Brad Pitt

William Bradley “Brad” Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received four Academy Award nominations and five Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one Golden Globe. He has been described as one of the world’s most attractive men, a label for which he has received substantial media attention.

Pitt first gained recognition as a cowboy hitchhiker in the road movie Thelma & Louise (1991). His first leading roles in big-budget productions came with A River Runs Through It (1992), Interview with the Vampire (1994), and Legends of the Fall(1994). In 1995, he gave critically acclaimed performances in the crime thriller Seven and the science fiction film 12 Monkeys, the latter earning him a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and an Academy Award nomination. Four years later, Pitt starred in the cult hit Fight Club. He then starred in the major international hit Ocean’s Eleven (2001) and its sequels, Ocean’s Twelve (2004) and Ocean’s Thirteen (2007). His greatest commercial successes have been Troy (2004), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), and World War Z (2013). Pitt received his second and third Academy Award nominations for his leading performances in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) and Moneyball (2011). Pitt owns a production company,Plan B Entertainment, whose productions include The Departed (2006), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and Moneyball, which garnered a Best Picture nomination.

Following a high-profile relationship with actress Gwyneth Paltrow, Pitt was married to actress Jennifer Aniston for five years. Pitt lives with actress Angelina Jolie in a relationship that has attracted wide publicity.He and Jolie have six children—Maddox, Pax, Zahara, Shiloh, Knox, and Vivienne. Since beginning his relationship with Jolie, he has become increasingly involved in social issues both in the United States and internationally.

Legends of the Fall (1994)

Legends of the Fall is a 1994 American epic drama film directed by Edward Zwick and starring Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Aidan Quinn, Julia Ormond, and Henry Thomas. Based on the 1979 novella of the same title by Jim Harrison, the film is about three brothers and their father living in the remote wilderness of early 1900s and how their lives are affected by nature, history, war, and love. The film’s time frame spans the decade before World War I through the Prohibition era, and into the 1930s, ending with a brief scene set in 1963. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards and won for Best Cinematography (John Toll).Both the film and book contain occasional Cornish language terms, the Ludlows being a Cornishemigrant family.

^{Fight Club (1999)}

Fight Club is a 1999 American drama film based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. The film was directed by David Fincher and stars Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, and Helena Bonham Carter. Norton plays the unnamed protagonist, an “everyman” who is discontented with his white-collar job. He forms a “fight club” with soap maker Tyler Durden, played by Pitt, and they are joined by men who also want to fight recreationally. The narrator becomes embroiled in a relationship with him and a dissolute woman, Marla Singer, played by Bonham Carter.

Palahniuk’s novel was optioned by 20th Century Fox producer Laura Ziskin, who hired Jim Uhls to write the film adaptation. Fincher was one of four directors the producers considered. They hired him because of his enthusiasm for the film. Fincher developed the script with Uhls and sought screenwriting advice from the cast and others in the film industry. The director and the cast compared the film to Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and The Graduate (1967). Fincher intended Fight Club’s violence to serve as a metaphor for the conflict between a generation of young people and the value system of advertising. The director copied the homoerotic overtones from Palahniuk’s novel to make audiences uncomfortable and keep them from anticipating the twist ending.

Studio executives did not like the film and they restructured Fincher’s intended marketing campaign to try to reduce anticipated losses. Fight Club failed to meet the studio’s expectations at the box office and received polarized reactions from critics. It was cited as one of the most controversial and talked-about films of 1999. However, the film later found commercial success with its DVD release, which established Fight Club as a cult film. Critical reception of Fight Club has since become more positive.

In 2008, Fight Club was named the 10th greatest movie of all time by Empire magazine in its issue of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.

Troy (2004)

Troy is a 2004 British-Maltese epic war film written by David Benioff and directed by Wolfgang Petersen and loosely based on Homer’s Iliad. It features an ensemble cast that includes Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, Diane Kruger, Saffron Burrows, Sean Bean, Brian Cox, Brendan Gleeson, Rose Byrne, Vincent Regan, Garrett Hedlund, Tyler Mane, and Peter O’Toole.

The film was nominated for 11 awards, winning 2: 2005 ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards Won – Top Box Office Film — James Horner and the 2005 Teen Choice Awards Won – Choice Movie Actor – Drama/Action Adventure — Brad Pitt. The Achilles-Hector rivalry was ranked #50 in the 50 Greatest Movie rivalries by Total Film.

