Meet Joe Black
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Meet Joe Black is a 1998 remake of the 1934 film Death Takes a Holiday starring Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, and Claire Forlani. It was directed by Martin Brest.
Opinions of the film vary greatly. Many critics find the film's three hour running time excessive, while others feel that its slow pace allows the stories told to feel more personal and poignant. This division of opinion is highlighted by the awards it received—the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films nominated it for a Saturn Award in three categories—Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Music. However the film was also nominated in the Worst Remake or Sequel category at the Razzie Awards. It won a Worst Movie prize at the Hungarian equivalent of the Razzie's, the Csapnivalo Awards. www.csapnivalo.hu (in Hungarian)
A two-hour version was made to show on television and airline flights, by cutting most of the plotline involving Hopkins' character's business. Brest disowned it, and the director's credit was changed to Alan Smithee.
Meet Joe Black tells the story of Death taking a break from his usual duties and inhabiting the body of a young man in order to learn what it is like to be human. The film covers many storylines at once, including a naive Death's (Pitt) first experiences with simple pleasures like peanut butter, his chosen guide's (Hopkins) coming to terms with his own mortality, and a romance between human Death and a young woman (Forlani).
Places of filming
The major part of the movie was filmed in New York City, on Fifth Avenue, in a hospital and in Brooklyn. William Parrish's New York triplex was built inside a National Guard's warehouse in Brooklyn.
The manor in the first and final parts, is an estate in Warwick Neck, Rhode Island, inside the Narragansett Bay.
External link
- Meet Joe Black entry in the Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119643/)
- Meet Joe Black official page (http://www.meetjoeblack.com/)
- Joe Black & Other Guises (http://www.angelfire.com/psy/reading/JoeBlack.html)