Honestly, three hours is a long time for a movie about a guy who likes peanut butter. But the Brad Pitt movie Meet Joe Black isn’t really about the peanut butter, even if those scenes with the silver spoon are weirdly iconic. It’s about the fact that we’re all going to die, and how terrifyingly beautiful that actually is.
When this thing hit theaters in 1998, critics basically ripped it apart. They called it bloated. They called it slow. They made fun of the Jamaican accent Pitt tries to pull off in that one hospital scene. But if you look at how people talk about it now, twenty-some years later, there’s this weird staying power that most "Oscar bait" movies from the late nineties just don't have. It’s become a comfort movie for people who want to feel something existential without the nihilism.
The weird physics of death in a tuxedo
The premise is kinda wild when you strip it down. Death—the actual concept of the Grim Reaper—decides he wants to take a vacation. He takes over the body of a young man who just got hit by two cars in a sequence that honestly still looks pretty brutal today. Then, he shows up at the doorstep of Bill Parrish, a billionaire media mogul played by Anthony Hopkins.
Death wants a tour guide. Bill wants more time.
It’s a lopsided deal, but what choice do you have when the personification of the end of everything is standing in your library? Brad Pitt plays Joe Black with this strange, wide-eyed innocence that feels almost alien. He’s not playing a person; he’s playing an entity trying to figure out how a human body works. He tastes peanut butter for the first time. He feels attraction. He learns about taxes.
The movie is a remake of the 1934 film Death Takes a Holiday, based on the play by Alberto Casella. But director Martin Brest, the guy who gave us Scent of a Woman, decided to turn it into this lush, sweeping epic that cost a staggering $90 million at the time. For a drama? That was unheard of. Most of that money went into that insane penthouse set, which was built inside an old armory in Brooklyn. It wasn't just a house; it was a character.
Why the Brad Pitt movie Meet Joe Black feels different now
We live in an era of 90-minute "content." Everything is edited to be fast, snappy, and TikTok-friendly. Coming back to a film that is three hours and one minute long feels like a direct assault on the modern attention span. But that’s actually why it works. The movie forces you to slow down to the pace of Bill Parrish’s final days.
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Anthony Hopkins is the emotional anchor here. While Pitt is doing his "blank slate" routine, Hopkins is doing some of the best work of his career. He plays a man who is incredibly successful but realizes that none of his board meetings or billion-dollar mergers matter when the clock starts ticking. The chemistry between him and Pitt is fascinating because it's not a friendship; it's a mentorship in reverse. Bill is teaching Death how to be a man, while Death is teaching Bill how to let go.
Then you've got Claire Forlani.
Her performance as Susan Parrish is basically 80% eye contact. The romance between her and Joe is polarizing. Some people find it agonizingly slow, while others think it’s the height of cinematic yearning. It’s high-stakes because she has no idea she’s falling for the guy who is literally there to take her father away. It’s tragic and beautiful and, yeah, a little bit creepy if you think about it too hard.
The technical side of the afterlife
One thing that people often overlook is the cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki. If that name sounds familiar, it's because he went on to win three Oscars in a row for Gravity, Birdman, and The Revenant. You can see his fingerprints all over this. The way the light hits the mahogany walls of the Parrish estate makes the whole movie feel like it's glowing from within.
And the score? Thomas Newman.
The music is haunting. It doesn't tell you how to feel; it just sits there in the background, vibrating with this sense of melancholy. It’s one of those soundtracks you can put on while you’re working and suddenly feel like your life is a grand, tragic masterpiece.
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Interestingly, the movie had a very strange path to success. One of the reasons it had a decent opening weekend wasn't actually because of the Brad Pitt movie Meet Joe Black itself. It was because the first trailer for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace was attached to it. People were literally buying tickets, watching the trailer, and then walking out of the theater before the movie even started. They missed out.
The board room drama vs. the existential drama
There’s a subplot involving a corporate takeover led by Drew, played by Jake Weber. He’s the classic 90s movie villain—slick hair, expensive suit, zero soul. Some fans argue this part of the movie drags it down. They want more of the cosmic stuff and less of the proxy fights.
