence that he’s been known for. Read the full review here.
8) Seven
One of the grisliest, darkest entries in Pitt’s filmography, this neo-noir crime thriller focuses on Pitt and Morgan Freeman as a pair of detectives who have to track down a serial killer who’s using the seven deadly sins as their motif. While Pitt is usually known for his calm, cool, and collected performances that somehow still allow for a ton of character development, this is a rare instance where he’s seen at his most vulnerable, and may just be his absolute best performance. While Fight Club is considered the more culturally important film, this may just be director David Fincher’s crowning achievement, for just how superbly directed, emotionally captivating, and absolutely brutal it can be. Containing what is easily one of the most shocking, and most famous endings, in all of film history, this is the definition of some truly excellent filmmaking.
9) Snatch
Guy Ritchie’s second feature film is a crime comedy about an assortment of bizarre gangsters, crooks, thieves, and other lowlives, and is arguably his best film. Coming off the incredibly niche British cult classic Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, this was a bit more accessible to mainstream audiences, though maintained a lot of the off-kilter feel of the former. The film features an ensemble cast who all really shine through, including Jason Statham, Vinnie Jones, Dennis Farina, and Benicio del Toro. Pitt plays the role of One Punch Mickey O’Neil, an Irish Traveller with a thick accent and rapid-fire delivery, a reference to the fact that critics couldn’t understand many of the characters in Lock, Stock. Unfortunately, Ritchie’s filmography after this film never reached the same crazy heights, but this will still always be remembered as a crowning achievement in independent filmmaking.
10) 12 Monkeys
One part post-apocalyptic thriller, one part neo-noir crime drama, 12 Monkeys is a bizarre journey from one of the masters of the weird, Terry Gilliam. It’s an odd mixing of genres, but Gilliam makes it work in what is now a modern classic sci-fi film. The film follows Bruce Willis as a time traveller who sets out to stop a deadly virus that wipes out nearly all of humanity, though finds himself in a mental hospital upon arrival in 1990. There he meets Pitt, a young man with fanatical views and who may have something to do with future events. It’s a densely layered plot with a lot of moving parts, but it’s an extremely engrossing story with a talented cast. While the film is mainly Willis’, this is a memorable early role for Pitt that still remains one of his best.
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