Bigger Than Life (1956)

Directed by

Nicholas Ray

Genre

drama film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 35m

Rated

NR

Rating

7.2 of 10 from 184 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A schoolteacher and family man gets a prescription for cortisone that changes his personality. He becomes arrogant and reckless, putting his family in danger.

tenseunsettlingbleakdarkly comicclaustrophobicfrustratingmelancholicdisturbing

What happens

Bigger Than Life is a 1956 American drama film directed by Nicholas Ray and starring James Mason, Barbara Rush and Walter Matthau. Its plot follows an ailing schoolteacher and family man whose life spins out of control when he misuses cortisone. It is based on a 1955 article by medical writer Berton Roueché in The New Yorker, titled "Ten Feet Tall". In addition to starring in the film, Mason produced it. Although it was a box-office flop on its initial release, many modern critics hail it as a masterpiece and a brilliant indictment of contemporary attitudes toward mental illness. In 1963, Jean-Luc Godard named it one of the ten-best American sound films ever made. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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