IN RETROSPECT…..BRAD PITT

For the 13th iteration of this series, I wanted to speak on a man who is one of the most famous people in the entire world. A man who is one of the preeminent sex symbols of our time…if not of all time. A man who was considered overrated, as I came to know him through his movie fandom while growing up in the late 90s. A man whose work gradually became uniformly respected and admired throughout the 2000s, only for him to be appropriately acknowledged as a cinematic icon for the last 15 years or so….

WILLIAM BRADLEY PITT

So, in my humble opinion, nothing hurts the credibility of the work that an actor or actress does more than being a sex symbol. It doesn’t necessarily seem like it for the time that one’s sex symbol image is at its peak, because their sex symbol image is everywhere, and studios so heavily push them. But eventually, newer, and (more than likely younger) sex symbols come along, and are put in that spotlight, leaving the replaced sex symbol with nothing but the resume they’ve built up until their replacement. Evidence suggests that if there is no consistency within the work that an artist produces during their sex symbol run, then… Then they’re pushed off to the wayside, and usually they drop out of the public eye for a pretty long time. In acknowledging that, Brad Pitt has always been built differently. One can examine his resume and suggest that he quickly understood (super early on in his career) the pigeonholing that usually comes with a sex symbol kind of image, and pushed back about his on-screen work. In doing so, he has built a resume full of memorable moments and award-worthy performances over the past three decades.

Of course…. When you have a career that has lasted this long, certain movies are more essential to pinpointing the importance of Pitt’s legacy than others. We are all familiar with the essential films, but some do not matter as much when referencing the legacy of this artist. Some for different reasons than others. Some are more recent than others.

Those films are as follows:

• Everything before 1994.
• Kalifornia
• True romance
• The favor
• Thelma and Louise
• A River runs through it
• Sinbad the friendly voyage
• Megamind
• Happy feet 2
• Voyage of time
• Deadpool 2
• Seven years in Tibet
• The Big Short
• 12 years a slave

Thelma and Louise was the breakout, but ultimately it was a movie that was used to satisfy the public’s thirst for a real-life performance. A river runs through it was pretty good and all, but that was so much more of a Craig Shaffer movie than it was a Brad Pitt movie. Many of these movies feature animated sequences, cameos, or extended cameos that span multiple scenes (The Big short, 12 years a slave). And nobody cared about Seven years in Tibet. People tend to forget that the movie even exists.

Anywho …without further ado, here is…..

THE BRAD PITT TIER LIST!!!!!!!!!

🤩GREATNESS🤩

-SE7EN-

Although this movie is uniformly agreed upon to be pretty spectacular, I have a more pronounced bias than most. It is in my top five favorite movies of all time, and I think the final act is the best closing act of possibly any film from the entirety of the 1990s. The chemistry between Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman was top-notch, and it’s a shame that they never did any more films together (At least up until this point).  It’s mildly icky to do this, but Kevin Spacey does deserve a LOT of credit for what he does in this film.  John Doe is a monstrous figure, and his performance is absolutely haunting. David Fincher is one of the greatest directors of all time. I think collectively we all know that now. But I knew it back then with this film.

-SNATCH-

Snatch is as perfect a film as Guy Ritchie will ever make. It is one of the most rewatchable films I’ve ever seen, even when it’s cleanly edited on American cable television. A very quotable film with many iconic scenes and a top-10 Brad Pitt performance ever. Ever. I’m tired of arguing that with people, btw. Because Pitt’s character, Mickey O’Neil, is only in this film for about 15 minutes of screen time, but believe me, every moment is swagged to the max, and you can tell he’s having fun. The DVD of this movie had a caption track specifically for his character. Believe me, it’s needed.

-OCEANS 11-

This is quite possibly the most swagged-out movie of all time. It’s endlessly quotable, with a brilliant second and third act. Every one of the protagonists in this story has at least one highlight reel-worthy moment for the actor playing the character. Pitt is kinda coasting here in comparison to other things he’s done, but this was the first time I had ever seen him be this funny. This is one of Steven Soderbergh’s best films, and not for nothing… quite possibly the best DVD commentary for any movie that has ever come out.

