by Joe Black
The movie Meet Joe Black was made in the 90’s when it’s star, Brad Pitt, was only 34 years old. I’d seen the film once, but clearly did not recognize the deeper meanings. This time I was overcome by its layers of goodness.
Why would an old film affect me so strongly?
The character of Death was both awkward and all-powerful. Posing as a human, his silence forced Bill Parrish to explain his presence. He’d arrived to take Bill, but gave him more time to live by allowing Death to experience life.
Anthony Hopkins played Bill, a powerful business owner and a beloved father. A widower who misses his wife every single day.
In power, he met his match in strength with Death, whom Bill knew he could not beat.
One of Bill’s daughters, Susan Parrish (Claire Forlani), fell in love with a man in the coffee shop: love at first sight. Death took that same man, through an car accident, to use the young man’s body for his dark experiment. This is how Susan fell in love with Death.
Death wanted to know, what is was like to be human. In the end, he experienced the height of love’s passion and the desperate despair of a broken heart.
At the end of the movie, a torrent of tears surprised me.
Was it about death that I was crying? Or, was it about life?
I cried for the beauty of love at first sight and for the beautiful love of a father for his daughters.
I related to the bittersweet memories of a widowed person still deeply in love with their deceased person who was “ill one day and gone the next.”
The language is more than I can place here…a language that speaks of the dignity of a love commitment that becomes greater than life and death combined, if we can stay the course.
I know that kind of love.
Meet Joe Black ended and I cried for love and loss.
I cried for love that is stronger than death and lives long after our person is gone.
I cried for two lovers demonstrating a love so real that it hurts to remember that passion.
Layers of grief, loss, love, and passion.
Thank you, grief.
I never want to forget.
