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Top 10 Brad Pitt

We’ve scrutinised Brad Pitt’s last two decades for his best bits (a tricky job, but someone’s got to do it), and here’s the result: a top ten detailing the measure of a man who combines A-list status, outrageously good genetics, and not a little actorly craft...

His Top 10 Films

Thelma & Louise (1991)

William Bradley Pitt studied journalism at university, and – while a jobbing actor – dressed as a giant chicken and drove strippers in a limo (though not, we think, at the same time). After a few years of TV work (including a small role in Dallas), he got to flash his abs in a one night stand with Geena Davis’ Thelma, and Ridley Scott’s female-driven road movie set him on course for film super-stardom.

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Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994)

Brad is necked by Tom Cruise, and awakens to a new lifestyle of flouncing around in posh togs and generally not dying very much. Director Neil Jordan captures the lush, erotic decadence of Anne Rice’s novel (she also wrote the screenplay), and for all the pomp and make-up, Pitt brings bucketloads of angst as the remorseful Louis; a telling counter-point to Cruise’s charismatic and unflinching Lestat.

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Legends of the Fall (1994)

Director Edward Zwick's epic romance, set against the backdrop of WWI and the wide sky and rugged terrain of Montana, sees Anthony Hopkins as an idealistic retired colonel and Pitt as one of his three sons, all of whom join the army. When the youngest brother dies, Pitt returns home to brood, get involved with his widowed sister-in-law, and kick off all manner of sweeping, familial melodrama.

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Se7en (1995)

Stepping up a gear in honoured company, Brad partners Morgan Freeman in David Fincher's dark, stylish thriller, hunting a diabolical serial killer in a hellish and unrelentingly rainy version of New York. It's powerful and grisly and even more uncomfortable on repeat viewing, and Pitt's performance is again a perfect foil for his co-star; a fiery, reckless energy opposite Freeman's worn, weary veteran.

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Twelve Monkeys (1995)

Bruce Willis shows up in hospital claiming to have journeyed back in time from the year 2025 to stop a killer virus from exterminating mankind. And he’s one of the sanest characters in Terry Gilliam’s labyrinthine, apocalyptic film, which features Pitt turning the crazy all the way up to 11 as a manic, paranoid patient – and earning an Oscar nomination as a result. The film is based on the 1962 French short film La Jetee.

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Fight Club (1999)

A pitch-black comedy of striking intensity, David Fincher shoots his surreal urban thriller with an arsenal of stunning visual effects and sleight-of-hand editing, pin-wheeling around stand-out turns from Edward Norton and Brad Pitt - the latter arguably more deserving of an award nod than for the Monkey movie: his subversive Tyler Durden becoming the poster-boy for pop culture cynicism and beating your mates up in the basement.

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Snatch (2000)

A wild and tangled crime adventure from Guy Ritchie, involving gambling jewel thief Franky Four Fingers (Benicio Del Toro), novice boxing promoter Turkish (Jason Statham) and his dim-witted partner Tommy (Stephen Graham), twisted crime boss Brick Top (Alan Ford), and Brad as Mickey: a mumbling, unhinged Irish gypsy boxer. Stylised, mouthy and energetic, and - yep - the Pitt abs are out again.

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Spy Game (2001)

In A River Runs Through It (1992), Brad essentially played the Robert Redford role in a film directed by (but not starring) the great man himself. A decade later, and the pair unite on screen in a glorious, Tony Scott-directed collision of A-list leading men from two different generations: Redford, the veteran CIA agent trying desperately to hook his former protege, Pitt, away from death row in a Chinese prison.

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Ocean's Eleven (2001)

To his credit, Brad mostly followed Redford’s lead even when not on project with him, avoiding - as Redford did before - out-and-out pretty-boy roles for more interesting (and not always successful) projects. But that didn't stop him whooping it up with celebrity mates in cheerfully indulgent movies on occasion - not least the Ocean's franchise. This is the first and best: a glossy, heisty and hugely entertaining romp with best chum Gorgeous George.

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The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

And after a few flashy action outings - including Mr And Mrs Smith and Troy (during which he knackered his achilles... while playing Achilles - oh, the irony!), Brad didn't leave it long before reminding everyone just how good he is. Pale, intense and subdued, he's mesmerising as legendary outlaw Jesse James, struggling with his reputation and dogged by a notoriety that he surely senses will end very badly indeed.

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Darren Bignell