Meet Joe Black

"Sooner or later everyone does."

1998 2h 58m EN

👍

7.4

SOLID

🥫

48%

ROTTEN

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

7.2

IMDB

★7.4TMDB · 5,978🥫48%Rotten Tomatoes●43Metacritic★7.2IMDB · 293,274

FantasyDramaRomance

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Bill Parrish has it all - success, wealth and power. Days before his 65th birthday, he receives a visit from a mysterious stranger, Joe Black, who soon reveals himself as Death. In exchange for extra time, Bill agrees to serve as Joe's earthly guide. But will he regret his choice when Joe unexpectedly falls in love with Bill's beautiful daughter Susan?

“Sooner or later everyone does.”

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Cast

Brad Pitt
Joe Black / Young Man in Coffee Shop
Anthony Hopkins
William Parrish
Claire Forlani
Susan Parrish
Jake Weber
Drew
Marcia Gay Harden
Allison
Jeffrey Tambor
Quince
David S. Howard
Eddie Sloane
Lois Kelly-Miller
Jamaican Woman

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Martin Brest
Writers: Ron Osborn, Jeff Reno, Kevin Wade
Languages: Dutch, English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Clocks in at 178 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Mid-budget at $90M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

28 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Dutch, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Martin Brest, shot by Emmanuel Lubezki. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Thomas Newman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Joe Hutshing shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins and Claire Forlani carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Martin Brest directs. Emmanuel Lubezki behind the camera. Thomas Newman scores. Joe Hutshing cuts. A long sit — settle in. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in Dutch, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Clocks in at 178 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.
2Mid-budget at $90M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.
328 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
4Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Dutch, English.
5Directed by Martin Brest, shot by Emmanuel Lubezki. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Thomas Newman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Joe Hutshing shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins and Claire Forlani carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "Sooner or later everyone does.".
10IMDB entry: tt0119643 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 17 themes, including "life and death", "broken engagement", "love at first sight", "fireworks".

The technical file

Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki
Original score: Thomas Newman
Editing: Joe Hutshing
Production design: Dante Ferretti
Costume design: Aude Bronson-Howard
Makeup / hair: Beth Miller
VFX supervisor: Michael Owens
Sound: Ron Bartlett
Stunt coordinator: Buddy Joe Hooker
Runtime: 178 min · 2h 58m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $90,000,000
Box office: $142,940,100
Return: 159% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Meet Joe Black (1998)
Rotten Tomatoes: 48% 🥫 Rotten
Metacritic: 43/100
IMDB rating: 7.2/10 · 293,274 votes
MPAA: PG-13

Awards

3 wins & 6 nominations total

Bogey Awards

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Martin Brest

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Wuchak2019-12-20
★ 9/10
Captivating commentary on love, life and death The Grim Reaper (i.e. the Angel of Death) comes to take billionaire industrialist Bill Parrish (Anthony Hopkins) but instead decides to take a holiday in the corporeal universe by possessing the body of a young man (Brad Pitt). Death's deal with Parrish is that, as long as he's entertained, he'll delay Bill's death. Mr. Death materializes as a mysterious stranger with child-like qualities known as 'Joe Black.' His "holiday" is complicated when he falls for Parrish's daughter (Claire Forlani). "Meet Joe Black" (1998) is a re-imagining of the 1934 film "Death Takes a Holiday" (which I've never seen). It has the confidence to take its time at almost 3 hours, but is so captivating that it feels shorter than most 90-minute mindless flicks. The plot is reminiscent of other good "fish out of water" stories like Spock in Star Trek, “Starman” (1984), etc. Yes, it's outlandish but the film expertly presents the bizarre situation in a totally believable manner. In other words, this is indeed a serious drama, which nicely balances out the heavy moments with lighter touches. I would compare it to "The Green Mile" (1999), another long drama with supernatural touches and wholly captivating. Despite its fantastical premise, "Meet Joe Black" consistently offers profound insights to the most vital topics of the human experience — love, life, death and numerous others, e.g. betrayal, rivalry, hostility, comeuppance and the mysterious beyond. One good example is when Parrish's son-in-law (Jeffrey Tambor) offers a definition of love to Joe Black: To know the worst thing about someone and it's okay, presuming they’re penitent. This is just one example; the film is filled with such insights. "Meet Joe Black" cost $90 million to make and only made half of it back at the USA box office. Fortunately it has gone on to garner an enthusiastic following and rightly so 'cause this is a near-masterpiece of filmmaking and genuinely moving. I consider myself a masculine man, but tears flowed through approximately 1/3 of the runtime. This is a sign of a potent and affecting picture. It's a travesty that dreck like "Pirates of the Caribbean" makes gazillions of dollars and garbage like "American Beauty" are hailed as masterpieces while true gems like "Joe Black" are often overlooked. The good thing is that time was on Joe Black's side. The word got out. The film runs 2 hours, 58 minutes, and was shot in Warwick, Rhode Island (Aldrich Mansion); Manhattan; and Teaneck, New Jersey. GRADE: A/A-
tensharpe2023-02-03
★ 6/10
Joe Black ( Brad Pitt ) as the Grim Reaper arrives on the doorstep of wealthy businessman Bill Parrish ( Anthony Hopkins ) after borrowing a body of a man killed that morning. After experiencing chest pains and hearing voices Bill Parish is due to die and Joe has come to escort him to the other side. Bill, playing for more time, engages with Joe and manages to persuade him to spend a little more time on earth. Joe’s interest in humanity and experiencing life is particularly heightened when he and Bill’s daughter Susan start to form a relationship. “Meet Joe Black” centres more on the relationship of Joe and Susan rather than Deaths design for Bill. As a Romeo and Juliet style story of forbidden love, “Meet Joe Black” tries hard to play on audience emotions. Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins give solid performances but the lengthy run time makes it hard to sustain interest in both the story and any of the characters. The premise is quite good and the Stella cast try to make the most of the concept of the spiritual firepower of love. However it’s over complication and unnecessary sub plot ( bid to take over Bill’s company) just makes “ Meet Joe Black” unnecessarily long.
CinemaSerf2024-02-08
★ 6/10
Billionaire "Parrish" (Sir Anthony Hopkins) is feeling a bit under the weather as his birthday approaches, and a potential corporate merger looms too. His daughter "Sarah" (Claire Forlani) is, meantime, rather keen on one of his hotshot employees "Drew" (Jake Weber) who is a driving force behind the impending and lucrative business deal. "Parrish" is clearly unwell, and after a scare that looks like an heart attack, he finds a new character in his life. The blonde and piercing-eyed Brad Pitt whose purpose here is pretty clear to us, but not yet to his new friend. Hastily named "Joe Black" the older man starts to act as a sort of guide for the younger, who clearly his little knowledge of how the world works. "Black" starts to feature much more prominently in the life of the mogul and that causes consternation as he begins to display a behaviour that really contrasts with that which made him successful in the first place. That causes quite a bit of chagrin for the ambitious "Drew" but not as much as the attentions "Black" is now paying to "Claire" - and that are slowly becoming reciprocated, too. "Parrish" has, by now, begun to realise who his dashing and charismatic companion is - and has concerns about the impact this might have on his daughter should she find out. Can the pair find a way to reconcile what must be done with what they want to be done? It's quite a solid and promising story and there's quite an effective dynamic between the under-stated Pitt and Sir Anthony. It's just far too long, though. It could easily lose an hour and the plot wouldn't suffer. It's almost like a three act play that takes far too long to get going, and is really only redeemed by a delightfully conspiratorial last half hour. It's a good looking film but is too dialogue-heavy and I found myself wading through too much of it to really enjoy it. Sorry.