But when Susan steps into frame, often dressed in a simple shift or t-shirt and jeans, we get a stark difference to the richness we often see in the shot. Scenes in his office also include massive paintings and can be easily distinguished as the top of a skyscraper. Being a well-off man with a famous business, his penthouse home in the city is extravagant and ornate. Most of the film is also shot within Bill Parrish’s, Anthony Hopkin’s character, home. If anything, this gives a nostalgic feeling of the beginning and end of life.
As we go through the movie, the scene seem to get later and later in the day, until eventually the last scene ends the movie with a party at night and the death of Anthony Hopkins character. These two scenes are flooded with natural light and sunshine. It then moves to following one of the main character’s daughter, Susan, into a café for morning coffee and breakfast. Meet Joe Black also opens in the early morning, a scene that pans from a tree in the country on the waters edge to a busy scene of people decorate a set for a party. This also gives a refreshing feeling reminiscent of life, a stark contrast to the colors in the film. The use of natural light is also common throughout the film, and flowers make a play in most of the shots. Black suits and yellow candlelit dinners are also a reoccurring theme in the movie. These three colors are very reminiscent of funeral colors, to invoke the idea of death.
Pitt’s startling blue eyes are leveling and childlike: full of wonder and curiosity. Throughout the entire film, the use of the colors blue, yellow, and black are very apparent. The entire premise of the movie is, “Death, who takes the form of a young man, asks a media mogul to act as a guide to teach him about life on Earth and in the process he falls in love with his guide’s daughter.” (1) But, underneath the surface is a beautifully complex film playing with the ideas of love and life, “sing with rapture and danc like a dervish.” (2) This is the idea of Meet Joe Black, a 1998 movie directed by Martin Brest.
The world’s death rate at a complete standstill. But what if people across the globe didn’t die today? Or the next? Maybe even for a week. Children are born every day, and people die every day. This is an excellent score, an achievement from any composer, and something that ranks up near the top of Thomas Newman's work.Life and death are two of the universal constants that everyone is aware of. But the score is also quite playful, as on "Peanut Butter Man," where a flute meanders over bouncing strings, and also in the quick, percussive staccato of the middle-eight. Newman skillfully weaves this theme into the rest of the score, and its sweeping sentimentality is flexible enough to be incorporated into other melodic themes, such as the denouement of "Someone Else." For the most part, gentle strings and woodwinds dominate, with gentle piano work reserved for special, heart-tugging moments. As romantic themes go, Newman's ranks as a recent classic that captures both the initial rush of love and also the devastating crush of its leaving. "Whisper of a Thrill," the soaring romantic theme, is a perfect distillation of the film's emotional plot, its yearning melody shadowing Joe Black's ( Brad Pitt) love for the beautiful Susan (played by Claire Forlani) and its ultimate futility.
His score for Meet Joe Black contains the seeds of beauty that would fully flower on his score for American Beauty, the next film he scored and a high point of his career. As modern soundtrack scores go, the quality can be hit or miss, but Thomas Newman's work is almost always something to get excited about, as evidenced in the Oscar-nominated The Shawshank Redemption, Road to Perdition, and the title theme for Six Feet Under.