Pollock (Special Edition)
|
List Price: Our Price: $7.88 You Save: $7.11 (47%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $4.50 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Canada
Movie Reviews of Pollock (Special Edition)
Movie Review: An interesting look at a complex man
Summary: 5 Stars
Jackson Pollock was a complex man. He was the youngest of five boys, born to a domineering mother who was never happy and a father who tried to provide for them. As an adult, his paintings would take him from obscurity to fame, although it did not happen right away. Yet, before he found fame and after, he seemed hell bent on his own destruction. This film took Ed Harris 15 years to get to the screen. He called it a labor of love and it is worth a look. The relationship with his mother is never clearly known, but the few scenes she is in, there is tension. His relationship with his wife is a roller coaster. After they married and movied out to Long Island, there was a period of about two years that he sobered up and was prolific in his work. But as he found fame, the pressure became too much. He started reading his press clippings and things with his wife and his family went down hill from there. He was a womanizer both before and during his marriage and an alcoholic. Lee Krasner, his wife refused to have children with him because he was hard enough to take care of. The film is the study of a human being sttruggling to find his own identity, and at the same time so consumed with his demons that he is impossible to live with or deal with. When many would have given up, Lee Krasner stuck with him and loved him. You can see where the film is going and how it is going to end, but don't let that discourage you from this interesting film, filled with great actors. You can tell by the detail that is put in the film, that Harris truly loved every minute of doing it.Movie Review: Ed Harris Nails Jackson Pollock
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been a fan of abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock's for decades. I've read a great deal about him and studied his work carefully, seeing the originals whenever feasible. Ed Harris achieves the seemingly impossible, he becomes Pollock for this film. The only time Pollock was in control of his life was when he was painting. Otherwise, he was a disaster with massive psychiatric and alcoholism problems. Harris conveys this perfectly and even had me convinced that he too must be painter in his private life. All his movements and expressions when Pollock paints are dead on perfect imitations of what painters really do. I've read less about Pollock's wife, Lee Krasner, but I'm familiar with her work and how she kept Pollock going as long as he did. Thus, I don't know how close Harden is to the real Krasner but she does an outstanding job of convincing me that she is Krasner. Actually, Pollock's life should come as no suprise. If you've really looked at those paintings, the person who painted them couldn't have possibly lived what anyone else considers a regular life. I suppose that some may complain that the film itself is a little too linear, too standard biopic fare. Admittedly, it does not open up any new territory in biopic film. However, the real challenge in biography is to nail the subject and boy, has that been achieved here. I can't even imagine anyone else coming close to nailing Pollock the way Harris has here.Movie Review: Ed Harris should direct more movies
Summary: 5 Stars
In cool, clear, stream-lined way, Ed Harris gets across a fascinating point: the artist Jackson Pollock's reputation was created by a very small group of people, Pollock did not respect these people, and eventually this undermined his confidence in his own paintings. This point is put across subtly but eventually overwhelmingly by Ed Harris the director and actor, (along with the effective screen play and editing), amidst the ongoing scenes of Pollock's personal instability. You don't have to like Pollock's work to enjoy this film, it is, I thought, a film about being an artist in general, especially being an artist in the U.S. of America, where so much of the culture is devoted to buying and selling and so little to art. Who should the artist believe, the critics or himself? And if the latter, how long can he/she keep it up when the praise comes from people who live off art rather than either those create it or the long-lost general public? Especially if you're as ... up as Pollock and producing paintings at the far end of the fringe.The role of Pollock's wife, in recognizing Pollock's uniqueness, and her own position as one able to highlight and promote that uniqueness, is also very well done.
The viewer might actually like Pollock's work a little more after seeing this film, but he/she will certainly be more contemptuous of modern criticism's attempts to create new art forms in order to have a livelihood.
Movie Review: The tortured soul of a great artist
Summary: 5 Stars
American painter Jackson Pollock (1912-56) was a revolutionary figure in 20th century art. The film "Pollock" tells the story of his successes, setbacks, and inner torment. Directed by Ed Harris, who also plays the title role, this is very effective portrait of the man and the artist.Excellent performances are also turned in by the supporting cast. Marcia Gay Harden is amazing as Lee Krasner, Pollock's wife and fellow painter; Harden is intelligent, sexy, passionate, and driven in this difficult role. Another standout performance comes from Amy Madigan, as art patron Peggy Guggenheim; Madigan creates an intriguingly creepy portrait of a powerful woman.
But this is Harris' film, and he is triumphant in the title role. His Pollock is the quintessential "tortured artist." But Harris rises above this cultural stereotype to create a complex, unsettling portrait of Pollock. Particularly magical are the scenes where Harris/Pollock is painting; these scenes are superbly complemented by Jeff Beal's musical score. And Harris is truly frightening when Pollock's inner rage finally spills out.
Ultimately, I see Ed Harris' "Pollock" as an important meditation on the role of a visionary artist in a society that is obsessed with consumption and profit. If you are interested in modern art or in good filmmaking, check out "Pollock."
Movie Review: Wow
Summary: 5 Stars
I don't believe I've seen a better performance from anyone than by Ed Harris in Pollock. Harris could retire tomorrow, and this one film would assure him a place as one of the great actors and directors of our time.It's a movie about an artist, and it's a movie about a drunk. The drunk and the artist happen to be the same man, and the movie doesn't make the mistake of equating the one with the other. Many drunks (who also claim--sometime correctly, sometimes not--to be writers or artists) blame their "higher sensibility and/or sensitivity" to the rest of the world on their drunkenness, when in reality they're likely just plain ill. Stephen King talks about this misinterpretation of alcoholism in his book On Writing.
Much of the emotional impact of the movie stems directly from Pollock's struggle with his inner demons, and the struggle of his friends and family with those same demons. I didn't walk away from this movie with respect for Pollock as a man, although I'm sympathetic to his illness. I certainly left the movie with a respect for him as a man dedicated to his art, and an enormous amount of respect for his apparently long-suffering wife and her devotion to both the man and his art.
This is a movie worth owning, worth savoring with repeated viewings, and worth sharing with friends who might not have already seen it.