Bigger Than Life

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Audience Member Great idea and concept, although it too often becomes maudlin. Mason and Rush are quite effective in their roles and this could have made for a great suspense thriller, but instead goes for the melodrama. Shame. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review William L Alternative Title - James Mason: Milk Sleuth. The terror in Bigger Than Life is not the drug-addled, hyper-paranoid condition of Mason's Ed, it's the iron-handed and unwavering control that his clearly disturbed mind still wields over his domestic domain, the fact that there's no clear tipping point that keeps the Avery family from going to church, or any response greater than mild polite disapproval from virtually all those that surround them. Ed's decline starts in relatively palatable territory, speaking his mind boldly but without necessarily being factually incorrect, before devolving into excessive psychosis and paranoia. It's like a melodramatic, small-scale recounting of the rise of fascist governments, with Ed wielding social convention and religion as some justification for enforcing his own particular brand of cruelty-laced dominion, but featuring conversations on the conflicts of domestic life of midcentury America in the process. Subversive film for a supposedly idyllic period in US history. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 06/12/21 Full Review Audience Member Lacks subtlety (like many Hollywood melodramas of this era), but provides a compelling exploration of tension bubbling beneath the 'normal' American family life. The insistence on a happy ending undermines authenticity a fair bit. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review s r 1001 movies to see before you die. A powerful drama about drugs influencing people's lives. Mason is good and I'm a sucker for CinemaScope. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 10/11/23 Full Review Audience Member This movie was way ahead of its time. Seems like today rather than the 50's with all of the people hooked on prescription drugs! Almost at the end when his wife is talking to the Dr.'s I felt angry because they were the ones who got him on the drugs. In the movie he would've died without them but I was relating it to how the Dr.'s are today. So irresponsible. Just read an article of a woman with lupus who was put on a drug for her pain. The Dr. warned that in "rare" cases people's retinas are effected. Now she's going blind! Mason gives a brilliant performance. Gives a whole new meaning to "Roid Rage". Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/19/23 Full Review Audience Member A beautiful, tragic, and thrilling thesis on why drugs is ultimately not an escape route. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/14/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Bigger Than Life

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