Bigger Than Life

"A subversive in the system--one of the great 'I can't believe this film was ever made by a studio' films. Nicholas Ray's vision of the psychotic underpinnings of 1950s' middle-class America. Basically, Ward Cleaver goes postal."—Richard Linklater

This searing portrait of 1950s' suburbia is still not available on DVD, but here is your chance to see it the way it was meant to be seen--in a new 35mm Cinemascope print on the big screen. James Mason is at his best as a school teacher who suffers from debilitating pain and blackouts and is given just months to live. After agreeing to an experimental treatment with the “miracle” drug cortisone, he makes a remarkable recovery, but his life soon spirals out of control as his addiction takes hold. Walter Matthau and Barbara Rush costar. (95 mins., 35mm)

The last time we showed Bigger Than Life (in February 2000 and not in a new print), it was selected by visiting filmmaker Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, Before Sunrise, A Scanner Darkly) to screen alongside his own work, as one of his favorites and/or influences. The quote above is his take on a classic considered by many to be Ray's grown-up flipside to his earlier Rebel Without a Cause.