Product Details

• Actors: James Mason, Walter Matthau, Barbara Rush, Robert F. Simon, Christopher Olsen
• Directors: Nicholas Ray
• Format: Import, PAL, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English
• Region: All Regions
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Suevia Films
• Run Time: 92 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000EX9U0E
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #310,066 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Spain released, PAL/Region 0 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), Spanish ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), English ( Subtitles ), Spanish ( Subtitles ), WIDESCREEN (2.35:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Biographies, Filmographies, Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: Adapted from a New Yorker article, Bigger Than Life stars James Mason as schoolteacher Ed Avery. Upon learning that he is suffering from a potentially fatal illness, Avery is more than willing to take the new, untested drug cortisone. At first, the drug proves beneficial, with Avery making an apparently complete recovery. Before long, however, the drug's side-effects transform the mild-mannered teacher into a psychotic and a potential killer. Walter Matthau costars as the family friend who averts tragedy by saving Avery from himself. In later years, director Nicholas Ray expressed the wish that he hadn't mentioned cortisone by name, because the drug was still in its experimental stages and its positive and negative qualities had yet to be completely determined. Ray needn't have worried: because of its downbeat subject matter, Bigger Than Life was a box-office failure. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Venice Film Festival, ...Bigger Than Life

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Nick Ray's essential masterpieces of cinema, December 22, 2009

By 

Le_Samourai - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bigger Than Life (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

Talk about a film ahead of its time, Nicholas Ray's 1956 drama Bigger than Life tanked upon release in the US most likely because of its dark, brooding and unflinching observations on suburban life (the film is partially based on Ray's own childhood, if I'm recalling correctly.); people back then didn't want to be told about the monster next door, and to a lesser extent people today still don't want this, but Ray's film is so perfect in every respect that one can't look away from the screen for a moment.

Ray, like Fuller, unfortunately was, more or less, wholly ignored in the US during his life but was immensely popular with the Cahiers kids and I'm glad to see that in the past decade or so his films, besides the popular Rebel Without a Cause, are getting some serious reevaluations.
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Here's the details, for those interested, in regards to the Criterion release:

* New, restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
* 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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Here is to hoping that they get their hands on Johnny Guitar.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nick Ray's chilling domestic drama finally on DVD, December 27, 2009

By 

Byron Kolln (the corner where Broadway meets Hollywood) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Bigger Than Life (The Criterion Collection) (DVD)

In BIGGER THAN LIFE, director Nicholas Ray and producer/star James Mason explored the dark side of suburban life. James Mason delivers one of his most accomplished and subversive performances in this sadly-neglected 1956 movie gem, the story of a man pushed to the brink of madness thanks to his abuse of a 'miracle drug'.

Mild-mannered schoolteacher Ed Avery (James Mason) works hard to provide for his wife Lou (Barbara Rush) and young son Richie (Christopher Olsen), secretly working after-hours as a taxi switchboard operator. When Ed is struck down by a debilitating and potentially fatal illness, doctors prescribe wonder drug Cortisone, and it seems to do the trick. Ed feels more confident than he has in years, and loves to spoil the family with expensive trips to the department store. But Ed's dependence takes a darker turn when he begins taking the pills in larger quantities. Lou and Richie can only stand by helplessly as Ed angrily lashes out, hurling abuse and insults at his wife and son. The mood swings only get worse as the weeks wear on, to the moment when Ed finally cracks completely...

I won't try to spoil any major plot points. BIGGER THAN LIFE will surprise and shock you with it's hard-hitting subject matter, and the frank way it's depicted was I'm sure the main reason why the movie flopped in 1956. It's well and truly the flipside of "Father Knows Best". Today the movie still rings true because so many families are dealing with similar issues on a daily basis. James Mason and Barbara Rush are completely mesmerising to watch here. Child actors from the 1950's are normally very mannered and "trained" on screen, but young Christopher Olsen is heartbreaking as the tortured Richie; his performance absolutely rings true. Walter Matthau, Kipp Hamilton and Roland Winters are also very fine.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars NICHOLAS RAY, OPUS 13, March 30, 2008

By 

Daniel S. "Daniel" (Geneva, Switzerland) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bigger Than Life [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - Spain ] (DVD)

***** 1956. Directed by Nicholas Ray. A teacher, suffering from a rare and painful disease, accepts to take cortisone, a new drug in the 50's, under medical surveillance. Unfortunately, the patient modifies his prescriptions and becomes little by little psychotic. This undisputable masterpiece presents in 95 minutes all the major Nicholas Ray themes: an idealistic hero who can't accept his average destiny, the bitter study of the American way of life and a smart use of the new Technicolor technology, with its new space offered to the directors, to name a few. Some scenes, like the scenes with the mirrors, are already part of Movie History. You can now buy a zone 2 DVD of BIGGER THAN LIFE at Amazon.fr with a perfect copy of the film and very interesting featurettes about the themes handled by Nicholas Ray in this film. A DVD zone your library.