Bigger Than Life
Bigger Than Life | |
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Directed by | Nicholas Ray |
Screenplay by | Cyril Hume Richard Maibaum |
Produced by | James Mason |
Starring | James Mason Barbara Rush Walter Matthau |
Cinematography | Joseph MacDonald |
Edited by | Louis R. Loeffler |
Music by | David Raksin |
Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
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Running time | 95 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $1 million[1] |
Bigger Than Life is an American DeLuxe Color CinemaScope film made in 1956 directed by Nicholas Ray and starring James Mason, who also co-wrote and produced the film, about a school teacher and family man whose life spins out of control upon becoming addicted to cortisone. The film co-stars Barbara Rush as his wife and Walter Matthau as his closest friend, a fellow teacher. Though it was a box-office flop upon its initial release,[2] many modern critics hail it as a masterpiece and brilliant indictment of contemporary attitudes towards mental illness and addiction.[3] In 1963, Jean-Luc Godard named it one of the ten best American sound films ever made.[4]
Bigger Than Life was based on a 1955 article by medical writer Berton Roueché in The New Yorker, titled "Ten Feet Tall".[5]
Plot summary
Schoolteacher and family man Ed Avery (James Mason), who has been suffering bouts of severe pain and even blackouts, is hospitalized with what is diagnosed as polyarteritis nodosa, a rare inflammation of the arteries. Told by doctors that he probably has only months to live, Ed agrees to an experimental treatment: doses of the hormone cortisone.
Ed makes a remarkable recovery. He returns home to his wife, Lou (Barbara Rush), and their son, Richie (Christopher Olsen). He must keep taking cortisone tablets regularly to prevent a recurrence of his illness. But the "miracle" cure turns into a nightmare when Ed begins to misuse the tablets, causing him to experience wild mood swings and, ultimately, a psychotic episode which threatens the safety of his family.
Cast
- James Mason as Ed Avery
- Barbara Rush as Lou Avery
- Walter Matthau as Wally Gibbs
- Robert F. Simon as Dr. Norton
- Christopher Olsen as Richie Avery
- Roland Winters as Dr. Ruric
- Rusty Lane as Bob LaPorte
- Rachel Stephens as Nurse
- Kipp Hamilton as Pat Wade
Reception
Bigger Than Life was extremely controversial upon its release,[citation needed] and it was not a financial success. Mason, who produced the film as well as starring in it, blamed its failure on its use of the then-novel widescreen CinemaScope format.[2] American critics panned the film, considering it melodramatic and heavyhanded.[6] Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called it tedious, "dismal", and "more pitiful than terrifying to watch".[7]
However, the film was popular with critics at the influential magazine Cahiers du cinéma. Jean-Luc Godard called it one of the ten best American sound films.[4] Likewise, François Truffaut praised the film, noting the "intelligent, subtle" script, the "extraordinary precision" of Mason's performance, and the beauty of the film's CinemaScope photography.[8]
Modern critics have pointed out Ray's use of widescreen cinematography to depict the interior spaces of a family drama, rather than the open vistas typically associated with the format, as well as his use of extreme close-ups in portraying the main character's psychosis and megalomania.[9] The film is also recognized for its multi-layered examination of the American nuclear family in the Eisenhower era. While the film can be read as a straightforward exposé on medical malpractice and the overuse of prescription drugs in modern American society,[10] it has also been seen as a critique of consumerism, the male-dominated traditional family structure, and the claustrophobic conformism of suburban life.[3][11][12] Truffaut saw Ed's drug-influenced speech to the parents of the parent-teacher association as having fascist overtones.[13] The film has also been interpreted as an examination of masculinity and a leftist critique of the low salaries of public school teachers in the United States.[14]
Notes
- ^ Solomon 1989, p. 250.
- ^ a b Cossar 2011, p. 273.
- ^ a b Halliwell 2013, pp. 159–162.
- ^ a b Marshall, Colin (December 2, 2013). "A Young Jean-Luc Godard Picks the 10 Best American Films Ever Made (1963)". Open Culture.
- ^ Roueché, Berton (September 10, 1955). "Ten Feet Tall". The New Yorker: 47–77.
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(help) - ^ Schiebel 2014, p. 183.
- ^ Crowther, Bosley (August 3, 1956). "Screen: Tax of Tedium; 'Bigger Than Life' Has Debut at Victoria". The New York Times.
- ^ Truffaut 2009, pp. 143–147.
- ^ Cossar 2011, pp. 120–123.
- ^ Truffaut 2009, pp. 145–146. Truffaut noted Nicholas Ray's low opinion of the medical profession, and of so-called "miracle drugs". His discussion of Bigger Than Life points out the visual similarity between the doctors in the film and "gangsters in crime films".
- ^ Basinger 2013, pp. 231–234.
- ^ Rosenbaum 1997, pp. 131–133.
- ^ Truffaut & pp-145-146.
- ^ Schiebel 2014, p. 182.
See also
References
- Basinger, Jeanine (2013). I Do and I Don't: A History of Marriage in the Movies. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 9780307962225.
- Cossar, Harper (2011). Letterboxed: The Evolution of Widescreen Cinema. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 9780813126517.
- Halliwell, Martin (2013). Therapeutic Revolutions: Medicine, Psychiatry, and American Culture, 1945-1970. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 9780813560663.
- Schiebel, Will (2014). "Bigger Than Life: Melodrama, Masculinity, and the American Dream". In Rybin, Steven; Schiebel, Will (eds.). Lonely Places, Dangerous Ground: Nicholas Ray in American Cinema. SUNY Press. ISBN 9781438449814.
- Solomon, Aubrey (1989). Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History. Scarecrow Press.