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Yar, you be here: One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest > Customer Reviews One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest Customer Reviews (46 - 48 of 52 Reviews)Cuckoo's Nest is a modern story of the Christ
Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ continues to draw record crowds and everyone who has seen it rates it very highly, but One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest may be a more accurate in some ways retelling of the Christ Story. Most people will never know that this is the Christ story set in contemporary times. No robes and beards and crosses here, no stereotypical sneering Satan, but instead a story about good and evil, as one of the characters says near the very beginning, "Its not about my wife. Its about my life. Its about good and evil, its about God and the devil!" and so it is. Here Satan appears not in red or black, but in white, a nurse! She has no snarl, but instead speaks softly as she administers medications and follows the rules. She is an agent of mercy! And on the other hand was the unshaven McMurphy, the petty crook, the foul mouthed womanizer who enjoyed gambling, smoking, drinking, all the antithesis of the the religious ideal, but then Jeusus too was always unpopular with the religous types. They called him a glutton and a drunkard and noted that he hung out with prostitutes. But McMrphy has a good heart! He is decidely Christ like in his attitudes towards his fellow inmates. He treats the apparently autistic native American "chief" as if he is just one of the boys. He takes his fellow inmates on a fishing junket and introduces them as "doctors". He has a joyful world view that bends the rules for the sake of humanity. Not so the nurse! She follows the rules to the letter! Their conflict is the whole point of Christianity, the law versus the Gospel. Here is a film where you can really hate the Satanic and love the Christ like, and the differences between the two are presented in stark contrast. You can't just observe this film. You are rooting for McMurphy! In Gibson's Passion of the Christ one observes the outrageous abuses suffered by Jesus and feel horror, but when you observe the satanic figure in that film you are not consumed by hate for it. You are not hoping that Christ will strangle Satan right then and there as you do hope will happen in Cuckoo's Nest, where McMurphy attempts to strangle the God forsaken nurse. At the end of the film, the inmates are convinced that the absent McMurphy is "up there", cofounding the authorities. Now they have faith in McMurphy. The "Chief" acts on his faith, throws the plumbing through the wall, and escapes as water gushes everywhere. Christians will remember that the waters of Baptism free one from the shackles of tyrany. A disturbing movie about the disturbed.
In this multi-Academy award winning flick based on Ken Kesey's novel, actor Jack Nicholson as jail-bird Randle P. McMurphy seeks escape from the prison work farm by feigning madness. He is committed to a psychiatric ward for the mentally disturbed for evaluation while the staff try to determine whether his behaviour is genuine insanity or mere rebellion. But being with the mentally ill isn't as rosy as McMurphy imagined it to be, particularly under the repressive regime operated by Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher). In the battle of mind-games with Ratched, McMurphy discovers that even a simple thing as watching the World Series is impossible, because it might disturb the patients' routine. Only three movies have ever taken out all five major Academy awards (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Screenplay), and "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" is one of that elite group. To say that the acting is superb is an understatement. It takes a lot of talent to convincingly portray someone mentally disturbed, but this cast accomplishes it with brilliance. The supporting roles as nearly as terrific as the leading roles: Sydney Lassick as the shaky inarticulate Charlie Cheswick, Brad Dourif as the stuttering virgin Billy Bibbit, Danny DeVito as the infantile Martini, Christopher Lloyd as the wide-eyed trouble-maker Tabor, William Redfield as the eloquent intellectual Dale Harding, and Will Sampson as the mute Indian giant. But the mentally ill are depicted not merely as objects for examination and pity, but with genuine sympathy as victims under an oppressive regime. Admittedly they're also the source for warm humor; Highlights include McMurphy's commentary of an imaginary baseball game with all the "nuts" cheering, and McMurphy's creative introduction of all patients as "doctors" from the mental institution as they hijack a fishing boat. Those who work with the mentally disturbed in real life will be the first to tell you that you need a sense of humor in dealing with them. But humor doesn't exclude compassion, and this movie raises serious questions about the treatment of the mentally ill. Everything is geared towards arousing sympathy for the mentally disturbed: minimalist music and silence, dreary colors, bright lighting, and male care-givers who are police-like unnamed uniforms. These factors combine to create an atmosphere