The one filmmaker Brad Pitt said “changed the game” of modern cinema
As one of the most iconic faces in Hollywood, it’s only been natural that Brad Pitt has been able to work with some of the biggest directing names on the American cinema circuit. After all, Pitt is such a bankable star and is equally capable of delivering a rousing performance that any filmmaker would do well to have him top their calling sheet.
Looking back at the Oklahoma-born actor’s filmography, we can see that Pitt has collaborated with directors of genuine excellence time and time again. For instance, he’s teamed up with David Fincher for Se7en and Fight Club, Steven Soderbergh for Ocean’s Eleven, Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life and the Coen brothers for Burn After Reading.
There are some filmmaker who enjoy working with Pitt so much that they have called upon his service a number of time, and alongside Fincher, another director with whom Pitt is closely associated is Quentin Tarantino, who has cast Pitt in Inglourious Basterds and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, as well as his cancelled The Movie Critic film.
And as much as Tarantino admires what Pitt is able to do in front of the camera, Pitt is always blown away by what Tarantino is capable of from behind it. He once told The List, “He’s one of the greatest directors in the world. He’s one of our auteurs; he’s got a very specific voice. There’s no one like him. He’s changed the game a few degrees and continues to do so.”
Now, Pitt is likely being somewhat hyperbolic here because as much as Tarantino is a brilliant director, it might be hard to argue that he has changed the game of what it is to create movies, seeing as most of his movies are, in fact, homages and pastiches of his favourite eras and genres of cinema.
For instance, Jackie Brown was Tarantino homage to the blaxploitation films of the 1970s, while Kill Bill saw him pay his respects to the great Hong Kong martial arts films of yore, and even Death Proof served as an ode to the grindhouse movies that Tarantino so adores. So to say that Tarantino completely changed the game of filmmaking would be something of an overestimation of his legacy.
At the same time, there’s no denying that Tarantino has left a huge impression on the history of American cinema with his mostly excellent movies. Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Inglourious Basterds and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood are all brilliant works of contemporary film, and Tarantino is fully deserving of the praise that has often been lavished upon him.
In addition, Tarantino is no stranger to understanding the brilliance of his frequent actor, Pitt, and once told GQ, “The thing that only the directors that work with Brad and the actors that act opposite him really know, what he’s so incredibly talented at, is his ability to really understand the scene. He might not be able to articulate it, but he has an instinctive understanding about it.”
The collaboration between Pitt and Tarantino is one that perhaps has changed the game of modern cinema, and together, the two have delivered some of the most memorable characters in recent film history, notably, Inglourious Basterds’ Aldo Raine and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’s Cliff Booth.
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