-MONEYBALL-

To be an avid sports fan at a time where trade deadlines and free agency periods dominate the headlines of sports media (Whenever those times of year come around), you can’t help but notice how fantastically this film has aged. This is a film that explains the machinations of a struggling sports team more effectively than any other film possibly can, and effectively showcases the generational divide between the old way of thinking and the new way of thinking. It’s an incredible underdog story about a real team and a real guy who changed the very nature of sports forever.

-INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS-

Shockingly enough, the greatness that this movie has comes only in part because of what Pitt does. When I first saw this movie, I felt a little bit betrayed by how little the Basterds were used. I was growing tired of the Tarantino chapter-telling format that he had adapted, and I remember not liking this movie very much upon exiting the theater back in 2009. As it turns out, my expectations were radically different than what this movie intended itself to be, and I see that now more than ever. The Bastards are a compelling aspect of the story, as is the journey of Shoshana, and especially the portrayal of Colonel Hans Landa, who just so happens to be one of the very best screen villains of all time. The ending is very underwhelming even still, but there’s way too much good stuff happening all at once here not to acknowledge this film as greatness.

-FIGHT CLUB-

Simply put, fight club is one of the most culturally significant films that has ever been made. Not the best, mind you, but a film that speaks to its time and the times that were to come better than any film that has come out since. As a man, I can’t help but notice that the internalized rage and general societal nihilism readily displayed by people in 2025 (especially on the internet) were accurately symbolized by this film, made back in 1999. It may have sparked the wrong kind of inspiration in people, but I don’t believe that it was the intent. There are numerous iconic moments to accompany the fantastic performances of Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter, and Edward Norton, among many others.

(This is peak Brad Pitt sex symbolization here btw. His physique in this movie has become the standard bearer of what men get in the gym to try to look like all these years later. Mostly to no avail.)

-TROY-

If not for an unbelievably weak last 15 minutes or so, I think this film would have been regularly acknowledged as one of the best of the decade. When I hear all the praise that went to Gladiator for what it did and how much cultural relevance it had, it seems as if Troy is highly underrated in juxtaposition. Everything that gladiator does Troy does just as well…. except STICKING THE LANDING. The fight scene between Hector and Achilles is an ALL-TIME great fight sequence. And Achilles, as a badass super soldier, is way more hardcore than what Maximus was in GLADIATOR. This movie is so great that the last bull**** 15 minutes or so are still not enough to keep this from being in this category.

GREATNESS ADJACENT

-OCEANS 12-

I really don’t understand the flak that this gets. The first act of this movie is absolutely spectacular, and it carries on the spirit of the original. Vincent Cassel’s villain, Nightfox, is just as good a villain as Terry Benedict, if not a little more dynamic. The one drawback to this film is that it’s not as funny as the original, and the third act isn’t as strong. Nowhere close, actually. However, everything holds up when expanding the world and taking things internationally. The swag does not disappear; there’s more Julia Roberts (which is a good thing), and it’s a prettier film. Sometimes, cinema goers just want to bash sequels. That is very much the case here.

F1: THE MOVIE (SEE REVIEW HERE)

-THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON-

I can’t help but be mystified by how neglected this performance from Brad Pitt was during the 2008/2009 award season. All the conversation for that Best Actor Oscar went towards either Mickey Rourke (for his career-best performance) in THE WRESTLER or Sean Penn (for his maybe fifth or sixth-best-ever performance) in a movie called MILK. This movie has pacing issues and is perhaps 20 minutes too long; however, Pitt’s performance is so outstanding that it’s remarkable he didn’t win any awards for it. This is a top-five Brad Pitt performance of all time, and if he weren’t as good as he is, this movie wouldn’t be nearly as good as it is.

