One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Rating

Director

Milos Forman

Screenplay

Bo Goldman, Lawrence Hauben (Novel by Ken Kesey)

Length

133 min.

Starring

Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, William Redfield, Michael Berryman, Peter Brocco, Dean R. Brooks, Alonzo Brown, Scatman Crothers, Mwako Cumbuka, Danny DeVito, Chistopher Lloyd, Brad Dourif

MPAA Rating

R

Review

Is there such a thing as too crazy? One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest examines life inside a mental institution where the definition has many shades of meaning.

Jack Nicholson stars as Randle Patrick McMurphy, a convict who’s shipped to an asylum because of his violent tendencies; however, he seems as sane as any person on the street. When he mixes with the inmates of his ward, some voluntary, others involuntary, we learn what it’s truly like to be sane.

Corralling the mentally disturbed is the head nurse Mildred Ratched. She is a strict disciplinarian and refuses to tolerate flagrant disregard of the rules. Although she does only what she believe is best for the inmates, she viciously defends her practices. Matter of fact, a reasonable person could see her concern for the patients and her ability to steer them towards sanity. However, her stubbornness when it comes to the contradictory McMurphy, bring out the worst in her and her temperament could easily be characterized as evil.

Nicholson does some of his best work here. When acting normally, you might not even suspect it is he under that black knit cap. However, his trademark glares and off-the-wall behavior have a place in McMurphy’s contrary mentality. One might believe he is crazy when viewing his antics from outside but when you look at how he interacts with the other “prisoners”, he sees people who have been unfairly castigated into this institution supposedly trying to make them normal again yet denying them every semblance of normality that they deserve.

The rest of the cast is certainly fine. Fletcher gives Ratched every bit the malice and hurt that her character needs. Even though she is the antagonist (a case could be made that the institution and its rules are the villain, not the people who implement them) of the picture, a shade of vulnerability lies behind those cold eyes. Brad Dourif is terrific as the awkward, shy and repressed Billy Bibbit. And Will Sampson makes the mute Chief Bromden a character with so much depth and personality that it’s hard to believe he has very little to do with the overall plot of the film.

Director Milos Forman carefully and adeptly weaves these characters together making us understand that sanity is a mere reflection of one’s own views. To some these individuals would be looked at as lunatics whereas others may see them as emotionally challenged prisoners of their own minds. These kinds of people are now treated by psychologists on a weekly basis outside of such a holding pen.

What Forman says about our own perceptions with One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is startling. The film shows us the extent to which we’ll push people aside because of their bizarre tendencies instead of treating them like real people. If we help them to see their faults and live life instead of hiding from it, perhaps we can make a difference in their lives and help them reintegrate into society instead of being separated from it.

Review Written

December 8, 2006