One of the most often utilized adjectives in movie titles is “big.” Just about everything, according to Hollywood, is more enticing when it is described as big: buses, carnivals, bad mamas, and heat, to name a few. With such a generous offering, little doubt can exist that a great many of these movies do not exactly live up to their titular promise. Fortunately, a number of movies that lure with the enticement that bigger is better do come through.
“The Big Chill”
“The Big Chill” is not just a familiar movie with the word “big” in the title, it’s a kind of oxymoronic title. Of course, the film’s detractors will insist that “The Big Chill” is also a moronic film. Maybe it does simplify and overreach at the same time, but it also offers a glimpse into what might have been had the radicals of the 1960s not been seduced, tamed, and emasculated by Reaganomics. Besides, “The Big Chill” is definitely worth watching for at least one reason: William Hurt’s unpredictable performance.
“The Big Lebowski”
The Coen brothers are probably the only filmmakers who would title their film with the word “big” in it and then make sure their central character was not actually the title character. “The Big Lebowski” was not a big hit when it was first released, but it has taken on a life of its own since then.
While it is certainly not deserving of the fascination it holds over so many — “Raising Arizona” is better — it is definitely worth watching for Jeff Bridges’s absolutely mesmerizing performance. Actors who take great pain to play slackers should be required to watch “The Big Lebowski” before stepping in front of the camera. No movie star has ever seemed so natural and real as a non-conforming, iconoclastic societal dropout.
“The Big Combo”
Somehow “The Big Combo” managed to slip into the public domain when someone forgot to renew its copyright. That’s good news for those wanting to watch it, since it can be found everywhere from cheap DVD collections sold at Big Lots to the public domain movie channels on the Roku. “The Big Combo” is, quite simply, an extraordinary work of cinematic art.
How else can you possibly describe a black and white film noir made in 1955 that manages to include one of the most agonizing torture scenes in Hays Code Hollywood, two gay thugs, an unimaginably explicit allusion to the performance of oral sex, and one of the greatest unsung villains in movie history?
“The Big Caper”
Even more of a B-movie than “The Big Combo” is “The Big Caper.” As unlikely as it is that you will predict where “The Big Combo” is going, you are even less likely to predict the enormous left turn taken by “The Big Caper.” Heist movies generally tend to rise or fall on the basis of the robbery plan and execution, but that particular element is almost an anticlimax to what takes place before you get there in “The Big Caper.”
Most heist movies feature forgettable, stereotypical characters who work as pieces of machinery in the intricate plotting of the job. What sets “The Big Caper” apart and makes it a very worthwhile addition to the league of “big” movies is that it features a cast of characters that verges on the eccentric while avoiding becoming too precious and unreal.
For more articles by Timothy Sexton, check out:
“The Big Combo” Is a Thriller Full of Surprises
The Comedic Film Performances of Cast Members of “The Big Bang Theory”
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