that conveys a clinical and sterile environment devoid of compassion for those who need it. Nurse Ratched is depicted as a cold and distant woman without feelings for those in her charge, and her authoritarian role personifies an establishment that cares little for the mentally ill. Rather than show compassion for the weak, she uses therapy sessions to uncover whatever hope and spirit they have and destroy it. McMurphy's embodiment of this human spirit is somewhat exaggerated (the way he initiates interest in basketball games and escapes on a fishing expedition is not entirely plausible), but it makes the point. Interestingly, some have seen the movie as a social criticism on all oppression of the human spirit, with a broad application even to ideologies like communism. As others have said: tyranny has many faces, and the story of freedom from oppression goes beyond the walls of a mental asylum. The criticism of the handling of the mentally ill is most evident in how the institution handles McMurphy. We identify with McMurphy because we know his insanity is faked, and yet the "treatment" he receives is thoroughly troubling, especially when those in charge resort to electric-shock therapy. Is there a parallel in the way that many social problems (eg depression, ADD) are today diagnosed as mental illnesses and treated with drugs? The tragic way in which McMurphy's "mental illness" is mishandled at the conclusion arouses righteous anger, and is a disturbing indictment on all mistreatment of the mentally ill. There is no crowd-pleasing feel-good ending as his attempt to topple the establishment fails. Yet the lack of a happy ending makes his criticisms of the establishment all the more piercing. The movie was rated R for frequent profanity/blasphemy, crude sexual talk and one violent scene at the end (there are also scenes involving alcohol, suicide, an incident where sexual promiscuity is applauded, and an implied endorsement of mercy killing). The violence and language is deliberately distasteful and one can hardly feel sympathy for McMurphy as an immoral criminal (he is a convicted rapist, rebels against authority, sets up a gambling casino, and encourages Billy to lose his virginity). Yet one has to feel sympathy for him as he is abused by an inhumane establishment that is equally criminal in its own way by failing to show genuine compassion for those entrusted in its care. If McMurphy's character is distasteful and criminal, so is the character of care given to the mentally ill. Rather than become sidetracked by McMurphy's failings, we need to take a serious look at the failings of the establishment as embodied in Ratched. The tragic consequences (represented by Billy's death & McMurphy's lobotomy) of these failings are just as horrific as the consequences of an immoral life. Understood in this way, this movie is much more than a vindication of the free human spirit and an endorsement of rebellious anti-authoritarianism. More importantly it functions as a biting criticism against the abuse of authority to crush that spirit. This is not a pleasant movie to watch, but it packs a powerful philosophical punch and raises profound questions that are more enduring than mere entertainment. The conclusion does offer a note of hope, as the silent Indian escapes the cuckoo's nest (perhaps a metaphor of true freedom being found in escaping the establishment and modern institutionalized civilization?). But we are still left with disturbing questions about those who do not escape: Would we really want our family members in a place like this? This is a disturbing movie that raises disturbing questions about the treatment of the disturbed - but questions that need to be asked ... and answered.
I rank this movie as the best of the best of what I consider to be American Cinema's golden decade, the 70s. It certainly won the widest acclaim, with its sweep of the major Oscars for 1975 (Nicholson also won best actor from the New York Film Critics voters that year). Not to be overlooked is the fantastic job performed by the film's adaptors, Bo Goldman and Lawrence Hauben, who also won Oscars for their screenplay. True, they did have a fairly decent stage version (by Dale Wasserman) to work with. I remember seeing an excellent production of the play, with a terrific cast, in San Francisco circa 1972. Just as an aside, I read in the Norton Critical edition of the novel, a review of a NY production of the play by Walter Kerr that was an absolute pan. Suffice it to say that the movie is much different than either the novel or the play. Those familiar with Kesey's great novel understand how difficult a transfer from page to screen would be; about a third of the story is Bromden's delusional interior monologue. The final script, quite rightly, focuses almost exclusively on Randal P McMurphy's struggle with Nurse Ratched for the hearts and minds of the inmates. This is truly a gut and soul-wrenching movie, with many moments of high maniacal comedy interspersed. Though many of his other films are top-notch, this is Forman's masterpiece. If you haven't read the book, read it. It you don't own this movie, buy it. There are few works in the history of American literature and film that are superior.
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