Pollock

Movie Spoiler Warning!

Finally, after several years wait, last evening I watched Pollock. Starring Ed Harris, Pollock tells the story of the life of Jackson Pollock, the well-known artist.

The movie didn't disappoint. It didn't hurt that I enjoy Ed Harris' work, and Pollock's even more. Whenever the opportunity presents itself, I make a beeline for a Pollock.

I did find Pollock disturbing, though. It wasn't that the movie was dark, or that I had quite a few problems understanding the dialogue, or that the artist's life was a troubled one. The first was appropriate, the second annoying but workable and the third I already knew from previous study. The disturbing part was Harris' portrayal of Pollock. It was......I hesitate to say it, but it was familiar.

I'm tempted to say that Pollock was a disturbed man and write it off right there, but I don't know that that does it justice.

In the movie, Pollock's family, especially his mother, were all disturbing in their own rights. The mother seemed entirely oblivious to Jackson, whether it be his failures or his successes.

The more I contemplate the movie, the more disturbing it gets. From Pollock's girlfriend, and later, wife Lee Krasner's seeming inability to talk about anything other than Jackson or his success, to his mother's ambivalence, to Pollock's entire focus on HIS art, to nearly every other person around him with their own disturbing character traits, the movie is almost a study in dysfunction.

On purpose I'm ignoring the cliche of the tragic artist figure. That's not the point for me. It was the way I cringed when Krasner read Pollock an art critic's review, or the way I expected Pollock to grab the turkey carving implements and become violent. It was the display of entirely inappropriate behaviour that didn't make the perpetrator a complete pariah. It was the overturning of the dinner table, and the reaction from those seated. It was the mother at the dinner table peacefully eating whilst ignoring her youngest son, who was sitting next to her, having a break down.

It was Pollock adjusting the radio to his pleasure, entirely irrespective to the wishes of anyone else. That really is it. That's the nutshell. The core.