Movie Review - Pollock

The movie "Pollock" staring Ed Harris as Jackson Pollock is a story of how art was affected by an artist. The movie follows the latter years of Pollock's life as he rises to fame as a painter but also watches him struggle with life. American artist Jackson Pollock was an alcoholic, manic-depressant and often an uncontrollable, angry and insecure man. However, through one woman and when he painted, he found a sense of freedom and peace, a release from his anger and sadness. Out of tragedy he helped create a movement in Abstract Expressionism. This essay will focus on how this movie showed his last years as an artist, the art and movement he created, it's tragic end and what as a student I have learned from this.

The movie starts with Pollock living with his brother in New York City. He is drinking too much and takes no responsibility for what his is doing. You sense there is something broken within his family throughout the movie. Maybe jealousy of his family because of his abilities, there was a sense of Pollock wanting to be accepted and loved by those close to him, but them finding it hard to do so with his actions. During this time he meets Lee Krasner, another abstract artist played by Marcia Gay Harden. Standing by him during times of need and often taking care of she ended up becoming Pollock's lover, wife, and biggest supporter. Knowing of Pollock's alcohol abuse, anger and unpredictable behavior, she puts aside her own needs and aspirations. She recognized his talent and brilliance as an artist and wanted to see him succeed, forfeiting her own career. She also suffers the brunt of his cruelty, self-absorption, his infidelities, and his alcoholic rages. However, she balanced his erratic nature by being a strong supporter at his side. To get him away from the drinking, insecurity, and the stress of city life, they move to the Hamptons where nature and sobriety help Pollock achieve a breakthrough in style.

Living in the Hamptons away from the city, Pollock takes in the nature around him, begins to garden and has long walks on the beach. With a clear head free of alcohol and stress he begins to paint in an abstract way that he began with, but changes the way he paints by moving the canvas to the floor so that he can walk around the canvas and become one with the art that he was creating. As he does this, the movie shows that by accident with paint spilling onto the floor he see how the dripping of the paint created a newer abstract. This began the change in his style that broke the art critics in 1947. The `drip and splash' style for which he is best known emerged. With his canvas already on the floor, instead of using the traditional easel he poured and dripped his paint from a can or brush sometimes instead of using brushes he manipulated it with sticks, trowels or knives. When asked about his style of painting he said "Sometimes I use a brush but often prefer using a stick. Sometimes I pour the paint straight out of the can. I like to use a dripping, fluid paint. A method of painting is a natural growth out of a need. I want to express my feelings rather than illustrate them." (Demange) You can see in the movie that he creates with his subconscious and inner emotions, dancing around the canvas flinging paint and creating beautiful pieces that are first resemble spatters, but as you look closely and watch him work, it forms a beautiful motif. This technique raises his art to the top but begins a tragic decline of a young artist. These paintings made Pollock immediately famous, and got him a feature article in Life magazine.

After two years of sobriety, Pollock begins