Al Pacino

Alfredo James “Al” Pacino ( born April 25, 1940) is an American film and stage actor and director. He is well known for playing mobsters, including Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy and Tony Montana in Scarface, and often appeared on the other side of the law—as a police officer, a detective and lawyer. For his performance as Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1992. He had received seven previous Oscar nominations, including one in that same year.

He made his feature film debut in the 1969 film Me, Natalie in a minor supporting role, before playing the lead role in the 1971 drama The Panic in Needle Park. Pacino made his major breakthrough with the role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather in 1972, which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Other Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor were for Dick Tracy and Glengarry Glen Ross. Oscar nominations for Best Actor include The Godfather Part II, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, …And Justice for All.

In addition to a career in film, he has enjoyed a successful career on stage, winning Tony Awards for Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie? and The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel. A longtime fan of Shakespeare, he made his directorial debut withLooking for Richard, a quasi-documentary on the play Richard III. Pacino has received numerous lifetime achievement awards, including one from the American Film Institute. He is a method actor, taught mainly by Lee Strasberg and Charles Laughton at the Actors Studio in New York.

Although he has never married, Pacino has had several relationships with actresses and has three children.

The Godfather (1972)

The Godfather is a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and produced by Albert S. Ruddy from a screenplay by Mario Puzo and Coppola. Based on Puzo’s 1969 novel of the same name, the film stars Marlon Brando andAl Pacino as the leaders of a fictional New York crime family. The story, spanning the years 1945 to 1955, centers on the transformation of Michael Corleone (Pacino) from reluctant family outsider to ruthless Mafia boss while also chronicling thefamily under the patriarch Vito Corleone (Brando).

The Godfather is widely regarded as one of the greatest films in world cinema and as one of the most influential, especially in the gangster genre. Now ranked as the second greatest film in American cinema (behind Citizen Kane) by theAmerican Film Institute, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1990.

The film was for a time the highest grossing picture ever made, and remains the box office leader for 1972. It won three Oscars that year: for Best Picture, for Best Actor (Brando) and in the category Best Adapted Screenplay for Puzo and Coppola. Its nominations in seven other categories included Pacino, James Caan and Robert Duvall for Best Supporting Actor and Coppola for Best Director. The success spawned two sequels: The Godfather Part II in 1974, and The Godfather Part III in 1990.

Scarface (1983)

Scarface is a 1983 American crime drama film directed by Brian De Palma and written by Oliver Stone. A remake of the 1932 film of the same name, Scarface tells the story of Cuban refugee Tony Montana (Al Pacino) who arrives in 1980s Miami with nothing, and rises up to become a powerful drug kingpin. The film also features Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Steven Bauer, and Michelle Pfeiffer.

The initial critical response to Scarface was mixed, with criticism over excessive violence and graphic language. Some Cuban expatriates in Miami objected to the film’s portrayal of Cubans as criminals and drug traffickers. Contemporary reviews were more positive. It is now considered a classic within the mob film genre.

Scent of a Woman (1992)

Scent of a Woman is a 1992 American drama directed and produced by Martin Brest that tells the story of a preparatory school student who takes a job as an assistant to an irascible, blind, medically retired Army officer. The film stars Al Pacino, Chris O’Donnell, James Rebhorn, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Gabrielle Anwar. It is a remake of Dino Risi’s 1974 Italian film Profumo di donna.

Adapted by Bo Goldman from the novel Il buio e il miele (Italian: Darkness and Honey) by Giovanni Arpino and from the 1974 screenplay by Ruggero Maccari and Dino Risi, the film was directed by Martin Brest.

Pacino won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance and the film was nominated for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.

The film won three major awards at the Golden Globe Awards: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor and Best Motion Picture – Drama.

The film was shot primarily around New York state. Portions of the movie were filmed on location at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey; at the Emma Willard School, an all-girls school in Troy, New York; and at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York City.

Robert De Niro

Robert De Niro ( born August 17, 1943) is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973. Then in 1974, after not receiving the role of Michael Corleonein The Godfather, he was cast as the young Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part II, a role for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

His longtime collaboration with director Martin Scorsese began with Mean Streets, and later earned De Niro an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Jake LaMotta in the 1980 film Raging Bull. He earned nominations for Taxi Driver in 1976 and Cape Fear in 1991. De Niro received additional Academy Award nominations for Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter (1978), Penny Marshall’s Awakenings (1990), and David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook (2012). His portrayal of gangster Jimmy Conway in Scorsese’s Goodfellas earned him a BAFTA nomination in 1990.

