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Bigger Than Life (Criterion Collection)
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Bigger Than Life (Criterion Collection) (1956)
Starring:  James Mason, Barbara Rush, Walter Matthau, Robert F. Simon, Christopher Olsen, Roland Winters, Rusty Lane, Rachel Stephens, Kipp Hamilton, Virginia Carroll
Director:  Nicholas Ray
Genre:  Drama
Year:  1956
Studio:  Criterion
Length:  95 minutes
Released:   March 23, 2010
Rating:  NR
Format:  DVD
Misc:  Color, Widescreen, NTSC
Language:  English(Original Language)
SYNOPSIS:
Though ignored at the time of its release, Nicholas Ray's Bigger Than Life is now recognized as one of the great American films of the 1950s. When a friendly, successful suburban teacher and father (James Mason, in one of his most indelible roles) is prescribed cortisone for a painful, possibly fatal affliction, he grows dangerously addicted to the experimental drug, resulting in his transformation into a psychotic and ultimately violent household despot.

This Eisenhower-era throat-grabber, shot in expressive CinemaScope, is an excoriating take on the nuclear family. That it came in the day of Father Knows Best makes it all the more shocking—and wildly entertaining.

BONUS FEATURES

  • Audio commentary featuring critic Geoff Andrew (The Films of Nicholas Ray)
  • Profile of Nicholas Ray (1977), a half-hour television interview with the director
  • New video appreciation of Bigger Than Life with author Jonathan Lethem (Chronic City)
  • New video interview with Susan Ray, widow of the director and editor of I Was Interrupted: Nicholas Ray on Making Movies
  • Theatrical trailer
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic and video maker B. Kite

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