One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest(1975)
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The 60’s and 70’s was the age of counter culture, rebellion against authority, and a sort of insistence on human rights, freedom. As people rebelled against existing attitudes and beliefs, a new breed of movie makers, began to take their place under the sun. Movie makers influenced by the European New Wave and counter culture ideals, thus began to translate their ideas into movies. Movies that were not big budget, huge canvas affairs, but more personal stories, more grittier, more realistic. This was the era of directors like Martin Scorcese, Francis Ford Copolla, Robert Altman whose created a new grammar of movie making. It was also the age of Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson. Through their movies, they expressed their angst against society, and their desire for individual freedom. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is one such movie, that dealt with individual rebellion against an oppresive system.
Based on a novel by Ken Kesey, it was first dramatized by Broadway in 1963 with Kirk Douglas starring in lead role. He also bought the movie rights, however none of the studios were interested in the subject, as they felt it did not have much commercial value. Later on Kirk’s son, Michael Douglas co produced the movie along with Saul Zentz. Milos Forman, the director of the movie, however was still not a big name in Hollywood, nor was he one of the 70’s movie brats. He however had made a reputation for himself in his native Czechoslovakia, with many Czech movies, and after the aborted Prague Spring of 1968, he fled to US. Jack Nicholson, by then had already made a name for himself in cult classics like Easy Rider, a tale of two bored young men who take a road trip around US and 5 Easy Pieces, a movie about a person who flees his privileged, upper class background, to lead the life of a roughneck oil rigger. Both these movies, had established Jack as one of the 70’s rebels, along with others like Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda.
The movie begins with Randle Mc Murphy( Jack Nicholson), being escorted into a mental institution in Oregon, which is supervised by a stern, dictatorial matron, Nurse Ratched( Louise McFletcher). Murphy has been placed in the asylum, due to his rebellious nature at the prison camp, where he has been serving his sentence. The prison authorities feel that Murphy deliberately feigned insanity to escape from the prison. And at this time Murphy gets to meet his ward inmates
Chief Bromden, aka Broom( Will Sampson)- Of Red Indian origin, he is deaf n dumb, silent and literally towers over every one, with his imposing physique.
Billy Bibbit( Brad Dourif)- a shy, stuttering individual, who has been affected due to his Mother’s domination.
Dale Harding( William Redfield)- a soft spoken, intellectual, but his wife’s adultery and betrayal, left him deeply affected.
Charlie Cheswick( Sydney Lassik)- a neurotic with no self confidence
Martini( Danny De Vito)- an utterly immature person.
Taber( Christopher Lloyd)- a trouble maker, and a sadist.
The biggest problem Murphy has however is with the domineering Nurse Ratched who supervises his ward. Ratched loves to dominate and pyschologically emasculate the patients, making them feel worthless. Murphy goes about trying to brighten the otherwise dark, and depressing environment of the ward, by getting the inmates involved in basketball and also card games like poker, blackjack. Murphy proves to be a prickly thorn for Nurse Ratched, questioning the rules and regulations, refusing to follow her. He tries to forment a rebellion, by getting the patients on to his side.
Nurse Ratched is however unwilling to let go of her authority, and she keeps thwarting Murphy’s mind games at every stage. It becomes a battle between Murphy and Ratched, both of them giving no quarter. The doctors feel that Murphy is putting on a charade, and when he manages to sneak out the inmates for an outdoor trip, before being caught again, he is regarded as “dangerous”, but not insane however. Nurse Ratched however is not willing to let Murphy leave the place, as she wants to break him down fully.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, addresses the age old conflict of individual vs an oppresive system. Forman was a witness to the Prague Spring and he himself was a victim of censorship. The asylum could as well have been the metaphor for Soviet Russia, which had brutally crushed the uprisings in Hungary(1956) and Czechoslovakia(1968). Nurse Ratched’s tactics in many ways, are eerily reminiscient of the mind control techniques used by KGB , Stasi to brain wash dissidents and torture them mentally. Also the Soviet system was notorious for sending dissidents to asylums, where they were locked up forever.
The asylum becomes a battleground between Murphy and Ratched, as both try to establish their authority. For starters Murphy, never thinks he is sane, as he says
I’m a god-damn marvel of modern science
He constantly questions her authority and the rules, saying God Almighty, she’s got you guys comin’ or goin’. What do you think she is, some kind of a champ or somethin’?.
