IMDb > Pollock (2000)
Pollock
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Pollock (2000) -- A film about the life and career of the American painter, Jackson Pollock.
Pollock (2000) -- ZuGuide.com - Trailer (Flash)
Pollock (2000) -- MovieMaze.de - Trailer (Quicktime)
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Overview

User Rating:
7.1/10   8,931 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 9% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Ed Harris
Writers (WGA):
Steven Naifeh (book) and
Gregory White Smith (book) ...
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Contact:
View company contact information for Pollock on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
18 May 2001 (Poland) more
Genre:
Biography | Drama more
Tagline:
A True Portrait of Life and Art.
Plot:
A film about the life and career of the American painter, Jackson Pollock. full summary | add synopsis
Awards:
Won Oscar. Another 2 wins & 5 nominations more
User Comments:
Jackson Pollock: An illustrated study on how to really paint oneself into a corner more (130 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Ed Harris ... Jackson Pollock

Marcia Gay Harden ... Lee Krasner

Tom Bower ... Dan Miller

Jennifer Connelly ... Ruth Kligman

Bud Cort ... Howard Putzel

John Heard ... Tony Smith

Val Kilmer ... Willem DeKooning

Robert Knott ... Sande Pollock

David Leary ... Charles Pollock

Amy Madigan ... Peggy Guggenheim
Sally Murphy ... Edith Metzger
Molly Regan ... Arloie Pollock
Stephanie Seymour ... Helen Frankenthaler
Matthew Sussman ... Reuben Kadish

Jeffrey Tambor ... Clem Greenberg
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Additional Details

MPAA:
Rated R for language and brief sexuality.
Runtime:
122 min | Germany:132 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Dolby Digital
Company:
Brant-Allen more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Ed Harris had to gain about 30 lbs. to do the later scenes in the movie when Jackson Pollock is an alcoholic. more
Goofs:
Anachronisms: We see a post-1958 Chevrolet truck (with four headlights) when Pollock takes the sick dog to the veterinarian in 1956. more
Quotes:
Lee Krasner: Jackson Pollock, I'm Lee Krasner. I thought I knew all the outstanding artists in New York and I don't know Jackson Pollock. more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Sean Hayes/Shaggy (#26.12)" (2001) more
Soundtrack:
He's Funny That Way more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
19 out of 22 people found the following comment useful.
Jackson Pollock: An illustrated study on how to really paint oneself into a corner, 17 February 2001
8/10

As heavy and darkly textured a film as any one of his masterpieces, director and star Ed Harris takes us into the tortured, inebriated world of abstract painter Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)and leaves us assured that Pollock is a certifiable candidate for the Hall of Fame "self-destructive genius" award, joining the illustrious, besotted ranks of Ernest Hemingway, Hank Williams, John Barrymore, Helen Morgan, et al. True, when has Hollywood ever bothered to put on cinematic display a gifted artist who wasn't a poster child for Betty Ford? We usually reserve well-adjusted geniuses for quieter, more tasteful retrospectives on cable TV.

Harris spares no time in letting us know that Pollock is a crude, mindless, gifted mess veering toward unmitigated disaster, taking everything and everyone down with him as he does. Amazingly, in his brutally brief 44 years, Pollock manages to find, with a man-child brilliance, his life's destiny as a master of artistic expression and interpretation and the accidental inventor of the drip-action technique. Harris painstakingly chronicles the little known details of this wretched genius who somehow learned how to free up his own artistic mind while confine the rest of his world to an absolute hell.

The actor/director wisely manages to avoid most of the pitfalls characteristic of these grand bios of agony and angst. In a stark, no-holds-barred performance, he lays the character out like it is -- unredeeming, hopeless, desperate, supremely gifted, yet intriguing. Its a daunting, fully etched performance that, in lesser hands, could have been one long cliche. He doesn't toy with the audience by thinking had the right circumstances come along for Pollock (and they DID come along with wife and caretaker, Lee Krasner) he could have somehow prevailed. Harris is quite believable, losing himself in the painter while showing off his researched skills with a brush. It's a true labor of love and it shows.

Marcia Gay Harden's self-sacrificing Krasner breathes life not only into Pollock but the film itself. Harden, in a rich, flashy portrayal, is mesmerizing as one artist compelled to save another, giving interesting dimension to a woman whose reasons are not totally pure and selfless. Amy Madigan (Harris' wife in real life) makes the most of her few scenes as the eccentric museum maven Peggy Guggenheim, while Val Kilmer appears in an odd, thankless cameo. Harris and Harden were both deservedly Oscar-nominated for their work here.

Yet, problems do creep into the film. While Harris pours his heart and soul into this show (a ten-year pet project, so they say), Pollock's "before life" is never set up to demonstrate why Pollock became such an inveterate drunk and monster. As such, little sympathy can be mustered, holding viewers at bay. Moreover, a couple of manipulative scenes also seem to be thrown in merely to punctuate the already well-worn theme of Pollock's misery and desolation. Less is more in this case. For the most parts, however, this little film succeeds.

Until now, little attention has been paid to the artist Jackson Pollock. Harris rectifies this injustice, as reprehensible as some of it is, with unsparing honesty, dedication and precision.

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Jackson Pollock : Brilliant artist and murderer brandmerk
Family dinner drumming scene rlnovak
Who the #$+% Is Jackson Pollock? ideaz7821
Marcia's Oscar fletch37
Soundtrack horrible jesus_sanchezz
What's Pollock's Appeal Ryb33338
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