Brad Pitt. When you hear his name, it’s hard not to think of his chiseled abs, effortless charm, and distinctively beautiful face. Many may even immediately think of all the media surrounding his romantic entanglements with Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston, but we’re definitely not here to talk about that. Today, we are here to talk about the many strides Brad Pitt has made in his film career; from war movies to heist comedies, he’s taken his physical beauty and made the most of it. In addition to his prolific acting career, Pitt is also a producer with more than 60 credits to his name. Clearly, there is much more to him than just what meets the eye, which is part of what makes him such a compelling screen presence.
Despite having almost 100 acting credits on IMDB, I’ve managed to narrow in on a list of 12 films that make Pitt one of the greats. Nobody is going to agree 100% with my rankings nor my choices, so please remember that these are subjective and up for debate. Now, here are the 12 best Brad Pitt movies and why they are as great as they are.
120m
Genre
Action, Thriller, Crime, Romance
Stars
Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Michael Rapaport
Directed by
Tony Scott
Perhaps a more unconventional pick, this movie doesn’t exactly star our beloved hero but it’s definitely an underrated role. A pleasantly unique story from writer Quentin Tarantino brimming with familiar faces, Pitt plays Floyd, a character who seems to be unbothered by burdens or concerns. In the face of danger, nothing threatens the unshakeable indifference of our Audioslave stoner hero. “Don’t condescend me, man…” Floyd warns as he sort of comprehends the situation at hand. Pitt takes the back seat for this ride and unintentionally steals the spotlight, despite noteworthy performances from Christopher Walken, Gary Oldman, and Dennis Hopper. Even without considering Pitt’s role, True Romance is definitely worth the watch, but it’s not the best film on our list today.
134m
Genre
Drama
Stars
Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Directed by
Bennett Miller
One of the best baseball movies of all time, Moneyball tells the true story of General Manager Billy Beane and his crazy plan that changed baseball forever. The Oakland A’s are in dire financial straits and just lost their best players because of it. Following a mass exodus, Billy Beane (Pitt) enlists the help of Yale Economics graduate Peter Brand (Jonah Hill) and uses advanced statistics to recruit new players. It’s a momentous and sincere telling of a true event in baseball history, and writers Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian make the dialogue crisp and genuine. Differing from just about any role he’s ever played, Brad Pitt’s performance is the icing on the cake. His ability to portray the real stress of balancing a seemingly insurmountable task with the difficulties of being a father is impressive, carrying a power that can only come with life experience. Pitt has some incredible moments from films throughout his career, but his performance in this film is so consistently impressive that it quickly jumped up into my list after I watched it.
133m
Genre
Adventure, Drama, Romance, War, Western
Stars
Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Aidan Quinn
Directed by
Edward Zwick
Legends of the Fall is a dramatic film with a reasonable runtime that feels like a lifetime. Brad Pitt plays Tristan, one of three brothers to a single father living in the Montana wilderness in the early 1900s. We watch these brothers live through heavy losses, deep love, true betrayal, and war. With his flowing golden locks, mathematically symmetrical face, bright blue eyes, and seemingly effortless physical shape, it’s easy to see why he was so seductive to unsuspecting audiences. Pitt gives a wonderful performance playing a brother in pain, further confirming that it sure helps to be attractive, but it won’t make you into a leading man. It feels like this role was written especially for Pitt given how easily he fits into the part, making it a natural choice for our list today.
104m
Genre
Crime, Comedy
Stars
Benicio del Toro, Dennis Farina, Vinnie Jones
Directed by
Guy Ritchie
“D’ya like dags?” Snatch is the kind of movie you might expect to see from writer/director Guy Ritchie, especially if you’ve seen his catalog of gun-toting crime movies that always feature some thick accents and a few broken teeth. Speaking of and due to the accents, our guy Pitt is — yet again — a huge highlight of this movie and the main source of comedy despite being a side character. Pitt plays a bare-knuckle boxing gypsy named Mickey, a name you only know because Turkish (Jason Statham) mentions it a lot. Mickey’s gypsy accent is hysterically over the top and impossible to understand, and that is used in the film to help con others out of their belongings due to inevitable misunderstandings. Maintaining his wiry and chiseled physical shape from Fight Club the year before, Pitt is definitely used for eye candy but is hands down my favorite part of the movie.
123m
Genre
Science Fiction, Drama
Stars
Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga
Directed by
James Gray
Pitt can be hugely entertaining, but he’s also proven in the later stages of his career that he’s a wonderful actor. In Ad Astra, Pitt strips away all of the frills and delivers a stripped down, emotionally vulnerable performances that is one of his most moving to date. The movie follows Pitt’s Roy McBride as he’s assigned a space mission to retrieve his father, who is floating somewhere out there in the cosmos. It’s a movie about fathers and sons, and about the feelings between two people that are almost impossible to communicate. The movie definitely has a slower and more existential bent, but if you’re looking for a performance that proves how emotive Pitt can be, look no further than this performance.
163m
Genre
Adventure, History, War
Stars
Brad Pitt, Orlando Bloom, Eric Bana
Directed by
Wolfgang Petersen
Bringing the story of the Trojan War to the screen is not an easy task, but it sure helps to enlist the talents of director Wolfgang Petersen to see it through. A staple tale of love, war, gods, and men, Troy is an epic that everyone should see at least once. What’s a great highlight of this movie? Brad Pitt playing apex warrior slash demigod Achilles is definitely among them. His dedication to the role was helpful in securing it, dieting, and exercising religiously for six to eight months before filming began. After getting into god-like shape, Pitt reportedly lived in a centuries-old hut in Mexico for a time to understand the loneliness of the character. Since he was a perfect fit for the role, it’s only natural to see him as a Greek warrior to this day. One of the more impressive things about this performance is that he and co-star Eric Bana declined stunt doubles for their epic face-off, but instead agreed to pay each other money for each accidental hit.
