Brad Pitt gets big guns out for Netflix's War Machine
After starring in wartime period films like Fury (2014) and Allied (2016), Brad Pitt is back on the field, tackling modern warfare this time.
In the Netflix original movie War Machine, the 53-year-old Hollywood star plays a proud general tasked with winning an unpopular war in Afghanistan.
Directed and written by David Michod based on The Operators by Michael Hastings, War Machine will premiere on Netflix on Friday. It stars Anthony Michael Hall, Topher Grace, Will Poulter and Ben Kingsley.
Pitt spoke about his latest US$60 million (S$83 million) project - Netflix's biggest-budget feature to date - at a press conference in Tokyo yesterday.
Your character General Glen McMahon has some distinctive features, like a weird running form. How did you create and play him?
He developed over many sessions with David (Michod). We wanted from the get-go by design to illuminate the absurdity of the machinery of war and we felt that it was best embodied in the absurdity of the general and that was the first springboard for us.
But the running specifically… I think it speaks to the delusion of the character... he portrays and sees himself as an emblem of greatness when actually he looks quite silly.
Why did you decide to produce and star in War Machine?
We start with the micro view of the general, but we then expand to the macro view of the whole machinery at large, specifically for America. We start with an absurd tone but the film turns quite serious when we are dealing with (something at) the expense of young men and women, life and limb, great cost, civilian life.
How was it like working with Netflix?
Quite honestly, without a delivery system like Netflix, this movie wouldn't have been made. Challenging material like this, where there is a great degree of difficulty... I guess the financial risk is really difficult for the (film) studios to take on at this time.
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