The divergence in the views of Murphy and Ratched is clearly shown in the scene, where Murphy demands a small change in the schedule, so that inmates could see the opener of the 1963 World Series, saying a little change never hurts. Ratched immediately retorts.
Some men on the ward take a long, long time to get used to the schedule. Change it now and they might find it very disturbing
But what follows next is really interesting, Ratched, agrees to go for a poll, and Murphy finds only 3 people supporting his proposal. However when the next time round, Murphy gets 9 people supporting his proposal, Ratched, changes the rules saying that he needs support of at least 18 members. Very typical of dictatorships and even one party democracies, which claim to have the people’s will to rule, and yet when the same people revolt, the system immediately changes rules so that it is not in danger.
Quite a sinister parallel to some of the Warsaw Pact states during the Cold War. As long as they toed the line of Kremlin, everything was fine, but if they dared to break away like Hungary or Czechoslovakia, immediately, you would have Russian tanks comming in. Not that the US was better, as for all its commitment to democracy, it propped up many tin pot dictators so as to topple democratic regimes, not in tune with its policies, Chile being the best example.
In spite of the often dark, and brooding nature of the theme, director Milos Forman, injects moments of humour and war
mth. One of the best being when denied access to watch the World Series on TV, Murphy actually recreates the game play by play, using inventive techniques. Jack Nicholson’s performance in the scene is just brilliant, as he keeps switching his expressions. Just this scene would make you understand why Jack totally deserved the Best Actor award.
Another really great scene is when Murphy sneaks out the inmates of his ward , on a wild fishing trip. In one of the best comic sequences in movie history, he introduces the asylum inmates as doctors themselves.
This is Dr. Cheswick, Dr. Taber, Dr. Frederickson, Dr. Scanlon, the famous Dr. Scanlon, Mr. Harding, Dr. Bibbit, Dr. Martini, and Dr. Sefelt (William Duell)…Oh, I’m Dr. McMurphy, R. P. McMurphy.
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is a totally heartwarming tale of an individual’s struggle against an oppresive system. Though some of the later scenes are very shocking and disturbing, especially the scene in which Billy commits suicide, and the ending is tragic, Forman makes sure, that the movie does not get bogged down too much in depression. At times sweet, at times warm, at times comic, and yet shattering, it is a classic for all times.
And again here apart from Murphy and Ratched, the other characters in the movie also create a strong impact. Especially, the nervous, stuttering Billy, who suffers from mother domination, and whose weakness is made use of by Ratched, superb performance from Brad Douriff in his debut movie. Will Sampson, Danny De Vito and Christopher Lloyd, offer excellent support too.
Louise Fletcher as Nurse Ratched is first rate. In a role, that is cold, calculating and dominating, she exudes so much menace, that you just end up hating her. You detest the way she changes rules wilfully and preys on the inmates weaknesses. She deserved the Best Actress Award as much as Jack did. And of course no mention would be complete without good ole Jack, who puts in a fantastic performance, that is rebellious, quirky and angry. He makes you chuckle, and yet in the final scenes, he affects you emotionally.
This is the only other movie along with It Happened One Night, and Silence of the Lambs to win all the 5 Major oscars, Best Movie, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Screenplay. And it deserved all of them.
Tags: Best Picture Oscars, Counter Culture, danny de vito, Hospital Dramas, Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Milos Forman
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Kyunki was a bad remake of it
I had seen the Mallu version of Kyun Ki, Thalavattom and was not even interested in watching the Hindi version. Mohanlal was great in the Mallu version. Sallu vs Jack Nicholson, no comparison at all.
I guess you described it fairly accurately. This movie is “At times sweet, at times warm, at times comic, and yet shattering…” There is no better way to describe it.
My favourite bit is the very end with the Chief. I won’t spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it, but suffice to say that it catches me off-guard every single time.
Good write up.
One of my favourites
i thought it was over-rated, i loved nicholson’s performance though; he took home the oscar.
there was an old shammi kapoor movie called ‘pagla kahin ka’ which seemed to be loosely inspired by this; on hindsight i think it just had the same premise.
its a nice watch only bcos of nicholson; he is the only reason why i watched the movie
Rals, u can also add Dev Anand’s Funtoosh to that list, where he fakes insanity to end up in an asylum.
