Jackson Pollock: Love and Death on Long Island Movie Review

This BBC documentary, though extremely brief at 46 minutes, quickly cuts to the heart of Jackson Pollock in ways that his biopic, Pollock, tend to gloss over.

Most notable is Pollock's actual desire for celebrity, played down in the Ed Harris movie. According to the bevy of friends and relatives interviewed for the film (including everyone in his life (and after it) from Lee Krasner to Ed Harris), he was infatuated with celebrity -- collecting his infamous Life magazine profiles by stacks and stacks. The role of the film made to document the minutiae of his work is also implicated in his return to alcoholism after two years of sobriety.

Jackson Pollock doesn't add an awful lot of knowledge to the body of information available about the enigmatic artist, but it's definitely a must-have for Pollock enthusiasts, if for no other reason than to get long and close looks at a number of his most famous works. (Fun fact: Some interpret his drip paintings as landscapes -- check out the evidence on the disc.)