Pollock

Pros: Ed Harris. Having the guts to show that art is work.
Cons: Spousal abuse. Pee'ing in a fireplace. Much drunkeness.

Today I finally had a chance to sit down and watch the recent film on the life and work of Jackson Pollock. Who? I can hear some of you say out there. And stereotype? What stereotype? Well, namely, that the true artist is half-mad, drunk, ...

Pros: Ed Harris and Marcia Gay Harden's convincing performances
Cons: Weak script

Ed Harris stars as abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock in Pollock and while he is convincing in this role, the film (which Harris also directed and co-produced) unfortunately falls into standard Hollywood "biopic" trappings. The ...

Pros: Brutally truthful and honest. Great performances by all.
Cons: Painful to watch Pollock's descent into alcoholism and despair.

This is a fascinating, albeit painful story of Jackson Pollock, one of the most innovative expressionists of his time. It is truthful and gritty. We are privileged to witness the rise of this great artist, but as life can be cruel, we also are witness...

Pros: Harris, Harden, wise look at Jackson Pollock
Cons: Sad tone may be construed as depressing

"Pollock" is the sad tale of the arc of the career of Jackson Pollock, an artist who helped revolutionize the world of art with paintings classified today as abstract expressionist. In this film, we see Pollock (Ed Harris) go from starving artist to...

Pros: powerful performances, moving glimpse of a troubled genius
Cons: the down side of the artist: dysfunctional behavior

This is one of the few movies I have seen in the past year that will stay with me, probably forever. A part of it will play over and over in my head, in much the way the painter's work affected me many years ago as an artist.

This is not to...

Pros: a startling recreation of a great American artist
Cons: only a partial tale.

This is a film that I had wanted to see since it came out. I have always enjoyed Jackson Pollock's works at various museums around the country. He is one of the more original of American painters. He was also renown as a rather intense...

Pros: A wonderful, emotionally stirring and thought provoking film.
Cons: But it may not be for everyone.... but then, to each his own, right?

Sometimes one sees a film that really hits close to home, a film that really hits close to the soul, somewhere deep down inside. Tonight, for me, Pollock was that film. To be honest, this film has left me shaken and scared, sitting at awe at ...

Pros: Excellent biopic of great artist with superb acting, writing and directing
Cons: Some may find movie too intense or depressing

Note: This review was written while the film was in theaters.

Pollock is an important, intense movie that moves the viewer in so many ways. Ed Harris’ labor of love has come to the screen in full glory. Harris directed and stars as...

Pros: Superb performances and some magical moments to savor.
Cons: Overly familiar, drunk artist scenes.

Pollock is not a film likely to be at the top of your must see list. Perhaps if you're a big fan of Ed Harris or interested in Jackson Pollock you've anxiously been waiting for this film to be at a theater near you. More likely however you've heard...

Pros: Harris and Harden really are spectacular together. The supporting cast is also strong.
Cons: Editing problems created the interesting duality of a dragging film that jumps around too much.

It has been said that this biopic of painter Jackson Pollock's life had been something of a pet project and dream of director and star Ed Harris. It can be interesting to learn how some of these obsessions with filmmakers get their origin. For Harris...

Pros: The cast, the film!
Cons: Some intrusive touches

"How do you know when you're finished making love?" -Jackson Pollock to a LIFE Magazine reporter on recognizing when you've completed a painting

Jackson Pollock's "making love" quote is famous, but in practically the same breath, he...

Pros: Honest depiction of the ground-breaking artist
Cons: Intense and disturbing scenes may be too much for some

Great artists fascinate us. The flip side of their genius is often mental illness, addiction, or just out and out horrible behavior. Film makers are drawn to these fascinating subjects. Ed Harris, star and director of Pollock, was drawn into...

Pros: Ed Harris (both acting and directing), Marcia Gay-Harden
Cons: Conventional, uninventive script; film is too long

As someone who feels comfortable referring to himself as an artist, I find myself continually inspired by the works of other artists. This explains my fascination with movies, with music, with books, with television, with paintings and print work, with...

Pros: A noble effort.
Cons: Characters don't develop well, kind of a snooze.

This could have been a great movie - this was a very exciting time in American art. During WWII, the artists and art lovers of that era were fleeing Europe which was the hotbed of modern art, particularly Paris, and seeking refuge from Hitler in New...

Pros: several Oscar-calibre performances
Cons: simplistic, sequential screenplay and lack of character insight

Actor/director Ed Harris's wrenching study of Jackson Pollock (1912-1956), one of the greatest American painters of the 20th century, reveals him as a complex, pathological alcoholic. In the late 1940s, Pollock thrust "splatter" abstractionism into...