Pollock (Widescreen)

In many respects a traditional biopic, Pollock begins in 1941 when Pollock meets Krasner, who encourages him and attracts the attention of supportive critic Clement Greenberg (Jeffrey Tambor) and benefactor Peggy Guggenheim (Amy Madigan). As Pollock rises from obscurity to international acclaim, Harris brings careful balance to his portrayal of a driven creator who found peace during those brief, sober periods when art brought release from his tenacious inner demons. The film offers sympathy without sentiment, appreciation without misguided hagiography. As an acting showcase it's utterly captivating. As a compassionate but unflinching exploration of Jackson Pollock's intimate world, there's no doubt that Harris captured the essence of a man whose life was as torturous as his art was redeeming. --Jeff Shannon

Pollock's meteoric rise to glory meant that he succumbed soon to common celebrity ills -- booze, promiscuity, temper -- and this is the area that the film seems to cast a dramatic wide-angle lens on.

Personally, I felt that the film did not really wow me with its somewhat conventional and occasionally even shallow drama potraying a painter's angst, skimping in turn on the insights into what really made him tick. Achieving a delicate balance between these two facets of the artist's life was what made Kirk Douglas' "Lust for Life" or the more recent "Frida" such true classics.

A decent rental for the superlative performances of both the lead characters and its evenhandedness in dealing with a sensitive subject (Harris takes no sides, we never really stop despising Pollock because of his abrasive nature) but don't expect anything you'd call a marvel of film making.


Jackson Pollock Remembered   July 16, 2004
David Anderson (St. Cloud, MN)
Ed Harris stars, directs, and produces the great 2000 film "Pollock". It wonderfully portrays the life and turbulances of famed painter Jackson Pollock. This beautiful film shows how Pollock became world-known. However, more than his art is expressed. His struggles and destructive lifestyle represent his art influences and portray who he was. This brilliant plot expresses the emotional side of the events wonderfully. Such depth proves Ed Harris's, who plays Pollock, true fascination. The radiance keeps audiences interested scene by scene, leading to the surprising conclusion. Through everything, the Oscar-nominated performances by Harris and Marcia Gay Harden (she won) play the key role in this masterpiece. Their passion within their characters is expressed beautifully, giving the chain of events the necessary added emotional stance. Such film quality makes "Pollock" sure to please audiences of all kinds. Its emotional value is sure to continue touching audiences as it has.


A great biopic prespective of pollock with great charecters   April 9, 2004
Hadi (Pittsburg, PA)
Ed Harris does it again and with a great story behind the movie, this is one of the best bio based fact movie i've ever seen, some parts are a bit hard to understand but nontheless, the real life and road to freedom, away from frustrations, this is a must see high rated movie and i recommend it to any period movie lovers. With a great supporting role from Oscar winning actress Marcia (...) Harden, this movie has reached it status, shame it didn't win an oscar though. 10/10


Interesting but frustrating   February 22, 2004
William (Australia)
POLLOCK focusses on the artist Jackson Pollock and his life which eventually spirals into tragic circumstances. We come to learn that Pollock is manic depressive who has the ability to change the moods of everyone around him.

The film was not as engaging as I had hoped. In fact, it was quite frustrating in parts, and to be honest, I was at a loss to see what all the fuss is over his works of art. Am I missing something? His paintings were appalling, in my opinion.

Ed Harris delivers a decent performance of a man whose life wasn't worth making a movie over.

Yawn!


