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Last updated: 25 Jun 2026 at 13:41 UTC

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Review of by K R — 12 May 2009

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Nicholas Ray is the fucking man, James Mason is the fucking man, Walter Matthau is solid, the colors are fantastic, Barbara Rush is perfect, the whole damn film is a godsend. On the surface it looks hokey and corny and full of lame, '50s melodrama with an overdramatic score, but Ray is totally aware of all that, and reveling in it, as James Mason lashes out against everything that the conformity and superficiality of that era represents, plummeting downwards in a self-destructive spiral that is truly, deeply terrifying because we know that in his drug-fueled rantings and ravings, some measure of what he's saying is totally true.

This review of Bigger Than Life (1956) was written by on 12 May 2009.

Bigger Than Life has generally received very positive reviews.

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