Pollock reflection

After your further reflections on "Pollock" and thoughts on how it relates to "Basquiat," choose a scene from "Pollock" and try analyzing it according to exercise # 2 in your textbook on p. 86 (briefly discussed in class Sept. 8).

Pollock and Basquiat were very similar artists, in the fact that they both had some sort of mental illness, and they both had a serious addiction to drugs or alcohol. The way the movie portrayed their lives and the point of view through which it was shown differed greatly though. Pollock seemed to talk with his eyes, and said very little to even his closest friends and family. We never really knew what he was thinking, or where he drew inspiration from. He just seemed to think for days or weeks or months and jumped into his art head on. With Basquiat, we were able to understand his way of thinking a little better by being shown his state of mind on drugs, and how his art came to life after his "episodes".

The very last scene where Pollock drives his car off the road struck me instantly as we were watching it. I think this might have been the one time the audience felt what Pollock was feeling. Music and sound had previously been incorporated into moments of distress, or happiness, but in this intense event, there was absolutely no music. Complete silence, which was maybe what Pollock wanted all along. His life had been filled with hardships and disappointments, and all he wanted was time to reflect and think on that. His heavy drinking and depressing moods took him to an altered state that put his life, and the life of others, in danger. But after all he had been through, worrying about 2 young girls in his car would have been the last thing on his mind. The silence of that scene let the viewer in for that one time into the mind of Pollock.