This was my first movie of Jackie Boy, and from then onwards, he has been one of my favorites. He really seems to revel in these crazed kinda roles. The scene where he recreates the World Series was acting at its best.
Even in Yaarana AB fakes insanity to get into an asylum to locate his friend ( Amjad Khan).
I enjoyed Mohanlal’s performance in Thalavattom & felt Kyunki certainly was no patch on either the hollywood movie or the malayalam version.I guess the casting wasnt right for the movie.
@Rals:
One dont think that Pagla Kahin Ka, has any similiarity to One Flew, except for the fact that both have heroes residing in an asylum.
Also Funtoosh, deals with Dev’s release from an asylum, and his attempts to lead a normal life, are taken advantage of.
Sethu , also in Yaraana, that was just a part in the movie, so dont think its an apt comparison point.
But main issue is that in One Flew Over…., while we are made to believe that Jack is feigning insanity, and so do the doctors, it is not explicitly suggested. We only get to know of Jack’s rebellious, violent nature, when he is first examined by the doctors. We really dont have an idea, whether that rebel attitude of his, is of the dangerous variety. All we know is that he has escaped from jail, multiple times.
But main thing is in Thalavattom or PKK, the hero is a lunatic, and is slowly cured, though Thalavattom, had some influences from One Flew Over…, as in the final climax.
Also in One Flew…, Murphy rebels against the system at every turn, while in Thala, it becomes more of a love story.
I dont understand why Priyan choose Salman for title role, he may be good in the clowning around stuff , but as far as serious roles are concerned, he has never impressed me at all.
Ratnakar- I think Priyan was influenced by seeing the success of Tere Naam.Frankly I thought the movie would be a disaster when compared to the tamil original -Sethu, but Himesh’s music enabled the movie to be a big succcess especially in the B&C centres.Since Tere Naam had Sallu in a serious role & as he also plays the lunatic act- Priyan must have got carried away & thought he would be apt for Kyunki.actually even the supporting cast like Nedumudi Venu,Soman,Karthika etc were brilliant in Thalavattom compared to those in Kyunki.
@Ratnakar : funtoosh sounds much like yugpurush
No Rals, Funtoosh has got a pretty weird story. Its like Dev is out from the asylum, and losing everything in life decides to kill himself. But KN Singh cuts a deal with him, saying that he can live in style for a week, and then kill himself. Dev now wants to start living, but Singh, has some plans of killing him off, coz he gets 1 lakh rupess on Dev’s death.
Pretty weird, twisted story, and even Chetan Anand’s direction is bad. Did not like the movie it all, found it downright stupid. The only good thing were some songs by S.D.Burman.
very well written post.
It has been on my to-watch list but this write up convinces me to watch it this weekend.
thx
I had mostly seen only action movies in english till I saw this one. It blew me away totally..I loved each second of this movie. Loved each characters and each dialogue. This movie made me discover lot of other classics.so, I will be always grateful for this movie.
impressive post…absolutely adore the movie
@Sharath- Yes this movie is a classic for ever. Every scene, every act is etched so beautifully.
there is one particular scene were in he tries to lift the heavy marble hydrotherapy fountain……his expression on face and the way he bcomes red trying to lift that fountain……..awesome scene and movie man
True the movie deserves all the Oscar it got
We even adapted it for a play and it was a hit [:P]
@ Nikhil- Hmm adapted for a play, where?
@ Abdul Narayan D’Souza- Whew man, whats with that Amar-Akbar-Antony kinda name? Anyway love that scene u mentioned. Great expressions.
Thank GOD someone brought MILOS FORMAN here.
The profeesor from Columboia University proved that an academic can leave his mark on world-cinema even making handful of movies.
And the man who gave us Amadeus has shown in recent times that he has not lost his touch yet through a wonderful movie called ‘Goya’s Ghosts’. Fellow PFCers can watch that movie if only for the last scene which in my humble movie watching experience stands as the second ’soul-stirring’ last scene after that of Amores Perros.
This is such a wonderful flick!! Lovely write up! Jack’s performance – truly deserving of first Oscar.I miss the Jack Nicholson of such films.
@ XYZ- Yes one of Jack’s best performances for sure. I think in recent times he was great in About Schimdt, where he played a totally restrained character.
@ labor_day_sale- I have not seen Goya’s Ghosts, but both One Flew and Amadeus are classics. One of the best directors of the 70’s.