The Oscar and Academy Award nominated film "Pollock" (Sony Classics, 2001) is a biopic of the life of modernist artist Jackson Pollock. Directed by and staring Ed Harris as the lead character, Pollock. Already knowing the basic background and story of Jackson Pollock, I started watching this movie with the hopes to learn more, but that goal was not able to be achieved. This film summarizes only fifteen years of Pollock's like, the years that most everyone knows about. .
The film opens in 1949 with a close-up of Pollock's paint-caked hands signing an autograph on the issue of "Life" magazine that featured his work. At this moment, he is on a pedestal in the art world and from his clear, placid gaze he seems to be content and in control. The film later returns to this scene to demonstrate that it was only a momentary calm in the storm of Pollock's life. In the second scene the movie rolls back the clock, showing Pollock in a depressed and drunken rage over his jealous admiration of Picasso. The juxtaposition of these two episodes sets the erratic mood for the film, which begins in earnest in 1941 when he meets artist Krasner, his lover and professional partner who helped launch his reputation and celebrity by introducing him to the New York art world and sacrificing her own career for his. Introducing radical elements such as abstract, non perspective action painting and abandonment of traditional easel painting, Jackson Pollock wowed the post-WWII art world to become the most famous artist in America via the influential "Life" magazine article. A social recluse and abusive drinker, Pollock's life from 1941-1956 is depicted, from the strange courtship with his artist wife Lee Krasner and sponsorship by socialite Peggy Guggenheim to the aftereffects of the article that catapulted him from struggling artist to American icon. Grappling with alcoholism and rage, the need to express himself, please his critics and placate his inner demons, Pollock alienates all who love him and ultimately succumbs to his own self-destructive nature.
