Pollock

Jackson Pollock was a miserable, wretched bastard. Jackson Pollock knew he was a miserable, wretched bastard. He amplified and exploited this by drinking to excess (he was an alcoholic) and by thriving on his manic-depressive character.

Which means, of course, he was a genius.

Or was he?

Ed Harris would have you believe so. Harris, who plays Pollock in what will no doubt be an award-nominated film, wants you to believe Pollock was at once tragic and brilliant. He--Pollock--died in a car crash while drunk. A suitable ending, perhaps, for Pollock. But, unfortunately, he took a young woman with him in the process.

Which makes him what he was: A miserable, wretched bastard. But more than just that.

More on that momentarily.

I noted previously Ed Harris stars in "Pollock". He also directs. Harris is a very talented actor, and, now, a talented director. Because he is he is able to show Jackson Pollock not what he was in life, but what his life resulted in: A painter of unmatched proportions.

"Pollock", given its subject matter, could easily fall prey to the tragic-figure-as-victim-syndrome such films and movies as this one often do. That it doesn't owes much Harris, both in front of and behind the camera. (There is a story that Harris' father saw the book this film is based on, noted how much his son looked like Pollock, and gave the book to Ed, who promptly commissioned a screenplay. A screenplay that lingered in development Hell for more than a decade. True or not, it only serves to add to what Jackson Pollock represented: Constant struggle.)

As Pollock Ed Harris brings a certain energy to the film: Pollock was a depressed soul. "Pollock" is not. It is not because of how Harris chose to present him, from beginning to savage end. Jackson Pollock may have been talented as a painter, but he was also a certain screw-up: When Peggy Guggenheim (Amy Madigan) comes calling on Pollock, only to find him not there, Pollock's career as artist is almost terminated.

It isn't much, this sequence, but it says so much about Pollock: He seemed determined to destroy himself, to prevent himself from becoming what he was. In the end he succeeded as artist, and in destroying himself.

His career as artist did succeed. In spite of him and because of Lee Krasner (Marcia Gay Harden), who knew talent when she saw it.

I was told that "Pollock" is Ed Harris' directorial debut. If this is true I am very impressed: The work is sure-footed, self-assured, insightful, confident in execution, and, simply, brilliant.

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