De Niro has earned four nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, for his work in New York, New York (1977), Midnight Run (1988), Analyze This (1999), and Meet the Parents (2000). He has also simultaneously directed and starred in films such as 1993’s A Bronx Tale and 2006’s The Good Shepherd. De Niro has received accolades for his career, including the AFI Life Achievement Award (2003) and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award (2010).

De Niro has starred in over ninety films throughout his career.

Taxi Driver (1976)

This is a 1976 American vigilante film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader. The film is set in New York City, soon after the end of the Vietnam War. The film stars Robert De Niro and features Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, Cybill Shepherd, and Albert Brooks in his film debut.

It is regularly cited by critics, film directors and audiences alike as one of the greatest films of all time. Nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, it won the Palme d’Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival. The American Film Institute ranked Taxi Driver as the 52nd greatest American film on their AFI’s 100 Years…100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) list. In 2012, Sight & Sound named it the 31st best film ever created on its decadal critics’ poll, ranked with The Godfather Part II, and the 5th greatest film ever on its directors’ poll. The film was considered “culturally, historically or aesthetically” significant by the US Library of Congress and was selected to be preserved in the National Film Registry in 1994.

Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

Once Upon a Time in America is a 1984 Italian epic crime drama film co-written and directed by Sergio Leone and starring Robert De Niro and James Woods. It chronicles the lives of Jewish ghetto youths who rise to prominence in New York City’s world of organized crime. The film explores themes of childhood friendships, love, lust, greed, betrayal, loss, broken relationships, and the rise of mobsters in American society.

Leone adapted the story from the novel The Hoods, written by Harry Grey, while filming Once Upon a Time in the West. The film went through casting changes and production issues before filming began in 1982.

The original film by the director was 269 minutes (4 hours and 29 minutes) long, but when the film premièred out of competition at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival,Leone had cut it to 229 minutes (3 hours and 49 minutes) to appease the distributors. This was the version shown in European cinemas. However, for the US release on June 1, 1984, Once Upon a Time in America was edited further to 139 minutes (2 hours and 19 minutes) by the studio, against the director’s wishes. In this shorter version, the flashback narrative was changed, by re-editing the scenes in chronological order. Leone was reportedly heartbroken by the American cut, and never made another film before his death in 1989.

In March 2011, it was announced that the original 269 minutes version was to be re-created by a film lab in Italy under the supervision of Leone’s children, who acquired the Italian distribution rights, and the film’s original sound editor, Fausto Ancillai, for a premiere in 2012 at either the Cannes Film Festival or the Venice Film Festival. The restored film premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, but due to unforeseen rights issues for the deleted scenes, the film’s restoration ran for 251 minutes. However, Martin Scorsese (whose Film Foundation helped with the restoration), stated that he is helping Leone’s children gain the rights to the final 24 minutes of deleted scenes for a complete version of Leone’s original 269 minute version.

Casino (1995)

Casino is a 1995 American crime-drama directed by Martin Scorsese. It is based on the non-fiction book of the same name by Nicholas Pileggi, who also co-wrote the screenplay for the film with Scorsese. The two previously collaborated on the 1990 hit film Goodfellas.

The film marks the eighth and (to date) final collaboration between director Scorsese and Robert De Niro, following Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), New York, New York (1977), Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1983), Goodfellas(1990), and Cape Fear (1991).

De Niro stars as Sam “Ace” Rothstein, a Jewish-American top gambling handicapper who is called by the Mob to oversee the day-to-day operations at the fictional Tangiers casino in Las Vegas. The story is based on Frank Rosenthal, who ran the Stardust, Fremont and the Hacienda casinos in Las Vegas for the Chicago Outfit from the 1970s until the early 1980s.

Joe Pesci plays Nicky Santoro, based on real-life Mob enforcer Anthony Spilotro. Nicky is sent to Vegas to make sure that money from the Tangiers is skimmed off the top and that the mobsters in Vegas are kept in line. Sharon Stone plays Ginger, Ace’s wife, a role that earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

The film ranks fifth in the list of films that most frequently use the word “fuck”.