Bigger Than Life (1956)
Posted: September 2nd, 2008, 9:44 am
Bigger Than Life (1956), one of the most powerful, yet subtle films of director Nicholas Ray's roller coaster career, is on FMC today, (9/2 at 2pm and repeats on 9/12 at 12pm on the Fox Movie Channel).
The unjustly neglected actor, James Mason, who was also the movie's producer, gives a truly protean performance in this subversive, yet compassionate look at the "liberating" quality of addiction, the family unit and good old American complacency. Unlike the adolescent-centered Rebel Without a Cause (1956), however, I think that this movie is much more powerful, complex and ultimately humane critique of life, and is often one that transcends its subject matter, showing a degree of empathy for each character, however limited.
For a taste of this movie's power, please click here for a clip that features Mason giving a bravura performance while making his family rue the day they were born. The off-kilter point of view of this film is also greatly enhanced by the excellent, often deliberately distorted cinematography of Joseph MacDonald in this movie and the art direction of Jack Martin Smith & Lyle R. Wheeler. As in Rebel Without a Cause, color becomes almost another character here, especially as the nightmarish existence develops.
Of course, the well known problems of the gifted Nicholas Ray's own addiction issues may have given his direction of this film an added fillip as well. The script, based on a real life case reported in The New Yorker by Berton Roueché, is said to have been written by Ray, Mason, Gavin Lambert and Clifford Odets, though it is credited officially to Cyril Hume and Richard Maibaum. Given the fluidity and rich literacy of the language, as heard in the above referenced clip, it is easy to believe that Odets had a large hand in the writing. In any case, life, as "seen through a glass darkly" may be experienced on several levels by the viewer. Hope that you'll post your own assessment, pro or con, if you catch this film.
The unjustly neglected actor, James Mason, who was also the movie's producer, gives a truly protean performance in this subversive, yet compassionate look at the "liberating" quality of addiction, the family unit and good old American complacency. Unlike the adolescent-centered Rebel Without a Cause (1956), however, I think that this movie is much more powerful, complex and ultimately humane critique of life, and is often one that transcends its subject matter, showing a degree of empathy for each character, however limited.
For a taste of this movie's power, please click here for a clip that features Mason giving a bravura performance while making his family rue the day they were born. The off-kilter point of view of this film is also greatly enhanced by the excellent, often deliberately distorted cinematography of Joseph MacDonald in this movie and the art direction of Jack Martin Smith & Lyle R. Wheeler. As in Rebel Without a Cause, color becomes almost another character here, especially as the nightmarish existence develops.
Of course, the well known problems of the gifted Nicholas Ray's own addiction issues may have given his direction of this film an added fillip as well. The script, based on a real life case reported in The New Yorker by Berton Roueché, is said to have been written by Ray, Mason, Gavin Lambert and Clifford Odets, though it is credited officially to Cyril Hume and Richard Maibaum. Given the fluidity and rich literacy of the language, as heard in the above referenced clip, it is easy to believe that Odets had a large hand in the writing. In any case, life, as "seen through a glass darkly" may be experienced on several levels by the viewer. Hope that you'll post your own assessment, pro or con, if you catch this film.