Pollock
In the film Pollock the artist is shown as being neurotic and having trouble dealing with normal life. Jackson Pollock is shown in the film to be suffering from bipolar mood swings that are intensified by his abuse of alcohol. This film portrays Jackson Pollock to be a selfish man that needs to be cared for by someone. In the beginning of the film, Pollock is cared for by his brother and later the burden of dealing with his outbursts is taken on by his wife Lee Krasner. Through out the film Pollock’s outbursts of emotion and inappropriate behavior is tolerated by his family and friends. He acts very self absorbed and proceeds to only want to discuss his accomplishments when visited by family members he hasn’t seen in awhile. Pollock fits the stereotype of a mad genius perfectly in this film. Pollock’s works themselves express his strong emotions and impulse behaviors. His style of getting into the process of the action of painting and creating work was very involved and in ways seemed to calm him mentally. In the movie he treats everyone badly when experiencing an emotion outburst and thinks nothing of destroying things. In the film when upset at a movie director’s comment he proceeds to flip over the entire thanksgiving dinner with no thought of anyone else. Although when upset by a critics opinion of his painting he brings it into the room in a fit and gets his paint out to destroy it but stops. At this point he was very angry and drunk but can’t bring himself to destroy his own work. Pollock was a good example of how the mental illness was helpful to his work because he seems in the film to be a disturbed mental state when he gets into his painting. His wife comments in the movie that he must think about his work before creating it but Pollock seems to run more emotional impulses rather than structured thought.
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