162m
Genre
Comedy, Drama, Thriller
Stars
Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie
Directed by
Quentin Tarantino
In what is definitely not the best Quentin Tarantino movie, Brad Pitt finally gets the chance to team up with Leonardo DiCaprio in a comedic fashion. In a land where history meets fantasy, two characters, Rick Dalton (DiCaprio) and Cliff Booth (Pitt) are plopped down into 1969 to accidentally deflect a one of Hollywood’s worst tragedies. Cliff is Rick’s stuntman in the film and is also his driver/housesitter/handyman when they’re not working on a film together. Cliff gets into all kinds of situations where he witnesses glimpses of real history in motion, and he also meets Bruce Lee in a fairly disrespectful and unnecessary sequence. While this film has some not-so-great moments, Cliff is an incredible character with some great and humorous dialogue that really carries the film along. For his performance, Pitt received an Oscar, apparently still charming the socks off of Hollywood elites.
116m
Genre
Thriller, Crime
Stars
George Clooney, Matt Damon, Andy García
Directed by
Steven Soderbergh
Pitt is not the lead of Ocean’s Eleven, but the movie wouldn’t work at all without him standing right next to George Clooney’s Danny Ocean. This is Pitt in full-on movie star mode, and it works because he’s one of the most charming screen presences in the history of cinema. Ocean’s Eleven is also an ideal movie if you want to catch Pitt doing what he does better than any other actor: eat anything and everything he can while performing his dialogue. Ultimately, what makes Pitt stand out in Ocean’s Eleven is that even amidst of see of incredibly charismatic actors, he still stands out as someone that it’s impossible to pull your eyes away from.
139m
Genre
Drama
Stars
Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter
Directed by
David Fincher
Likely the most culturally defining role for Pitt, Fight Club was a short-lived “woop!” for critics upon release but later gained a huge cult following. Based on Chuck Palahniuk’s novel, some young and aggravated men decide the best way to solve their problems is to kick the crap out of each other and reject social standards. Other than causing social unrest in the frustrated young men of society (despite the story’s moral resolution in the end), the movie has some great writing and an awesome twist ending. Pitt’s performance in the film is somehow charming, disgusting, sexy, and terrifying all at once, commenting on the social expectations and outlooks of young men in a sometimes very meta way. Whether you love or hate this film, it’s guaranteed to be continually referenced for a long time to come.
127m
Genre
Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Stars
Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow
Directed by
David Fincher
Se7en tells the classic story of a young buck detective who is partnered with a veteran on his way out, but put David Fincher at the helm of this well-worn tale and you get a much bleaker version. Brad Pitt plays Mills, the aforementioned hardheaded rookie who is new to the homicide detective game. Tracking a serial killer obsessed with the seven deadly sins, he and Somerset (Morgan Freeman) encounter horrors even the days-from-retirement detective has never seen. As one of the best David Fincher films, it is, of course, very dark — also in a literal sense. Pitt’s performance is one of his best, giving a genuinely flawed and rough nature to the character, especially in the popularly referenced climax. Without getting into spoilers, the end scene is without a doubt some of the best dramatic acting from Pitt’s whole career, masterfully emoting what you might expect one to feel in such a situation.
153m
Genre
Drama, Action, Thriller, War
Stars
Brad Pitt, Mélanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz
Directed by
Quentin Tarantino
Taking a high rank among the best Quentin Tarantino movies, Inglorious Basterds is another film where he plays with history in a different way. In this “war movie” it’s World War II, as the film tells the story of a fictional group of Jewish-American soldiers who infiltrate Nazi-occupied France to eliminate well-known leaders. The leader of this squad is the bold and brazen Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) or “Aldo the Apache,” who instructs his men to be “…cruel to the Germans…” in an Apache fashion by collecting scalps. With Tarantino’s writing at work, the film’s entertaining dialogue and scene choices complement Pitt’s swagger in a way never before seen. Provided with a false scar across his throat — and never an explanation as to why — Pitt outstandingly employs the rough and tough former Tennessee moonshiner wit and scraggly voice to the best of his potential. Like the film or not, Pitt’s performance is as impressive as it is darkly hilarious, assuming you’re a fan of Tarantino’s style of filmmaking.
129m
Genre
Science Fiction, Thriller, Mystery
Stars
Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, Brad Pitt
Directed by
Terry Gilliam
Maybe it’s a coincidence, but Pitt yet again features in (subjectively his best) mind-bender film with a twist. A sci-fi mystery from Terry Gilliam, convict James Cole (Bruce Willis) is sent to the past to discover what caused a virus to destroy the majority of human life. One of the greats from the vast list of timeless sci-fi flicks, Brad Pitt’s character Jeffrey Goines is instrumental to the film’s greatness. Playing a scheming rambler in a mental ward, we get an indelible image of Pitt that you can’t shake, which says a lot about how well he performed the role. Determined to show an authentic reality to his character, Pitt trained with a psychiatric coach, trying to make a distinction between patients who are mentally ill and those who are suffering from mood disorders. Either way, the film does a good job making the audience question what is real, simply boosted in success by Pitt’s commitment to a more artistic role. Pitt received an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe win for his performance.
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