Bigger Than Life
Release date: 1956-11-20
Votes: 169
Genres: Drama
A friendly, successful suburban teacher and father grows dangerously addicted to cortisone, resulting in his transformation into a household despot.
Reviews
Godaray
The movie deals with serious topics pertaining to life and drug abuse. Ed Avery (James Mason) has a serious condition which can only be controlled with cortisone, a still experimental drug leaving consequences in the human psyche. In the movie, Ed is describes as an intelligent, vibrant and happy man. He lives a mediocre, but happy life, he has financial problems just like any other man, and in the start of the movie we can see how much he loves his family, and would do anything for his wifes and sons safety. Then, he becomes addicted to cortisone, and almost everything changes, it leaves a scar which changes their quality of life. As any other addictive prescription drug, he becomes obsessed with having to take it. He even impersonates a doctor in order to get it, his son and wife are deeply affected by his actions, and his son, who has almost gone out of his mind looking at his father grow more and more depressed and vulnerable tries to steal his pills, Ed catches him in the act and leaves his child in the room so that he could contemplate about the level of his punishment, he is then affected with the Bible, exactly , the passage with Abraham and his son Isaac. He gets it into his head that, to make things right he needs to murdor his son, and than his wife and himself, of course, he is stopped in the act and the movie ends happily with him getting back to normal and his happy family life.
Movie Recommendation
I Knew Her Well1965-12-01A young woman from the Italian countryside experiences the dark side of the business after she moves to Rome to become a star.More...
While the City Sleeps1956-04-19Newspaper men compete against each other to find a serial killer dubbed "The Lipstick Killer".More...
Pickup on South Street1953-05-27In New York City, an insolent pickpocket, Skip McCoy, inadvertently sets off a chain of events when he targets ex-prostitute Candy and steals her wallet. Unaware that she has been making deliveries of highly classified information to the communists, Candy, who has been trailed by FBI agents for months in hopes of nabbing the spy ringleader, is sent by her ex-boyfriend, Joey, to find Skip and retrieve the valuable microfilm he now holds.More...
Brainstorm1983-09-30Two brilliant research scientists have invented a device capable of recording and playing back sensory experiences only to have devastating results when one of them records their own death.More...
The Student of Prague1913-08-22Prague, Bohemia, 1820. Balduin, a penniless student, falls in love with Countess Margit, a wealthy noblewoman whom he has saved from drowning.More...
Killer of Sheep1978-11-14An African-American man working at a slaughterhouse in the Watts area of Los Angeles leads a dissatisfied and listless existence.More...
Satan's School for Girls1973-09-19Satan's School for Girls is set within the grim walls of Fallbridge College for Girls. Hoping to learn the truth behind the "suicide" of her younger sister, Beth Hammersmith enrolls in Fallbridge under the assumed name of Karen Oxford. Our heroine soon learns that the school is in the clutches of a coven of witches called "The Five" -- and that she herself has the right satanic qualities to enable The Five to take over the worldMore...
The Birth of the Goalie of the 2001 F.A. Cup Final1982-09-05A slow-witted couple decide to start a family.More...
Lohengrin2011-08-14This performance of the Richard Wagner opera Logengrin was filmed in high definition for the Bayreuth Festival in 2011, and features vocalists like Georg Zeppenfeld, Klaus Florian Vogt, and Anette Dasch in the leading roles.More...
Hair1979-03-15Upon receiving his draft notice and leaving his family ranch in Oklahoma, Claude heads to New York and befriends a tribe of long-haired hippies on his way to boot camp.More...
Elevator to the Gallows1958-01-29A self-assured businessman murders his employer, the husband of his mistress, which unintentionally provokes an ill-fated chain of events.More...
Invasion of the Body Snatchers1956-02-05A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.More...
Harold and Maude1971-12-20The young Harold lives in his own world of suicide-attempts and funeral visits to avoid the misery of his current family and home environment. Harold meets an 80-year-old woman named Maude who also lives in her own world yet one in which she is having the time of her life. When the two opposites meet they realize that their differences don’t matter and they become best friends and love each other.More...
The Man Who Knew Too Much1956-05-16A couple vacationing in Morocco with their young son accidentally stumble upon an assassination plot. When the child is kidnapped to ensure their silence, they have to take matters into their own hands to save him.More...
Valkyrie2008-12-25Wounded in Africa during World War II, Nazi Col. Claus von Stauffenberg returns to his native Germany and joins the Resistance in a daring plan to create a shadow government and assassinate Adolf Hitler. When events unfold so that he becomes a central player, he finds himself tasked with both leading the coup and personally killing the Führer.More...
Amélie2001-04-25At a tiny Parisian café, the adorable yet painfully shy Amélie accidentally discovers a gift for helping others. Soon Amelie is spending her days as a matchmaker, guardian angel, and all-around do-gooder. But when she bumps into a handsome stranger, will she find the courage to become the star of her very own love story?More...
