Sightlines · reception
How Meet Joe Black was received
1998 · Martin Brest · Meet Joe Black on Sightlines
The arc
Critics in 1998 rolled their eyes at the three-hour runtime and it underperformed in the US, but it's since settled into warm reappraisal — a lush, sincere melodrama with a devoted rewatch crowd and a Thomas Newman score people openly adore.
What’s debated
The eternal split: is it a gorgeously patient meditation on love and mortality, or a two-hour movie luxuriating in a three-hour bath?
Its footprint
The abrupt car scene became one of the internet's most gif'd and remixed movie moments, and Brad Pitt's rapturous first taste of peanut butter lives on as its gentler counterpart-meme.
Where it stands
A beloved-but-mocked comfort film — too earnest for the canon, too cherished to be forgotten, and a reliable 'actually, I love this' confession on Letterboxd.
Did you know? The first teaser trailer for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace was attached to Meet Joe Black, and it was widely reported that some fans bought tickets just to watch the trailer and walked out before the film.