-FURY-

It has gone virtually unrecognized, but it should be noted that the 2010s were arguably the greatest decade for war movies in the history of cinema. So many home runs in 10 years. Movies like 1917, American sniper, zero dark thirty, dunkirk, hacksaw ridge, green zone, and war horse really cover the landscape of different kinds of war movies. That being said, none of the films that I just mentioned are better than Fury. Fury works on a different level, and is in a much smaller scope then everything else. It feels so much more like a mainstream Hollywood film, and that is to its strength. The combination of Brad Pitt, Jon Bernthal, Michael Peña, and Shia LaBeouf has chemistry for days, and the war sequences have a real big-budget kind of boom to them. This is endlessly rewatchable.

-BABEL-

Sometimes during the award season, you’ll see a film that is nominated for seven or eight Oscars, and amongst those nominations, you’ll have two or three performances from that picture that are nominated… and they’re all the wrong ones. The 2007 Oscars supporting actor category was unbelievably weak. It remains mystifying to this day that Brad Pitt was not nominated for his performance here. Playing a grieving father whose wife is shot, and it is running out of time, Pitt spends a lot of his time on screen being in various stages of pain and sorrow. Although the film cuts in and out between multiple characters, whenever it returns to his side of the story, the energy of the film completely changes to something more grim and intense. You feel this performance is 100% another top-five performance from Pitt.

-ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD-

I’ve always thought of once upon a Time in Hollywood as the 50-yard line between the really great Tarantino films and the ones that are just okay. This is a two-and-a-half-hour movie that’s filled with just as many impressive sequences and performances as there are throwaway scenes and useless cameos. As far as Pitt is concerned, I find it very strange that he won the Oscar for this, rather than for the many other things he should have realistically won. This is not a top-five Brad Pitt performance, and he may be the only actor of his ilk whose resume is so filled with bangers (like the previously mentioned Sean Penn) that his Oscar-winning performance is perhaps the seventh or eighth best. Still very good, mind you, but he’s had some overlooked work.

😊GOOD😊

-INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE-

For a very long time, I considered this to be a top-five performance from him, and it’s close. This was the performance that let people know that he was going to be around for a very long time. It means something different these days to hold the screen with Tom Cruise as opposed to the way that you had to back in the day. He’s action hero Cruise now, but back in those days he was gunning for Oscars damn near every single time. For Pitt to be relatively new and hold his own in the way he does here is truly impressive. The performances have always held up this movie more than the story ever could. The book is way better than the movie.

-MR & MRS SMITH-

If the decade of film that was the 2000s exported one consistent excellence, it was the action comedy. It’s the best decade for the subgenre that has ever existed. It says a lot about that decade that MR & MRS SMITH is middle of the pack when it comes to that subgenre during that time, and it’s still pretty good. Up until this point, both Jolie and Pitt hadn’t done a lot of comedic things, and in the case of Jolie, it’s a shame that she hasn’t done more.

-WORLD WAR Z-

Somewhere out there, there’s a vanity Fair article going into the super disastrous production of this film. Because it was such a close call for Paramount Studios, I think a sequel is highly unlikely, to say the very least, even though it ultimately ended up being a profitable film. And that’s a real shame. Because World War Z is a full-out blockbuster that is better than a lot of what Paramount has produced in the last 10 to 15 years, it’s a zombie movie, but not a horror movie. It’s more of a thriller than an action film. As a summer tentpole that checked a lot of boxes.

-AD ASTRA-

It is a real shame that this didn’t get a lot more attention. This is not only a smart and soulful movie, but it is also one of the more interesting performances by Brad Pitt. I don’t know why, but there are some scenes in which he’s electric, and then there are some scenes where he seems to be phoning it in honestly. These scenes can come back-to-back in many cases. James Gray is a seriously underrated director with a notable string of successes on his resume. He should be a much bigger star than he is.

