Bigger Than Life
Bigger Than Life
Was a 1950's film starring james Mason and Barbara Ruch concering a school teacher ( Mason ) who's reaction to cortisone causes him to turn into a human monster. The Fort Hood shootings and some ( possible ) recent devolopments in the case made me think of this film that I havent seen in over 25 years
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Professional Tourist
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Re: Bigger Than Life
You know, although I am a James Mason fan, I think Bigger than Life (1956) is overrated. It was screened for a week at Film Forum here in NYC last winter and people were making a big deal over it, like it was a rare opportunity to see a great classic. I was going to go, but then got sick. A few months later this film was added to Hulu (it has since been removed) and I watched it twice. I didn't care for it any more the second time than I did the first. The story, the characters, nothing grabbed me. I especially disliked the position the wife was in and the way she responded to her husband, feeling that she had to comply with whatever he said as his behavior got more and more irrational -- as though she had no alternative. I found the wife's subservience to be pretty extreme even for fifty years ago.
I was also surprised by how much Barbara Rush seemed to have aged in the two years since she had filmed Magnificent Obsession.
I was also surprised by how much Barbara Rush seemed to have aged in the two years since she had filmed Magnificent Obsession.
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moira finnie
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Re: Bigger Than Life
That's an interesting connection to recent tragic events, Ken.
A messianic belief in his own perception above all other by the disturbed main character only superficially reflects the protagonist's chemically induced psychosis. What makes Bigger Than Life so interesting to me is that this movie uses that as a jumping off point when a clarity of vision about the world around him transforms the James Mason character into a monster.
I found this film to be a fascinating, flawed look at the uses of medicine (and paternalistic doctors), but director Nicholas Ray used the story as his inspiration for a critique of the sometimes stultifying relationships of middle class family life. I felt similarly about the Barbara Rush character, and there were valid reasons why Rush might have felt "older" than she was on the set of the film. The wife was, from the director's viewpoint, a villain of the piece as much as the medication, which really seemed to have allowed the husband a clearer perception of his life. This POV probably reflected more about Ray's mind, his mixed feelings about women, and his own feelings about American life.
I also thought that the movie used both Cinemascope and color very well to convey the unsettling emotional state of the patient (James Mason, who was excellent in this role), and his family. Interestingly, this was based on an actual case, though of course, Ray changed the story more and the AMA pressured the producers to soften the medical ethics questions raised by the story. Since a fresh, reportedly excellent new print has relatively recently been presented at the Film Forum in NYC and other venues, it's possible that a DVD may be in the offing. The resurgence of interest in Nicholas Ray's career alone would seem to make it worthwhile.
There is a very good bio of Ray by Bernard Eisenschitzl called Nicholas Ray: An American Journey and I Was Interrupted: Nicholas Ray on Making Movies by the director that are really thought provoking. If you are interested in I tried to write about many of these aspects of this film here.
A messianic belief in his own perception above all other by the disturbed main character only superficially reflects the protagonist's chemically induced psychosis. What makes Bigger Than Life so interesting to me is that this movie uses that as a jumping off point when a clarity of vision about the world around him transforms the James Mason character into a monster.
I found this film to be a fascinating, flawed look at the uses of medicine (and paternalistic doctors), but director Nicholas Ray used the story as his inspiration for a critique of the sometimes stultifying relationships of middle class family life. I felt similarly about the Barbara Rush character, and there were valid reasons why Rush might have felt "older" than she was on the set of the film. The wife was, from the director's viewpoint, a villain of the piece as much as the medication, which really seemed to have allowed the husband a clearer perception of his life. This POV probably reflected more about Ray's mind, his mixed feelings about women, and his own feelings about American life.
I also thought that the movie used both Cinemascope and color very well to convey the unsettling emotional state of the patient (James Mason, who was excellent in this role), and his family. Interestingly, this was based on an actual case, though of course, Ray changed the story more and the AMA pressured the producers to soften the medical ethics questions raised by the story. Since a fresh, reportedly excellent new print has relatively recently been presented at the Film Forum in NYC and other venues, it's possible that a DVD may be in the offing. The resurgence of interest in Nicholas Ray's career alone would seem to make it worthwhile.
There is a very good bio of Ray by Bernard Eisenschitzl called Nicholas Ray: An American Journey and I Was Interrupted: Nicholas Ray on Making Movies by the director that are really thought provoking. If you are interested in I tried to write about many of these aspects of this film here.
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Professional Tourist
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Re: Bigger Than Life
Bigger than Life may have been removed from Hulu, but it's now available on YouTube, in ten parts; here is the playlist:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p ... F084EF3E2F
And here is some more info from Film Fanatic.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p ... F084EF3E2F
And here is some more info from Film Fanatic.
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klondike
Re: Bigger Than Life
One of the many impressions I got from watching this film twice during the early 90's was that among Ray's many interconnecting objectives in his direction was the subtext of exposing the dangers behind the idealistic popularity that cortisone had achieved during the mid-50's, having freshly emerged from its Korean War trials as a sort of Wonder Drug (rather like the "handle-anything" reputation that was accorded sodium pentathol in the 40's, or topical sulfa in the 20's).