Four Years in the Navy
Bigger Than Life (1956)
directed by Nicholas Ray
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
Bigger Than Life is a trim, devastating indictment of a lot of things in this country. Big themes and plenty of righteous, well-targeted anger. The reviewers on IMDb who saw it in theaters and recognized their dads for the first time can tell you all about it. I want to mention the banister, stairwell, and hallway at the end of the film because they remind me of the final confrontation between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode in Halloween.
That pair of scissors - nearly a knitting needle - only adds to the horror. Was it unconscious on John Carpenter's part? Was there something naturally claustrophobic about middle-class architecture that decade? Bigger Than Life is also a movie about the frustration inherent in the modern American medical complex, and the pat condescension in entreaties that patients have "faith" while facing a lifetime of health expenses. What else can low ceilings and sharp corners say?
But Ray still makes room for an old-fashioned, non-metaphorical supper. I'm not talking about the color scheme, which is beautiful, but the relevance of that color - and CinemaScope - once DP Joseph MacDonald steps inside the family kitchen. Yes, I mean the steaks that Walter Matthau brings back from the store before making a yogurt and molasses smoothie in the blender. Thick, bloody, delicious sides of cow. An unbelievable amount of beef, tall as a mountain. Watching Barbara Rush unwrap them is like watching a caveman unwrap a dinosaur.
directed by Nicholas Ray
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
Bigger Than Life is a trim, devastating indictment of a lot of things in this country. Big themes and plenty of righteous, well-targeted anger. The reviewers on IMDb who saw it in theaters and recognized their dads for the first time can tell you all about it. I want to mention the banister, stairwell, and hallway at the end of the film because they remind me of the final confrontation between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode in Halloween.
That pair of scissors - nearly a knitting needle - only adds to the horror. Was it unconscious on John Carpenter's part? Was there something naturally claustrophobic about middle-class architecture that decade? Bigger Than Life is also a movie about the frustration inherent in the modern American medical complex, and the pat condescension in entreaties that patients have "faith" while facing a lifetime of health expenses. What else can low ceilings and sharp corners say?
But Ray still makes room for an old-fashioned, non-metaphorical supper. I'm not talking about the color scheme, which is beautiful, but the relevance of that color - and CinemaScope - once DP Joseph MacDonald steps inside the family kitchen. Yes, I mean the steaks that Walter Matthau brings back from the store before making a yogurt and molasses smoothie in the blender. Thick, bloody, delicious sides of cow. An unbelievable amount of beef, tall as a mountain. Watching Barbara Rush unwrap them is like watching a caveman unwrap a dinosaur.
posted by NPK at 5:20 AM
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