Product Details

• Actors: Jackson Pollock, Ed Harris, Ruth Kligman, Lee Krasner, Neil Pearson
• Directors: Teresa Griffiths
• Producers: Teresa Griffiths, Andrea Miller
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Homevision
• VHS Release Date: September 21, 2001
• Run Time: 46 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0780023390
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #291,506 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Although it begins with the police report of his death in a 1956 car accident, this BBC effort quickly backtracks to the birth of Jackson Pollock's fame seven years earlier with the memorable Life magazine question: "Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?" While the answer is still hotly debated, the fact that he became the most famous painter of that time is not. This 46-minute documentary concentrates on the intense glare of celebrity and its effect on Pollock's work and life. Because he allowed documentary makers unprecedented access to his process, this film is loaded with images of Pollock at work on his physically active--and therefore dramatically engaging--style of drip painting. His own voiceovers as well as those of his wife and champion, fellow painter Lee Krasner, are intercut with more recent interviews with poets, friends, biographers, and his lover, Ruth Kligman, who survived the deadly crash. Joining his old acquaintances is Ed Harris, director and star of the 1999 film Pollock, who speaks to the paralyzing combination of self-doubt and alcoholism that proved this artist's undoing. --Kimberly Heinrichs

Product Description

In the late forties Life magazine featured a shy, brooding artist with a cigarette jutting from his mouth as he stood dwarfed by a canvas displaying a nearly indescribable orchestration of chaos. Overnight, millions of Americans received this image in their homes and businesses, and the legend of Jackson Pollock was born. Soon his controversial work and defiant attitude made him at once the star and the scourge of the art world. In the end, his tragic death at the top of his career, cemented his image forever as the James Dean of artists. This documentary traces the life and work of Jackson Pollock through revealing interviews and archival footage. Among the voices that relate the legacy are Lee Krasner, Pollock's wife and fellow artist, and Ed Harris (director and star of the film Pollock).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally a Pollock movie that keeps us awake!, October 12, 2000

By 

Michael Freitag (Joliet, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jackson Pollock - Love and Death on Long Island [VHS] (VHS Tape)

WOW! Though this is not actually the movie Pollock, and actually a 40 minute biography/precursor to the movie, it was wonderful! It had several interviews with freinds, fellow artists and other misc. aquaintences of Jackson's in it from Ruth Klingman to Kirk Varnedoe. They were short to the point and all very interesting, especially the Cedar Bar bar tender stories! In addition it had footage from the famous Hans Namuth movies of him at work and when he painted on glass while the camera was underneath(very hard to find footage!) This is a must to any Pollock freak. Caution there is some language unsuitable for classroom usage. Well worth the money if you like JP.

5.0 out of 5 stars 'The dot of birth...the dot of birth' -Arshile Gorky, September 19, 2010

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Rene Trujillo "SUNofMAN, Silverlake" (los angeles, ca United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Jackson Pollock - Love & Death on Long Island (DVD)

'The dot of birth!'
I used this quote in reference to Gorky as a starting point because they were contemporaries and were both on the verge of creating & contributing to something original; ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM. I enjoyed this short docu on this most important artist esp for us American painters. Painting up to then was dominated by the Europeans and we needed a new paradigm in order to respond to. Pollack took that 'dot' of reference and exploded it like atomic energy, like Jazz, like the horizontalness of the southwest...like the Navaho sand painters! A white shaman of virtuosity! An American original! Which exemplifies and satisfies the American 'individual' spirit! The old man in this piece is right; energy is the key to get up and do it again! Energy* pure and unequivocal energy!! AE is painting the inner world, the unconscious as Pollack would refer to again and again. (he was a Jungian) Paint what you fEEl, not what you sEE! Jackson tap into the collective unconscious of the American dreamer. Keep in mind the times; American interest in space flight, atomic energy, the vastness of the west of which he was from. American capitalism! Improvisational Jazz. A key component on his methodology! Now we've had 70 years more or less of this type of creating and the problem with painting from the unconscious or automatic imagery is it tends to repeat itself which I believed troubled Pollack. (I've given them all they want, what else do they want! - Pollack) One has to consider and incorporate change as Miles Davis ingeniously does and Wynton Marsalis does not!

'Light is action at a distant!' -Merleau-Ponty

4.0 out of 5 stars drama seekers, February 11, 2010

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ellery maze (Ladysmith, British Columbia, CA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Jackson Pollock - Love and Death on Long Island [VHS] (VHS Tape)

As an artist myself - I wish there was more emphasis on Jacksons actual creative process and the paintings themselves...instead of the drama of his personal life. However, I'm glad I own it and enjoy watching it.