Brad Pitt believes we live in a ''very violent world''.

The 48-year-old actor - who is engaged to Angelina Jolie - believes his new gangster movie 'Killing Them Softly' represents wider changes in the world since the economic crash of 2008, and believes how violence is romanticised in cinema is an important question.

He said: ''We live in a violent world. I certainly grew up hunting, which is a very violent act.

''Have you had a hamburger? The way they butcher a cow. It's barbaric. It's horrendous. We live in a very violent world. This is the world we live in. I see it as absolutely important to film. Now how is it shot? Is it aggrandised? It is romanticised? I think that's a fair question.''

Brad - who plays the assistant to a hitman in the Andrew Dominik-directed picture - admits he wanted to join the project because it was commenting on ''our time''.

He added: ''We are always looking for stories that say something about our time and who we are.

''I certainly felt on reading The Script that this was making a commentary. At the time, people were at the apex of the mortgage loan debacle, people were leaving their homes. I felt I was reading a gangster film and then it coalesced that this microcosm was saying something about the macro-world.''