Pollock: Life Of A Mentally Ill Artist

Movie Review Institution: Course: Instructor: Name: Date: Movie Review Pollock (2000) by Ed Harris The film Pollock (2000) presents the life of a mentally ill artist Jackson Pollock (Ed Harris). It is a biography of Jackson Pollock, an American painter. The film begins with a scene depicting Pollock's late life as he autographs an article in Life Magazine that made his paintings famous. The next scenes are flashbacks of Pollock's lean years when he met and married Krasner in Greenwich Village and their painting work in their studio. As the film progresses, the couple moves to East Hampton in New York and shows the rise and fall of Pollock as an artistic painter. Generally, the film focuses on Pollock’s personal and artistic struggles. Throughout the film, Ed Harris presents the commendable performance both as “Pollock” and the film’s director. He effectively captures and illustrates the most defining aspects of the Pollock character. These include his emotional tribulations as an alcoholic and also the noble artist in him. Harris perfects the character of Pollock to create a thorough and memorable picture of the genius artist and flawed human being. The film's cinematography offers great opportunities to see artist Pollock in action as he gradually converts a plain white canvas into a beautiful artwork. However, there are several shortcomings that arise throughout the film. As a director, Ed Harris failed to have a precise character development structure. For example, he does not present Pollock’s previous life that turned him into the drunk and a monster in the film. Most of the scenes depict the obvious misery and desolation of Pollock and thus unable to affect the viewers’ emotions. Again, the film appears to be too long and with unnecessarily many characters. H...