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Although referring to cortisone,"Bigger than life" is rayesque to the core.Davey ("Run for cover" )Plato and Jim ("rebel without a cause")and the Chinese girl ("55 days at Peking") were in search of a father.Even the Jeff/Wes relationship in "lusty men" is of the same kind.
Cortisone is just an alibi.The subject of the film is the paternal power .And this father is also a teacher!The PTA meeting is revealing!
Richie has got a father.But there's a crack in the mirror (Ed's broken reflection is the key to the movie).Little by little,we feel there's something irrational in his attitude.Buying clothes ,It's very natural !Playing football with your sonny,is a right thing to do to be good friends.But ,thanks to James Mason's sensational performance,we feel ill-at-ease,even scared .This fear will culminate in the arithmetic lesson where Mason 's shadow on the wall is terrifying (when Barbara Rush enters the room,see her tiny shadow !it's a lesson in directing a movie).And being a father is not far from being a God .After hearing again in the church the prodigal son story ,it's only natural in Ed's case to feel like Abraham .(His final dream -which we do not see- is extraordinary).
It might be a warning against pills ,drugs and all that stuff.But I rather think it's a warning against "overeducation".As a teacher,I heard about a student's father who spent a WHOLE Saturday afternoon to make sure his unfortunate son did understand the multiples .
Superb performance by James Mason (the scene when his face suddenly appears in the mirror as his boy is searching his room is really spooky),good support from Barbara Rush,Walter Matthau and young Christopher Olsen.
score 8/10
dbdumonteil 17 May 2007
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1657180/ |
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15-3-2021 18:06:09