Meet Joe Black

"Careful, Bill, you'll give yourself a heart attack and ruin my vacation."

- Joe Black

In this long remake of Death Takes A Holiday, Death decides it's time to experience some life for himself. So he grabs himself a well-to-do businessman named Bill Parrish, who's about to turn 65 (and die) and the body of a young man who was hit by two cars while crossing the street. Complications ensue when it turns out the young man whose body he took was just flirting with the 64-year-old's daughter before he died, a daughter who is dating one of the businessman's most important employees.

Death, nicknamed Joe Black by Parrish, is played by Brad Pitt. Bill Parrish is played by Anthony Hopkins. Susan Parrish is played by Claire Forlani. The film was directed by Martin Brest, previously known for (among others) Beverly Hills Cop (1984) and Midnight Run (1988). The film was a moderate box office hit, its worldwide gross estimated to 142,940,100 dollars (though its domestic total was an unimpressive $44 million, not even half of its budget).

"Susan: I'm in love with a man. But I don't know who he is, where he's going, or when."
 * A Form You Are Comfortable With: Death takes human form, naturally.
 * Audience Surrogate: Joe, particularly at the beginning (when he serves as the audience's exploratory vehicle within Bill Parrish's estate), and the end, when he tears up watching the dance and acts as the receptacle for Bill's summative reflections, parroting the anticipated reaction of the audience watching the end of the movie.
 * Badass: Both Bill and Joe in respective different ways.
 * Brief Accent Imitation: Done marvelously when Joe speaks with a very sick little old lady from the islands. Possibly Brad's best accent performance other than Snatch.
 * The Comically Serious: Death has a surprisingly good sense of humor. So does Bill Parrish, all things considered.
 * Corrupt Corporate Executive: Drew, who is dealing behind Bill's back with a competitor in order to secure a lucrative merger for the company against Bill's wishes, and manipulates the board of directors to get Bill fired and wrest control of the company from him.
 * Creepy Monotone: Joe tends to speak this way almost all the time. Particularly unsettling when Bill is yelling at him and Joe calmly reminds him who he's dealing with.
 * Death Takes a Holiday: Though a remake of the Trope Namer, it subverts it: Joe is still doing his reaping while he hangs out with the Parrishes through multitasking. He describes it as "When you're shaving, you're also thinking, making decisions..."
 * Don't Fear the Reaper: Joe becomes more friendly and helpful as the film progresses.
 * Foreshadowing: The film opens with a slow pan across a tree to reveal Bill's estate...the same tree that Joe waits beneath, at the end of the movie.
 * Good People Have Good Sex: Joe and Bill's lovely daughter Susan. Probably one of the most touching love scenes out there.
 * Although, for some reason, they still skip foreplay.
 * Hand Wave: Why did Death, after witnessing all of human history and everything beyond, pick a rich, white American businessman as his guide to life? Given the entire planet to choose from, why would he spend his time exclusively in an apartment in Manhattan and an estate on Rhode Island? The film's hand-wave is that Death was intriuged by the ineffable life-guidance given by Bill to his daughter. The device is successful strictly on the basis of Anthony Hopkins' badassery.
 * Also, after
 * First Time Feeling: Joe has no experience with love whatsoever and so falling for Susan completely overwhelms him.
 * Jerkass: Drew, full-stop.
 * Look Both Ways: The body Joe takes. Ouch.
 * Meaningful Echo: "Death and taxes".
 * The Nameless: The Body Joe. He's only billed as "Young Man in Coffee Shop".
 * Oh Crap:
 * Padding: Detractors note the excess of it in this three-hour-long movie.
 * Punny Name: Come on! Bill Parrish in a movie about death?
 * Re Cut: The airline version shortens in fifty minutes, mostly by cutting some of the corporate wars - Martin Brest protested (thus it's credited to Alan Smithee - and it's not his first time) but apparently it was praised by those who saw it.
 * Sense Freak: Joe Black takes quite a fondness for peanut butter.
 * Soundtrack Dissonance
 * Shallow Love Interest: Susan. She's defined by her relationship with Drew, then her relationship with Joe, and, of course, her relationship with Bill. In fact, the only other thing we know about her is that she seems to remind Bill of his wife; essentially, that she's important to her dad because she reminds him of Another shallow love interest.
 * Ironically Joe is this from Susan's perspective. All she knows about him is he's a bit unusual, works with her dad, and really likes peanut butter.
 * Ironically Joe is this from Susan's perspective. All she knows about him is he's a bit unusual, works with her dad, and really likes peanut butter.

"Quince: "Joe, am I a good man?" Joe: "Oh yes, Quince. You're one of my favorites.""
 * Smug Snake: Drew, who has been scheming behind Bill's back (see Corrupt Corporate Executive) while dating his daughter.
 * Stealth Pun: Joe posing as an IRS agent would almost count, if he didn't say the punchline out loud. It's still worth mentioning, though.
 * Straw Loser: Quince, relative to Bill, of course. He's also Bill's Hero Worshipper.
 * Though it should be noted that of the characters, only the despicable Drew actually treats him like this. Everyone else who knows him considers him a wonderful person.


 * The Reveal: In-universe, after leaving all of Bill's associates wondering about him all movie, he finally "comes clean" in the "death and taxes" scene. Of course, he's not exactly truthful, making this some kind of weird reverse meta-subversion.
 * The Three Certainties in Life: "...the truth is, joining John Bontecou is every bit as certain as death and taxes."
 * The Un-Reveal: It's never explicitly stated how much Susan knows by the time the film ends. It's all implied.
 * Worthy Opponent: Drew is tricked into believing he's this relative to Bill, when, in fact, he's an inferior Evil Counterpart.
 * In fact, Joe/Death is Bill's actual Worthy Opponent, at least initially.