-OCEAN’S 13-

By the time this came out, the element of surprise was gone, and they maximized everything they could do with the lavish aesthetics, and the third film couldn’t top the climactic heists of the previous two films. We all knew this going in. However, I still think we don’t appreciate this movie enough. This is still fun popcorn movie-type stuff. When you compare this film to other heist films, (and especially to the OCEANS 8 movie, which was released long after this one), you can come to appreciate what it had to offer.

-BULLET TRAIN-

What’s funny about bullet train more than anything else is the fact that Pitt is the least interesting character in the entire movie. He’s, of course, the vehicle that keeps the story moving, but it’s an endless cycle of wacky ultraviolet scenarios presented in a comic book-like fashion. This is quite possibly the most physically demanding comedy he’s ever done in a movie, and might be his most physically demanding role to date outside of Troy. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Michael Shannon, and even Bad Bunny all have their moments to shine as brightly as possible. Pitt’s just throwing alley oops to all of them throughout the film.

MEH…..

-THE COUNSELOR-

Looking back, I am still befuddled by the insatiable need to adapt Cormac McCarthy novels to the big screen, particularly after No Country for Old Men dominated the 2008 Oscars. In a six-year period, we got four f****** movies. Two of them were mid (on the road, the sunset limited). One tried as hard as it could, but ultimately failed (A CHILD OF GOD), and then… there was this. The counselor is, in all honesty, one of my top five least favorite films of all time. It’s a movie that’s all style and no substance, a story that’s overly complicated and requires multiple viewings even to begin to understand, leading to the bleakest of endings. A movie that doesn’t have anything to say at all, with one of the most wasted selections of All-Star talent that I’ve ever seen in a film. Seriously. Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Michael Fassbender, Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, John Leguizamo, Natalie Dormer, Rosie Perez, and Edgar Ramirez for….this. THIS! REALLY? THIS? FOH.

CINEMATIC APOGEE

Earlier, I mentioned my absolute befuddlement over Brad Pitt’s Oscar nomination for 12 MONKEYS in 1995. Again, it’s not that he wasn’t fantastic in that movie, but also in that year he played the leading role in one of THE ABSOLUTE GREATEST AND MOST SIGNIFICANT FILMS OF THE WHOLE F****** 1990S!  Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, Gwyneth Paltrow, and David Fincher went on to do incredible work for the rest of their careers, and even still, I’m sure real film geeks will look at the resumes of all of those people and STILL point to this film as one of their absolute best. I would argue with anybody who will listen that the third act of this film is one of the greatest I’ve ever seen. Every moment of this film, from the point where John Doe turns himself in to the end credits, is haunting to say the very least.

WHAT’S IN THE BOX?!

By now, we all know what it is. The shockingness of that scene resonates 30 years later. But what I’ve always marveled at is what Pitt does during that scene. The eyes are truly the window to the soul, and what Brad Pitt does in this scene is truly masterful work.  The thudding realization that John Doe is in fact telling the truth about what is in that box which leads to that fantastic close up of his face before he eliminates John Doe from this Earth, followed by the absolute dead-eyed stare of a completely broken man is the kind of stuff that Oscar nominations are made of. I’ve seen people get nominations for doing much less.

**************

Brad Pitt is an icon of Cinema, full stop. For almost 40 years, he has been a consistent presence in cinema, portraying a wide range of characters, from goofy to dead serious, to real-life people. 

He’s accomplished all of this while navigating the kind of worldwide fame, public scrutiny, and paparazzi hounding that often breaks the will of so many up-and-comers throughout the years. He’s accomplished all this while appearing in films alongside other iconic character actors and movie stars, and he’s never been dwarfed by any of them on screen.

He’s never looked out of place. He’s never been the biggest star in the world, but he’s always been one of them. He never let the stereotypes of being a renowned sex symbol affect his work. And in the end, it’s all about the job. The work has shaped him into what he is today, and nothing else. His is a career that everybody should look at and try to emulate in some way.