I have been questioned numerous times for having Meet Joe Black as my favorite movie. For those who have missed it, the story is based on Death disguised as Joe Black paying a visit to one of the wealthiest and powerful businessman in New York before it takes him away. Death chooses William Parrish as his guide for his success, excellence, authority and strong principles in life. As it learns about the ways of human life, the audience delves into the exquisite life of a man who has achieved everything.
Many critics came out with the slogan that “death takes a long time to take care of business”. Although true, I look at the argument from another point of view and that seems to be the origin of my favoritism. Unlike many, I do not take Death/Joe Black as the main character in this movie. I see him as the means to opening up the world of William Parrish. So instead of Joe Black, I watch the movie to meet William Parrish, a man of power and dignity portrayed exquisitely by Anthony Hopkins. From his penthouse in Manhattan to his vacation mansion in Poughkeepsie. From the pieces of artwork naturally displayed on the walls of his residences to the way he handles every conflict such as the speech on love and relationships to his daughter, Susan:
Not an ounce of excitement, not a whisper of a thrill, this relationship has all the passion of a pair of titmice…I want you to get swept away. I want you to levitate. I want you to sing with rapture and dance like a dervish…Be deliriously happy…Run the risk, if you get hurt, you’ll come back. Because, the truth is there is no sense living your life without this. To make the journey and not fall deeply in love — well, you haven’t lived a life at all. You have to try. Because if you haven’t tried, you haven’t lived.
Parrish’s choices in every aspect of life reveals the traits of a man I would want to become in the future (most probably blended with my father’s principles). And maybe then I can make the genuine speech he makes at his 65th birthday party to a crowd that silently listens to whatever he has to say. As he puts it so intelligently:
What a glorious night, every face I see is a memory. It may not be a perfectly perfect memory. Sometimes we had our ups and downs but we’re all together, and you’re mine for a night. And I’m going to break precedent, and tell you my one-candle wish that you would have a life as lucky as mine, where you can wake up one morning and say “I don’t want anything more.” Sixty-five years – don’t they go by in a blink?
