Director: Milos Forman
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Will Sampson, Louise Fletcher
Rank: 33
Before this project, I had never seen One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, but I am glad that I have seen it now. Having never read the book either, I knew next to nothing about the story or the characters, but it was a nice experience being able to send time in their world (and also nice to be able to escape back to mine).
Jack Nicholson plays R.P. McMurphy, a man who fakes mental illness to get out of working. He is sent to a mental facility where he forms a comradeship with the other patients and causes chaos for the nurses and attendants.
The main point of the story seems to be fighting against establishment: While in the mental asylum, McMurphy bonds many of the other patients together and fights against the nursing staff, being defiant at every chance he gets. He causes trouble, does some dangerous things, and is always willing to take a self-imposed dare when he knows it'll upset the nurses. Most people have an inner voice that makes them want to defy authority (though some people's inner voices are louder than others) and live by their own rules. Whether it is parents, a boss, or the government, there is always a part of a person that wants to rebel and do things their own way. It seems only natural to want to rebel against one thing or another, even if it is just rebelling against a trend or boycotting a fast food restaurant. It makes me wonder if we were even made to conform and be told what to do or if it is something we have imposed on ourselves as a society over time.
The other interesting point of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the setting of the mental asylum and the characters who live in it. Each of them has their own little quirk; something that makes them unique. I have yet to meet someone who is completely "normal" and does not have some strange little feature about themselves. This doesn't have to mean that they should be in a mental facility, it just means that they are human. For example, I have an irrational fear of the garbage disposal in the sink. I cannot turn on the garbage disposal if no one else is home, and here's the (strange) reasoning: If there is something down there, like a spoon or fork or a piece of glass, then if I turn it on it's going to shoot up into my neck, and since I'm home alone no one will be there to save me from bleeding to death. I can't stick my hand down there to check, because I'm certain that the moment my fist is completely down there the garbage disposal will turn on by itself and rip my hand to shreds. So every time I absolutely need to turn on the garbage disposal when I'm home along, I have to get out a pot and hold it over the hole before turning it on to protect myself.
When a person's quirk comes together with a natural tendancy to want to rebel, the results can be amazingly interesting. In McMurphy's case, (SPOILER!) he ends up being overtaken by the "establishment" of the mental asylum, but the things he does inspired another patient faking mental illness, known as Chief, to escape and start living his life. (end SPOILER) Inspiring others to go for the right thing, no matter how crazy it may seem, can be even more satisfying than getting it yourself.
Alright, extra credit homework: post a comment telling about a quirk that you have. We all get a little strange sometimes, right?
Trivia:
• Before they were as famous stars as they are today, Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd both had supporting roles in this film as patients at the psychiatric hospital.
• Many of the extras in the hospital scenes were actual mental patients.
Movies to Go: 89
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