One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (film)
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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (film)
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This film has been preserved in the National Film Registry in 1993.
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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a 1975 American psychological comedy-drama film directed by Miloš Forman, based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Ken Kesey. The film stars Jack Nicholson as Randle McMurphy, a new patient at a mental institution, and features a supporting cast of Louise Fletcher, Will Sampson, Danny DeVito, Sydney Lassick, William Redfield, as well as Christopher Lloyd and Brad Dourif in their film debuts.
Plot
McMurphy has a criminal past and has once again gotten himself into trouble and is sentenced by the court. To escape labor duties in prison, McMurphy pleads insanity and is sent to a ward for the mentally unstable. Once here, McMurphy both endures and stands witness to the abuse and degradation of the oppressive Nurse Ratched, who gains superiority and power through the flaws of the other inmates. McMurphy and the other inmates band together to make a rebellious stance against the atrocious Nurse.
Why It Goes Cuckoo
- The film manages to stay true to Ken Kesey's 1962 best-selling novel of the same name, which "contained the prophetic essence of the whole Vietnam period of revolutionary politics going psychedelic." Although, the film adaptation's noticeably less explicit and toned-down when compared to the book, as the film becomes a parable about society's enforcement of conformism, being restructured so it would appeal to contemporary audiences. It almost willfully overlooked the realities of mental illness in order to make the patients more sympathetic and desperate for McMurphy's aid.
- And as a bonus, a lot of McMurphy's more questionable actions aren't shown in the film, turning him into a more roguish conman
- Top-notch performances from the majority of the cast.
- Jack Nicholson gets to show off his skills while adding to his defiantly offbeat characterizations when he plays Randle P. McMurphy. It's pretty much an extension of some of Jack's past roles. During a 1980s interview, the actor stated that his "tragic flaw" was that "he knows he's resistible to women and in reality he expects Nurse Ratched to be seduced by him"
- Louise Fletcher has a pivotal and essential role to portray as Nurse Ratched and she really sells her character by providing a soft-spoken, yet menacing antagonist.
- Brad Dourif and Will Sampson are two of the more memorable inmates, namely the former plays Billy Bibbit, and the latter plays Chief Bromden.
- Asylum head Dr. Dean Brooks appears in the film as Dr. Spivey, giving a very persuasive performance in scenes that were largely improvised with Nicholson.
- The characters are all very interesting and compelling to the point where a lot of them have symbolic value
- R.P (Randle Patrick) "Mac" McMurphy is an absolute wild card, as well as a sociopathic anti-hero who'd be the villain in any other story. He went to prison due to having no less than five cases of sexual assault to his name -- and with underage girls, no less -- but he's then transported to an asylum because he proved to be too violent for the prison to handle, although he may or may not be faking his insanity just to get a more comfortable spot to stay. Either way, he still throws the careful routine of the hospital into total chaos and isn't afraid to call out the head nurse for being overly demeaning and controlling and preventing the inmates from having a lot of free will.
- Nurse Mildred Ratched's antagonism towards the inmates is very subtle -- in stark contrast to her novel counterpart who's clearly evil-- to the point we certain people would just see her as a stern-but-fair nurse simply doing her job. But she still takes her philosophy of routine too seriously and doesn't even the slightest schedule changes. The film's take on Ratched is convinced she's right that she's Although considering she doesn't actually help the inmates, takes advantage of Billy's fear of his mother to feel ashamed of himself and shows no remorse over him committing suicide shortly afterward. With the film's take on Ratched's malevolence being ambiguous, since she never drops her calm, cold attitude, it might just make her even more scary.
- A surprisingly colorful cast of inmates in the ward who each have their own vibrant personalities, standouts include:
- Charles Cheswick is one of the most nervous men in the ward, whose anxiety makes it hard for him to function as an adult, and dislikes being treated like a kid.
- Dale Harding has a habit of going into intellectual language when he's dealing with a stressful subject, as an attempt to sound sophisticated despite it not actually meaning anything
- Billy Bibbit is an insecure, stuttering, paranoid manchild who's afraid of his mother,
- Martini is a docile, mentally disabled short man.
- Max Taber is another wild card another the inmates who's suggested to have a violent side that never quite comes out.
- Chief Bromden is a dignified, towering Indian who deceives everyone into thinking he was a deaf-mute, knows nearly all the secrets of the inmates due to them trusting him, manages to break out thanks to support from R.P. McMurphy, and is arguably the true hero of the story, despite McMurphy getting the most focus.
- Most of the filming took place at an actual asylum in Salem, Oregon, so -- as previously mentioned -- head Dr. Dean Brooks would play a supporting role and inmates and workers from the asylum would be used as extras and crew members.
- One of the most distinctive aspects of the film today is the clash of wills between McMurphy and Ratched. The film explores how individual freedom and expression bump up against the expectations of society and the forces of conformity and discipline: a theme that nearly everyone can relate to. Although there's still a decent middle line between McMurphy's violent independence and Ratched's soul-destroying brand of discipline.
- The film's remembered as a comedy about the inmate revolt led by McMurphy, and the fishing trip, the all-night orgy, and his defiance of Nurse Ratched, who's determined to make McMurphy an obedient inmate, no matter what it takes, despite his constant attempts to resist her forces.
- It could also be interpreted as being about his defeat. Although the film contains what could be called a moral victory, and Chief's escape, it's but a small consolation for the lead himself
- The film contains a number of allegorical overtones, and although the overall meaning of the story and McMurphy's character isn't spelled out too clearly, it was easy enough to draw connections, such as to politics. According to director Milos Forman, the asylum's meant to be a metaphor for the Soviet Union (embodied as Nurse Ratched) and the desire to escape.
- There are multiple different ways to interpret this film. For one, the plot's structured after World War II prisoner-of-war movies, complete with breakouts and detentions in isolation cells. So maybe Nurse Ratched's a symbol of fascism.
- Then there's all of the religious symbolism, such as how McMurphy gathers a band of disciples, performs "miracles" and is sacrificed for his beliefs
The Only Bad Quality
- The film adaptation contains a number of glaring differences from the novel it's based on that are difficult to ignore, for instance:
- Chief's role in the narrative story is greatly diminished with his backstory from the novel not being present in the film, and McMurphy becoming the hero as a result with his own character arc. Now, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it takes away from some of the points the author was trying to make in the novel. In the novel, Chief was a paranoid schizophrenic, a war veteran, and had a white mother who conspired with the US government to emasculate his American-Indian father.
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