Pollock (film)

Pollock is a 2000 biographical film which tells the life story of American painter Jackson Pollock. It stars Ed Harris, Marcia Gay Harden, Jennifer Connelly, Robert Knott, Bud Cort, Molly Regan and Sada Thompson, and was directed by Harris.

Ed Harris received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his portrayal of Pollock. Marcia Gay Harden won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for portraying Lee Krasner, Pollock's wife. The film was a long-term personal project for Harris based on his previous reading of Pollock's biography.

Plot

The film begins showing the abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) autographing illustrations in a copy of Life magazine for a woman at an art exhibit in 1950 — the exhibit which made him famous.

The film flashes back to nine years earlier (1941). At this time Jackson is usually drunk and makes a living by exhibiting a painting in occasional group art shows. He is living with his brother Sande (and Sande's wife) in a tiny New York apartment. Sande's wife tells him that they are having a baby, hinting to Jackson that he should move out. Soon afterward, Jackson meets artist Lee Krasner, who takes an interest in him. Later, at dinner, he learns that his brother is moving to Connecticut to take a job building army gliders to avoid a rumored draft of married men not involved in war production. (Sande's wife refers to Jackson's 4F Selective Service status, which exempts Jackson from the draft.) Unable to handle conflicting feelings, Jackson goes on a drinking binge and Lee and Sande find him in a disheveled state. Lee learns from Sande that Jackson is diagnosed as "clinically neurotic" (he was actually bipolar); still, Lee takes him home and decides to be his manager.