This is a quietly excellent film, clearly a labour of love for Harris, and far superior to much of the current Hollywood product. It is aimed at educated adults. The film is the life story of acclaimed abstract expressionist artist Jackson Pollock (Ed Harris), including his surrender to alcohol which led to his untimely death.Pollock is a superior biopic about an artist, one that really does try seriously to find a way of conveying the wellspring of creativity. The uncompromising Pollock is played with ferocity by Harris, and his supporting cast do the picture justice. Apart from its other virtues, the film sheds light on the bitchiness and jealousies rampant in the art world - and how some artists play the games of that world more readily than others.

I'm always curious about movies based on an artiste's life. Provided that they do justice in presenting an as accurate as possible overview of the artiste's life (taking the director's artistic liberty into account) and introducing some of his/her work to filmviewers, these films often fascinate me. Movies like 'Frida', 'The Hours' and 'Finding Neverland' rank among my favourite and I can easily add Ed Harris's 'Pollock' to that list.Ed Harris shows great understanding and appreciation of the late artist's life and works. He mentioned in an interview that he's been working for 9 years to get the film made. It all started when his father had given him a book on Jackson Pollack as a birthday gift. Since then, Harris has been intrigued by his works and finally he's gotten to make the movie.As director Harris shows dedication and devotion to his work. He tries to be as true to history as possible without turning this into a documentary and I think he did a splendid job in introducing his works to viewers. His execution is very subtle. The score is used very subtly as the music is toned down most of the time. The cinematography and editing are solid. There are no lavish sets or spectacular special effects which works to 'Pollock's benefit because it captures the rawness of the time and of the hardship and poverty the artist experienced. Harris also effectively portrays the relationship between Jackson and his wife Lee, his struggle with alcoholism and with meeting up to expectations of others and his hunger for fame.Ed Harris was perhaps a little too old to play Pollock but this is one flaw that is easily overlooked as Harris immerses himself into the character. He is brilliant as the shy painter, the alcoholic loudmouth, the quietly loving husband and the passionate artist. Marcia Gay Harden is spellbinding as Lee Krasner, who very much functions as a driving force behind the artist's work. she tries to keep him guarded and motivated but soon despair gets the better of him. Amy Madigan is superb as Peggy Guggenheim and Jennifer Connelly leaves a mark in a brief role.'Pollock' does right by providing a general overview of a great artist's life and works. Many seem to disregard it as a typical biopic but I disagree to that statement. If by typical biopic one is referring to a birth to death account then this is certainly not it. Pollock was a complex man who lived a complex life. He seemed most satisfied when he was painting for himself but things changed when he was required to paint for the world (well, America, in this case). I believe this movie has more to offer than a typical biopic.

"Pollock" suffers the fate of many a biopic about famous artists. It makes the mistake of thinking that people who produce interesting art are by extension going to be interesting themselves, and they're so frequently not. Usually, they're messed up, but in the same old tired ways in which everyone else is messed up, and I leave a film like "Pollock" wishing I had just looked at some Jackson Pollock paintings instead of spending time in the man's head.But all that criticism aside, "Pollock" is a fairly accomplished film, and it's clear that director/star Ed Harris cared strongly about his subject. His performance is good, but by definition one-note and a bit obtuse, because Pollock himself was apparently those things. It's Marcia Gay Harden, in the obligatory and thankless suffering consort role that all biopics have, who gives the most impressive performance.Grade: B

Pollock: A movie definitely appreciated by artists; even converted some!As I see many movie reviews on the movie Pollock, there was one in IMDb that the critic admitted that he was moved to start painting like Pollock after seeing the movie.As an artist, I still enjoy continued repeated watching of this film. I wonder now how many people that view it and especially the critics, do they paint? How would a non-artist view this film as compared to accomplished artists? I ask people sometimes, have you ever painted? Done any creative art? If they answer no, I ask why not? The reasons are always the same. "I don't think I'm good enough. I can only draw stick people. My art teacher in school told me that my art was not good enough." I wonder what the world of people who might discover that they could be great creative artists would do if there was a weekend event to just demonstrate up close how to start and learn, that many might become regular serious artists.As an artist of sorts my entire life, award winning astronomy photographer, more recent my technical large pastel sketches of the sun and moon are featured in NASA web sites, I can say that Harris' portrayal of Pollock's style of painting is well acted. [*POSSIBLE SPOILER FOLLOWS in next three sentences] The moment of discovering the drip technique that Harris enacts, I believe may be quite real to the history books. That scene in the movie brings tears to my eyes. The moment of great artistic discovery! Those who have never painted might not get that scene. I feel that non-artists do not appreciate that moment in the film. I am sure artists get it though. This is what bothers me about the general populace. They know only to watch a film to be entertained but they may not know anything about the creative process or how to experience it by creating it for themselves.I believe that if this movie did anything, I could care less what critics here say about it not being anything more than another copy-work biopic style. Their comments are worthless to an artist or anyone who appreciates the 'artful history' that Harris enacts to tell of this great figure in modern American abstract expressionist painting. I believe that Harris did a great service to the average movie-goers that maybe just a few might pick up a paint brush and learn to be a creative artists for the first time in their life.I felt that all the actors did a great work on this film as I personally worked as a background extra actor on a recent film set and brushed paths with Marcia Gay Harden. I commended her for her award for acting as Lee Krazner, Pollock's wife.I was first alerted to the film after seeing Ed Harris interviewed by Charlie Rose about the film making before the films release here in Portland Oregon in February 2001.Mark Seibold, retired artist-astronomy educator, Portland Oregon