: Pollock - Movie Review Example

Pollock is a 2000 biographical film that reviews the life and career of the influential American painter Jackson Pollock. The movie is based on the story Jackson Pollock: An American Saga which was authored by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith. The movie stars Ed Harris, Jennifer Connely, Sada Thompson, Marcia Gay, Bud Cort, and Robert Knott, as well as Molly Reagan with Ed Harris also as its director (Harris). After reading the book, it took about 10 years for Harris to bring Jackson Pollock’s story to the screen.

The movie starts with a shot of Pollock (1912-1950) at the peak of his career giving an autograph to a woman from the famous Life Magazine article. The movie flashes back to 1941; nine years earlier. During this time, Pollock was often drunk and made a living by displaying his paintings in the infrequent group art shows. He was struggling to make a mark in the 1940s in New York. As cited Boddy-Evans, this struggle made Pollock suffer from depression, volatile temper, alcoholism, and self-doubt.

The film provides glimpses of the New York art world. The viewers note that the war between creativity and vulnerability to impotent rage, self-doubt, and drunkenness. and alcohol destroys Pollock. He later meets artist Lee Krasner (Harden) and Jackson takes an interest in her. Lee Krasner is also a painter and later became his wife and the most tireless champion. Krasner rescues Jackson from his struggles helping him to win the patronage of a rich Peggy Guggenheim. He gives him a painting contract worth $2,400. However, his fame results in a wedge between himself and Lee.

The casting is excellent as to appear inevitable from the stare of the silent challenge to the virile baldness, and the manner in which Pollock handles a cigarette like a throwaway extension of his will. The studio scenes are rooted at the moment when Jackson drips pain on the floor accidentally and finds out that his revolutionary controlled splatter technique is everything most people hope for. In its execution, Pollock’s style was singular and joyfully athletic. This makes the viewers believe that they are witnessing the creation of the actual works.

The most eye-catching sequences demonstrate the manner in which Jackson works on his populous drip paintings, invoking dense disordered patterns with a combination of skill and gravity, along with luck. Harris is comfortable portraying the self-destructive streak of Pollock and its impacts on Krasner. However, his wife, Lee shows the will of iron under her unshakable compassion and love. She knew that Pollock was having an affair outside their marriage with Ruth Kligman, but did not divorce him. Lee says, “I won’t give you a divorce no matter what” (Harris). The movie ends in a fatal car crash resulting in the death of Jackson and Ruth’s friend.

On the other hand, the movie has its drawbacks. The first drawback of the film is that Harris does not extensively cover the sacrifices Krasner made for her own art career for Pollock. The other setback is half realized vision. Since this is a biographical film, the viewers are not able to see his childhood life since the film only tells the story of his adult life. However, the movie provides a sense of scale to Pollock’s paintings and shows the role Peggy Guggenheim played. Besides that, the movie is beautifully filmed and has great sets as well as acting.