To Have and Have Not1945-01-20A Martinique charter boat skipper gets mixed up with the underground French resistance operatives during WWII.More...
Elena Undone2010-06-25The wife of a pastor who preaches against homosexuality embarks on an affair with a female writer.More...
The Pelican Brief1993-09-17A law student's theory about the recent deaths of two Supreme Court justices embroils her in a far-reaching web of murder, corruption, and greed.More...
Brazil1985-02-20Low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry escapes the monotony of his day-to-day life through a recurring daydream of himself as a virtuous hero saving a beautiful damsel. Investigating a case that led to the wrongful arrest and eventual death of an innocent man instead of wanted terrorist Harry Tuttle, he meets the woman from his daydream, and in trying to help her gets caught in a web of mistaken identities, mindless bureaucracy and lies.More...
Similar Movies
Belle de Jour
1967-05-24Beautiful young housewife Séverine Serizy cannot reconcile her masochistic fantasies with her everyday life alongside dutiful husband Pierre. When her lovestruck friend Henri mentions a secretive high-class brothel run by Madame Anais, Séverine begins to work there during the day under the name Belle de Jour. But when one of her clients grows possessive, she must try to go back to her normal life.Twister
1996-05-10An unprecedented series of violent tornadoes is sweeping across Oklahoma. Tornado chasers, headed by Dr. Jo Harding, attempt to release a groundbreaking device that will allow them to track them and create a more advanced warning system. They are joined by Jo's soon to be ex-husband Bill, a former tornado chaser himself, and his girlfriend Melissa.The Bridges of Madiso...
1995-06-02Photographer Robert Kincaid wanders into the life of housewife Francesca Johnson for four days in the 1960s.A Streetcar Named Des...
1951-09-19A disturbed, aging Southern belle moves in with her sister for solace — but being face-to-face with her brutish brother-in-law accelerates her downward spiral.The Last Emperor
1987-10-04A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.Little Miss Sunshine
2006-07-26A family loaded with quirky, colorful characters piles into an old van and road trips to California for little Olive to compete in a beauty pageant.Kanchana Sita
1978-12-21The film interprets a story from the Uttara Kanda of the epic poem Ramayana, where Rama sends his wife, Sita, to the jungle to satisfy his subjects. Sita is never actually seen in the film, but her virtual presence is compellingly evoked in the moods of the forest and the elements. The film retells the epic from a womens' liberationist perspective, and is about the tragedy of power and the sacrifices that adherence to dharma demands, including abandoning a chaste wife.Forrest Gump
1994-06-23A man with a low IQ has accomplished great things in his life and been present during significant historic events—in each case, far exceeding what anyone imagined he could do. But despite all he has achieved, his one true love eludes him.A Spot for Frog
2022-06-01Locked out of the school art room, a creative non-binary teen named Frog grapples with anxiety as they seek a new place to eat lunch. Imagination blurs with reality in this hybrid work of live action and animation about finding a place to belong.Transamerica
2005-02-14A transgender woman takes an unexpected journey when she learns that she had a son, now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of New York.Basquiat
1996-08-09The brief life of Jean Michel Basquiat, a world renowned New York street artist struggling with fame, drugs and his identity.The Poseidon Adventur...
1972-12-01When their ocean liner capsizes, a group of passengers struggle to survive and escape.The Conversation
1974-04-07A paranoid, secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that the couple he is spying on will be murdered.Solaris
1972-03-20A psychologist is sent to a space station orbiting a planet called Solaris to investigate the death of a doctor and the mental problems of cosmonauts on the station. He soon discovers that the water on the planet is a type of brain which brings out repressed memories and obsessions.Easy Rider
1969-06-26Wyatt and Billy, two Harley-riding hippies, complete a drug deal in Southern California and decide to travel cross-country in search of spiritual truth.Trainspotting
1996-02-23Hilarious but harrowing, the film charts the disintegration of the friendship between Renton, Spud, Sick Boy, Tommy and Begbie as they proceed seemingly towards a psychotic, drug-fuelled self-destruction.Padmaavat
2018-01-25Rajputana, India, 13th century. The tyrannical usurper Alauddin Khilji, sultan of Delhi, becomes obsessed with Queen Padmavati, wife of King Ratan Singh of Mewar, and goes to great lengths to satisfy his greed for her.Here I Am a Stranger
1939-09-29The story of a young man's discovery of his father.THX 1138
1971-03-11People in the future live in a totalitarian society. A technician named THX 1138 lives a mundane life between work and taking a controlled consumption of drugs that the government uses to make puppets out of people. As THX is without drugs for the first time he has feelings for a woman and they start a secret relationship.Lost Highway
1997-01-15A tormented jazz musician finds himself lost in an enigmatic story involving murder, surveillance, gangsters, doppelgängers, and an impossible transformation inside a prison cell.