However, the corporate stuff serves a purpose. It shows the world that Bill is leaving behind. It’s the "noise" of life. When Joe Black enters the boardroom, he doesn't understand the power plays or the greed. He just sees people shouting about things that don't exist in the grand scheme of time. It highlights the absurdity of human ambition when faced with the infinite.
Making sense of the ending (Spoilers, obviously)
The final party scene is a masterclass in tension. Bill knows it’s his last night. The fireworks are going off. He has to say goodbye to his daughters without actually telling them he’s dying. It’s heartbreaking.
The "Joe" who returns at the very end isn't the entity; it’s the original guy from the coffee shop. This is where the movie gets a bit divisive. Is it a happy ending? Susan gets the guy, but her father is gone, and the "Joe" she spent the last few days with—the one she actually fell in love with—is technically gone too. It’s a bit of a mind-bender. It suggests that love is a force that transcends the individual, which is a very 1990s sentiment, but it’s handled with enough gravitas that it doesn't feel cheap.
Real-world impact and legacy
If you look at Rotten Tomatoes, the critics have it at 51%. But the audience score is much higher. Why the gap?
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Critics in 1998 were tired of "bloat." They wanted the lean, mean filmmaking of the burgeoning indie scene. They saw this as a vanity project for Pitt and Brest. But audiences don't care about "bloat" if the emotions land. For many, the film is a meditation on grief. It’s used in grief counseling and by people facing terminal illnesses because it removes the "skeleton and scythe" imagery of death and replaces it with something curious and even kind.
A few things you probably didn't know:
- The Peanut Butter: Brad Pitt actually ate a ridiculous amount of peanut butter during filming. He reportedly preferred the smooth kind over crunchy for the "character's" taste.
- The Length: The initial cut of the movie was even longer. Martin Brest is notorious for his perfectionism, which is partly why he hasn't made a movie since the 2003 disaster Gigli.
- The Accent: That Jamaican Patois scene in the hospital? Pitt actually worked with a coach for that. While it was mocked, some linguists have noted it wasn't as bad as the critics made it out to be—it was just incredibly jarring in the middle of a posh New York drama.
How to watch it today
If you’re going to sit down with the Brad Pitt movie Meet Joe Black tonight, don't do it while you're scrolling on your phone. It’s not a "background" movie. You have to let the slow pace wash over you. It’s meant to be an experience, not a plot-delivery system.
Actionable steps for the ultimate viewing:
- Block out four hours. You need the three hours for the film and at least an hour afterward to just sit in silence and think about your life.
- Audio matters. Because of Thomas Newman's score, use good speakers or headphones. The sound design is surprisingly intricate.
- Watch "Death Takes a Holiday" (1934) first. If you’re a film nerd, seeing where the story started makes you appreciate the changes Martin Brest made. The original is much more of a "spooky" Gothic romance.
- Pay attention to the food. Food is used throughout the film as a symbol of human sensory experience. The peanut butter, the dinner parties, the cake. It’s all about the physical world vs. the spiritual one.
The Brad Pitt movie Meet Joe Black is a rare beast. It’s a big-budget, slow-moving, philosophical romance that doesn't care if you're bored. It knows that life is long, death is permanent, and sometimes, the only thing that makes sense is a spoonful of peanut butter and a dance on a pier.
If you find yourself thinking about the ending days after you watch it, you've caught the "bug." It’s a movie that stays in the corners of your mind, reminding you that "to have loved and been loved" is really the only metric that counts in the end.
Where to go from here
If you enjoyed the themes of this film, you should check out the work of Ernest Becker, specifically The Denial of Death. It’s the non-fiction version of what Bill Parrish is going through. Also, look into the filmography of Anthony Hopkins during this period—The Remains of the Day offers a similar look at a man realizing the weight of his choices far too late.
For more modern takes on these themes, A Ghost Story (2017) provides a much more experimental look at the afterlife that feels like a spiritual successor to Joe Black's curiosity.
Watching this film isn't just about seeing Brad Pitt in his prime; it's about checking in with your own mortality. It sounds heavy, because it is. But as Bill Parrish says, "That's life."