Jackson Pollock   February 18, 2004
Narrative Summary
The movie outlines the life of an artist (Pollock) who struggles to succeed in modern art. His abstract style of painting doesn't seem to be making an impact in the art world. His wife (Lee Krasner), feels differently about his work. She sees that he possesses great talent and encourages him to continue to paint until he finds his own style. In his alcoholic days, Howard Putzel liked Pollock's experimental art and introduced him to wealthy art enthusiast Peggy Guggenheim. Due to her interest, she displayed the unknown Pollock in her gallery and offered him a commission for a painting for her home. This jump started Pollock's career along with an alcohol free lifestyle, however, he still struggles in adopting his own unique style that would distinguish him from other well-known artists.
On day Pollock "cracks it wide open" by discovering a method of painting that involves dripping the paint onto the canvas without the brush ever touching it. With success rapidly coming his way, Pollock enjoys the financial fruits of his artistic labor. His unique style and quality of his work gradually started to decline when he forced himself to go through the motions of "Action Painting" for a documentary film that would show how he creates his art. He starts to feel that his paintings are "phony" and soon reverts back to the bottle. He begins to turn violent both with his wife and friends. After the separation with Krasner, his life ends while driving drunk with his new girlfriend.
Technical Evaluation
Cinematography
The cinematography of "Pollock" is satisfying. It does a good job in establishing the setting of scenes for the viewers. A good example of this would be the long shots of Pollock's house the morning he discovers his new style of painting. A couple of notable characteristics about the cinematography throughout the movie are:

• The scene where Pollock was walking into his studio (right before he discovered his unique style of painting), proved interesting in terms of cinematography. The shaking, hand-held camera technique was used to symbolize the entering into a more personal aspect of Pollock's life. It was also used to make the viewers look like they are the ones walking into the studio as Pollock.

• Another good cinematographic scene was the one when Pollock was being filmed through a glass pane. This is a good frame-within-a-frame shot. This camera shot symbolized Jackson's "entrapment" of "feeling like a phony." This is also a good visual composition technique (mentioned below).

• Other good techniques included the low-angle shot of Pollock when he upset the dining room table. This shot gave Pollock a superior and powerful look, making the other actors in the room feel dominated, controlled, and at his mercy. It also symbolized him losing control of his painting and his life. Yet another good technique was when Jackson discovered his unique style of painting. The camera seemed to flow gracefully as it followed Pollock while painting. This symbolized Pollock's artistic, majestic flow as he painted, which is something that he lacked prior to his discovery.

Overall, the cinematography was pleasing, as it sometimes made the viewers feel what Pollock was feeling as he painted, whether it is grace or lifelessness. It built suspense in scenes such as the one where the camera followed Krasner down the hall. Finally, it did a decent job in making Pollock feel trapped while not being able to paint freely in the scene when he was behind the glass pane.

Visual Composition

The visual composition of the film has a few notable characteristics. One notable scene in the movie where visual composition plays a big role is, again, the scene where Pollock upsets the dining room table. In addition to the low-angle shot (mentioned above), the frame is dynamically unstable (not-balanced) in that there is no center focus. Pollock is off to the right of the frame, while the others are clustered on the left. This gave Pollock a strong sense of territoriality. More space was given to him when he upset the table. The fact that he controlled the left side of the frame while everybody else shared the right symbolized that he was, indeed, in control.

A final noteworthy scene to discuss in terms of visual composition was the scene where Pollock discovered his unique style of painting. The medium shot of Pollock staring at the canvas (off to the left of the frame) while holding his paint brush in his right hand (which was centered in the middle of the frame). This established the paint brush as being the center focal point, thus creating heavy visual weight on the brush, and thus attracting the viewers' attention to it as the paint dripped off the brush and onto the floor.

Overall, the visual composition does a decent job in bringing attention to certain objects and creating dynamically unstable scenes to display power and geometry. It also does a good job in switching between open and closed form styles. When Jackson discovers his unique style, the film does a good job in symbolizing his freedom through the use of open form techniques such as allowing the camera to follow him wherever he goes, as opposed to symbolizing his confinement through the closed form technique when he struggles with his paintings.

Interpretive Evaluation

Overall, based on these technical evaluations, the film does a nice job in succeeding in entertaining the audience. It makes good use of cinematography and visual composition that visually describes the type of atmosphere (i.e.-depressed atmosphere while Jackson struggles with modern art and a happy, self-fulfilling atmosphere when he makes his discovery). The cinematography also does a good job in letting the viewers know who was in control in certain scenes through the use of a variety of angled shots and dynamically unstable balances. A combination of these effects with the performances of actors like Harris and Harden makes this film standout from other artist based films that I have seen.