Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise? That’s an impossible question to answer. After all, they are both some of the best actors in the industry. Cruise is known for his Mission Impossible films, Top Gun duology, Minority Report, and more. Pitt, on the other hand, is famous for Se7en, Bullet Train, Inglourious Basterds, and more. As such, it’s hard to compare the two.
But just because general audiences think they are on par doesn’t mean that the two stars always think the same. After all, once upon a time, Pitt went all guns blazing on Cruise’s WW2 movie because he thought it wasn’t as good as the one he was starring in. However, recently, the movie has been panned by a historian for being inaccurate.
Brad Pitt Called Tom Cruise’s World War 2 Film Ridiculous
Brad Pitt, starred in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (2009), while Tom Cruise starred in Valkyrie (2008). Both were set in WW2, but apparently, the Troy star thought that his film was better. In an interview with the German magazine Stern, he termed Cruise’s film ridiculous.
The actor said:
“It was a ridiculous movie. The Second World War could still deliver more stories and films, but I believe that Quentin put a cover on that pot. With Basterds, everything that can be said to this genre has been said. The film destroys every symbol. The work is done, end of story.”
However, it looks like Inglourious Basterds wasn’t as perfect as Pitt thought it to be. James Holland, an expert on World War 2 history recently graded the Quentin Tarantino film out of 10 and the film didn’t come out as top of the class.
WW2 Era Historian Trashed Brad Pitt’s Inglourious Basterds For Its Historical Inaccuracy
Penguin Books UK, brought in James Holland, a World War 2 historian, to rate how historically accurate Inglourious Basterds is. He looked at the opening scene of the film and remarked that even though the film is entertaining, a lot of elements in it are purely fiction. Holland remarked:
“I mean this whole film is sort of like a cartoon, but it’s not obviously. I mean it’s like a lot of Quentin Tarantino films – everything’s exaggerated, everything’s over the top. You know Germans did come and do searches of houses, but they didn’t sit there and have nice conversations with people. They just stormed in, ripped everything up, got everyone out. And if they found someone, they’d just shoot everybody.”
As for what rating he assigned to the film, he wasn’t very generous. The historian said:
“Eight out of 10 for a good, entertaining film. Three out of 10 for historical accuracy.”
So it looks like a historian termed Brad Pitt’s film as ridiculous as well. However, in the end, both the films were meant to entertain first and they succeeded in doing that. As for the comments made by the Fight Club star about Tom Cruise’s film, allegedly Pitt never made them at all. So was the rivalry all made up? Probably.
Inglourious Basterds is available on Amazon Prime Video, while Valkyrie is available on Disney+.
Source: Penguin Books UK
