Mikometer Rating: 8 of 10
Every now and then, a movie is released which I feel is a must see, but it will only come out on one or two theaters, and I rarely will get to see it in a theater, and usually have to wait to rent it on DVD. When 'Pollock' came out in December of 2000 to qualify for the Academy Awards, it, of course, was only at one theater, and consequently, because the buzz of the film was so good, the theater was always packed, and I had to wait. Of course the original engagement was only to qualify for the awards, and of course Marcia Gay Harden won the Best Supporting Actress award for her portrayal of Lee Krassner, Jackson Pollack's wife and long suffering assistant/mentor. The film did have a limited release in February, and I was able to catch it at a multiplex which shows art films.
This isn't a film which "needs" to be seen on a big screen. It is a highly personal portrait of a talented and volitale painter. When I read the early press, mentioning that Ed Harris, who not only stars but directs, had wanted to make a biography of Jackson Pollock for many years, the only thing that interested me in the film was my respect for Ed Harris as an actor of substance. I never did like the "artwork" of Jackson Pollock, and characterize his splattered paintings as those in the "throw paint on the canvas" school of art.
The film is a bit of a downer, especially at the end, and especially if you know what happened in "real life". You're watching a film about a tragic character. Harris embodies Pollock with a feistiness and power that almost makes one afraid of this guy. And he is a character to be afraid of. The "artistic style" of the artist, which is given definition not only by scenes in the film, but by passages where the character explains it, has to do with the random acts of creativity which show themselves to the artist as he creates. Some artists are craftsmen. Some merely splash paint on the canvas, but it's what flows from the psyche of the artist that shows itself as art, and the truly gifted are the ones who might not be able to explain the genesis of their art, but are able, above all, to create masterpieces when their muse is at their call.
Jackson Pollock, as portrayed by Harris, is a self involved alcoholic who, without the gentle prodding and uplifting support given him by Lee Krassner, would have probably self destructed early in his career, if he would have had a career at all without her. This is a character, like most great tragic characters, who is more hated than loved, and who is rarely understood. One of the fantastic elements of the film is that we can understand what Lee sees in Pollock, and we are mesmerized by the intensity of their collaboration in their early scenes together.
We also want to tell her to leave before it is too late, as Pollock spirals ever downward into his own personal hell.
The acting is top notch. The film has a definite feel for time and place. It doesn't look like it cost millions and millions of dollars, but yet it is lush and pictorial in its presentation of the life and times of Jackson Pollock.
Marcia Gay Harden is first rate as Lee. But Cort shows up briefly as an art patron. Amy Madigan and Jennifer Connelly are very good in what amount to cameo parts.
Ed Harris has constructed a living breathing enigma of a man, and has detailed his fall rather well. I don't recommend this as a movie to watch if you want a good time. Even if you know what happened to the artist in life, the ending is quite shocking and not for the faint of heart.
One small quibble I had with the film. In all those old MGM musicals about great composers, the scene in which the composer is inspired to write his best work is always contrite and manufactured. The scene in which Jackson Pollock realizes his "dripping paint" technique (by accident, or so the film would tell us) seems just as contrite as those scenes in the aforementioned musicals. I don't know whether Harris deliberately meant the scene to play like this, but I think it could have been presented more realistically.
Mikometer Rating: 8 of 10
Ed Harris: Jackson Pollock
Marcia Gay Harden: Lee Krasner
Amy Madigan: Peggy Guggenheim
Jennifer Connelly: Ruth Kligman
Jeffrey Tambor: Clement Greenberg
Bud Cort: Howard PutzelIn association with Zeke Productions and Fred Berner films, a Brant-Allen production released by Sony Pictures Classics. Director Ed Harris. Producers Fred Berner, Ed Harris, Jon Kilik, James Francis Trezza. Executive producers Peter M. Brant, Joseph Allen. Screenplay Barbara Turner and Susan J. Emshwiller, based on the book "Jackson Pollock: An American Saga" by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith. Cinematographer Lisa Rinzler. Editor Kathryn Himoff. Costumes David C. Robinson. Music Jeff Beal. Production design Mark Friedberg. Running time: 1 hour, 57 minutes
Review written and copyrighted 2001 by Michael F. Nyiri