Meet Joe Black

This article is about the 1998 American romantic fantasy mystery film. For the Nas song, see Magic (Nas album).

Meet Joe Black
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Martin Brest
Screenplay by	Bo Goldman Kevin Wade Ron Osborn Jeff Reno
Based on	Death Takes a Holiday by Maxwell Anderson Gladys Lehman Death Takes a Holiday by Walter Ferris La morte in vacanza by Alberto Casella
Produced by	Martin Brest
Starring	Brad Pitt Anthony Hopkins Claire Forlani Jake Weber Marcia Gay Harden Jeffrey Tambor
Cinematography	Emmanuel Lubezki
Edited by	Joe Hutshing Michael Tronick
Music by	Thomas Newman
Production company	City Light Films
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	November 8, 1998 (1998-11-08) (Tokyo International Film Festival) November 13, 1998 (1998-11-13) (United States)
Running time	181 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$90 million
Box office	$142.9 million

Meet Joe Black is a 1998 American romantic fantasy drama film directed and produced by Martin Brest, starring Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, and Claire Forlani. Celebrating his 65th birthday, businessman and devoted family man Bill Parrish is visited by Death, who wants to know what it's like to be human in return for giving Bill extra days of his life. The screenplay was written by Bo Goldman, Kevin Wade, Ron Osborn, and Jeff Reno, and is loosely based on the 1934 film Death Takes a Holiday, which is itself based on the 1929 play Death Takes a Holiday by Walter Ferris, which is in turn an English-language adaptation of the 1924 Italian play La morte in vacanza by Alberto Casella.

Plot

Media mogul Bill Parrish is contemplating a merger with another media giant. Meanwhile, his eldest daughter, Allison, is planning an elaborate 65th birthday party for him. His younger daughter Susan, a resident in internal medicine, has a relationship with Drew, a member of Bill's board. As Bill contemplates Susan's planned marriage to Drew and realizes that she is not deeply in love, he suggests that she wait to be swept off her feet.

After Bill's company helicopter lands at his office, he hears a voice that he tries to ignore. Arriving in his office, Bill has pains in his chest and hears the voice again, saying "yes".

While studying in a coffee shop near her hospital, Susan meets a young man and forms a connection. She departs without getting his name. Unbeknownst to her, directly afterward, he is struck fatally by multiple cars.

That evening, Bill hears the voice again that summons him to a room. Materializing, the voice identifies itself as "Death" and now inhabits the body of the young man Susan met at the coffeeshop. Death explains that Bill's impassioned speech to his daughter piqued his interest. Given Bill's "competence, experience, and wisdom", Death says that for as long as Bill is his guide on Earth, Bill will not have to die. They both return to the dinner table and under pressure to make an introduction, Bill names the young man "Joe Black". Joe does not seem to know how to drink, eat, or use food and utensils.

Drew secretly conspires to sell Parrish Communications, despite Bill's strong objections. Capitalizing on Bill's strange behavior and reliance on Joe, he convinces the board of directors to vote Bill out as chairman and to approve the merger.

Intrigued by Joe's naivete, Susan realizes he is different from the young man she met in the coffee shop. She falls in love with him and he with her. Later, Bill sees them kissing.

Bill angrily confronts Joe about his relationship with Susan. He then suggests to Susan that Joe will not be around much longer. At Susan's hospital, Joe interacts with a terminally ill woman, who wishes to die to escape her constant physical pain. She realizes that Joe is part of her impending death. When Joe mentions that he loves Susan (whose care she is under), they discuss the meaning of life and she tells him the danger of meshing two worlds. When Joe asks if she is ready to go, she nods her head and dies.

As Bill's birthday arrives, Joe declares his intention to take Susan with him. Bill pleads with Joe to recognize the meaning of true love and to not steal Susan's life.

At the party, knowing his death is imminent, Bill says goodbye to his daughters. Susan tells Joe she has loved him since the day in the coffee shop. Joe decides to allow her to live.

