Films Analysis Essay on Big Eyes and Pollock

Big Eyes Movie

The theme of this movie is art. The female character, Margaret, seems to be more of the success of the thriving art business involving her new husband. By the look of things, Walter Keane, Margaret's husband, seems to be taking advantage of her gift of painting to gain wealth and fame. He is undermining Margaret's decisions on how to run the business even though she is the one holding the talent of art.

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The movie begins when Margaret is frustrated with her old life. She is seen piling some suitcases together with her little daughter in agigantic fancy car ready to flee her frustrating marriage. She wanted to move to San Francisco in such for a fresh start. There she meets Walter Keane. Form first site they seem to like each other, and they both set off for a date. After that, subsequent dinner dates follow and they both get involved.

From the beginning, Margaret wanted a new life, and she got it. Little did she know what was bound to happen to her? As Walter's character comes out, Margaret is yet to learn her husband better. She is however to discover the worst side of him. When at a local jazz club, Walter being a born promoter and a big talker, he convinces the owner of the club to allow them to display two of their paintings for marketing so that they are bought. At first, this action did not seem to be an issue until Walter noticed how much talented her wife was and how productive her work could be.

At that moment, Margaret's business took a good start. Walter felt ignored for his effort which played a role in sparking Margaret's art business. But he thought it was harmless for it would not be misunderstood again. When he was ignored for the second time, he was not happy, and he confronted Margaret for that. Here is when Margaret's life starts to fall apart once again. He undermined her telling her that people would be interested in lady paintings. He also brought Margaret's weakness of not talking about her work, and it would not matter if the pictures were painted by him or her so long as they get sold and profits made based on the fact that they were still together.

For Walter, this seemed like an excellent opportunity for him. As time goes by, Walter takes over the business building a character for himself as a famous artist while Margaret watches from a back seat devastated playing along with Walter's plans. He attends events, opens a gallery under his name and attends talk shows talking about how he started at a low point being affected by the European war. Walter brought out that he was not well off with the conditions of orphans left behind and that was the main inspiration for him to paint pictures of big-eyed children. All these were lies as the initial success behind the art business was Margaret who was helpless as he needed Walter for a significant breakthrough for her own industry.

Pollock Movie

In this movie "Pollock," the character Pollock has the behavior of keeping his connections and his artwork apart. From the unfolding events in the film, the central theme seems not to be about art. The subject comes out apparently to be that of work. It mainly talks about the difficulties of how much Pollock has to labor in the process making his paintings together with how he has to labor to self-sustain himself in everyday life. Pollock sees that his life is a burden since he has self-tortured mind on how his life is not on the right track. Due to the hard labor he does, he has a hung-over body because of fatigue.

The movie "Pollock" is an exciting, captivating move through the character Pollock is always depressed and not confident with his life. The presence of Pollock's wife (Lee Krasner) who is more courageous and vibrant in her thinking, seemingly fearless, counteracts Pollock's character of always looking at the wrong side of life giving the movie more buzz and hum. The captivating nature of the film also relies on the presence of Clement Greenberg an art critic (who was responsible for validating the Abstract Expressionism), the millionaire art collector Peggy Guggenheim who was the art patron and collected painters and paintings, and the presence of the New York art world post-war. One of Pollock's paintings was traded for about $56 bill at one of the stores making him famous as he found himself published in a life magazine. Things were taking a horizontal direction in Pollock's life.

The principal author of the movie is Ed Harris. The script came to mind after studying a book talking about Pollock, and then he scripted the film. The screenplay was commissioned by himself after he collected the money. He has started in it directing the film himself. He thought to himself he resembled Pollock from the scenario that his daddy saw the cover photo of the book and thought that it looked more like his son. It seems like he had made a connection running deep, feeling the instinctive sympathy of the unhappy man who was great even though the man did not seem to think that of himself.

The movie is first set up in a postwar village of Greenwich. There seems a simple town with simple lifestyle. There are cheap rents. Everyone seems to be smoking all the time. Pollock gets a visit from Peggy Guggenheim, the art collector, and art matron, a life-changing moment for Pollock. Even though Pollock got to meet with the famous patron, he almost screwed it up. That was his great usual habit (screwing up everything he touches). That's why he had a problem with personal connections with people around him. Although he almost screwed up the only opportunity, it is arguable that his career would not have come to chance if the famous patron had not come around his door that day.