Quince apologizes to Bill for unwittingly undermining Bill's position, and Bill forgives him. Joe helps Bill regain control of his company, exposing Drew's underhanded business dealings to the board by claiming to be an agent of the Internal Revenue Service and threatening to put Drew in jail.

Susan and Bill later say goodbye. Fireworks begin, and on a hilltop above the party, Joe waits with tears in his eyes. Bill heads up to him, and they share their thoughts. Susan watches Joe and Bill cross a nearby bridge and descend out of sight on the other side. Joe reappears alone. He is again the young man from the coffee shop, uninjured and not comprehending where he is. Susan descends hand-in-hand with the young man toward the party with the fireworks bursting all around them.

Cast

• Brad Pitt as Death / "Joe Black" / Young Man in Coffee Shop
• Anthony Hopkins as Bill Parrish
• Claire Forlani as Susan Parrish
• Jake Weber as Drew
• Marcia Gay Harden as Allison Parrish
• Jeffrey Tambor as Quince, Allison's husband
• David S. Howard as Eddie Sloane
• Lois Kelly Miller as Jamaican Woman
• Marylouise Burke as Lillian
• June Squibb as Helen

Production

Filming

Most of William Parrish's country mansion scenes were shot at the Aldrich Mansion in Rhode Island.

The penthouse interiors and Parrish Communications offices were sets built at the 14th Regiment Armory in the South Slope neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York.

The coffee shop where Susan meets the young man is Broadway Restaurant, at 2664 Broadway and West 101st Street in New York's Manhattan. Principal photography commenced on 11 June 1997 and concluded on 12 November 1997. The restaurant closed permanently in June 2023.

Versions

A two-hour version was made to show on television and airline flights, by cutting most of the plotline involving Bill Parrish's business. Since Director Martin Brest derided this edit of his film and disowned it, the director's credit on this release used Hollywood pseudonym Alan Smithee.

Release

The film premiered as the closing night film of the Tokyo International Film Festival on 8 November 1998.

Reception

Box office

Meet Joe Black opened in the United States and Canada on the weekend of 13–15 November 1998, and had a weekend gross of $15,017,995 ranking #3, behind The Waterboy's second weekend and the opening of I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.

While the film had a disappointing box office gross in the United States and Canada of $44,619,100, it fared much better internationally. Taking in an additional $98,321,000, the movie grossed a worldwide total of $142,940,100.

As Meet Joe Black was one of the few films showing the first trailer for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, it was reported that Star Wars fans bought tickets for the film, only to leave after the trailer showed.

Critical response

Meet Joe Black received mixed reviews from critics, with most complimenting the performances but criticizing the film's three-hour length, the slow pacing, and the screenplay. Roger Ebert gave it three stars, but disliked the peripheral storylines and overly drawn-out ending. He concluded that despite its flaws, "there's so much that's fine in this movie". Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote that most of the characters were one-dimensional. Hopkins received uniform praise for his performance, with Travers opining that Hopkins' Bill Parrish was the only fully realized character in the film; Mick LaSalle wrote that "Hopkins' acting is so emotionally full that the tiniest moments...ring with complexities of thought and feeling." Pitt, on the other hand, received a mixed response, with LaSalle calling his performance so bad "it hurts" and James Berardinelli calling it "execrable". Thomas Newman's score received critical acclaim; it is generally considered one of his best works.

Meet Joe Black earned a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Remake or Sequel, a takeoff from the film Death Takes a Holiday.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 46% approval rating on 52 reviews, with an average score of 5.60/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Meet Joe Black is pretty to look at and benefits from an agreeable cast, but that isn't enough to offset this dawdling drama's punishing three-hour runtime." On Metacritic, the film received a 43% score on 24 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore graded the film "A−" on a scale of A to F.

In retrospect, Pitt was critical of his performance on the film: "That was the pinnacle of my…loss of direction and compass."

External links

• Meet Joe Black at IMDb
• Meet Joe Black at AllMovie
• Meet Joe Black at Box Office Mojo
• Meet Joe Black at Rotten Tomatoes