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One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
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Starring: | Jack Nicolson, Louise Fletcher |
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| Directed by: | Milos Forman | |
| Written by: | Bo Goldman, Lawrence Hauben |
All you literary type people will all want one question answered: "Is it as good as the book?". I'll respond to that later, but first we'll look at the film as a stand-alone event.
This is the first "serious" film I've reviewed for Eskimo, so I'll have to improvise. One Flew Over... is a film about power, it's about those who wield it and those that are suppressed by it. And the line between them is not so clearly defined as one might have thought. There's a battle going on in the asylum, and only two people are clearly taking sides...
The best word I can use to define this film is "gritty"; from the writing to the characters and from the locations to the camerawork, nearly everything in this movie has a subdued feel to it. The patients in the hospital - despite being interestingly insane, are all under the terrifying control of Nurse Ratchett.
Only Jack Nicolson's McMurphy is colourful and outgoing - but somehow, his influence is extending to the other patients and giving them what they haven't had in years: life. Naturally Ratchett is disturbed by this, and a war ensues. I won't ruin any more for you, but I'll try and analyse what I can.
Ratchett and McMurphy represent two totally opposite sides of the human psyche: Ratchett craves order and predictability. She clings to the smallest reasons to keep things as they are, she is the ultimate conservative. She is the model of a person who has an unsuitable amount of power - she abuses it without a second thought and is willind to ruin lives with a single, rash decision. She's cold and methodical, emotionally detached and unable to relate to any of the patients (why she became a nurse is a mystery to me). She's the teacher you had at school who seemed to take a perverse pleasure in taking control and ruling her tiny kingdom. If she wasn't a nurse she'd be the woman who devised the rules for taxes and social benefit - unexpectedly complicated and slightly cruel.
McMurphy represents the desire for chaos and fun. He acts with little or no thought for the consequences. He's the personification of the id. He is more than capable of seeing what he wants and taking the shortest possible route there, unconcerned with ruffling any feathers on the way. He can't be classed as malicious the same way Ratchett can, but he can seem that way. He's mischevious and a hedonist and really quite selfish - but he has a conscience & never wants to cause lasting damage through his acts, until he's pushed too far... Although Nurse Ratchett is bestowed with power from those above her, Randall McMurphy has almost as much though sheer force of personality. He's able to get people behind him, and crusades for equal rights and fairer conditions. In other words: he's a likable human being.
If this film has a failing, it's that it ascribes to Hollywood's rule that insane people look weird. They may be deformed, short, very tall, have strange hair or just an odd face, but nearly all of them would stick out in a crowd even if they were sane. Despite this, their personalities and quirks are realistic, ranging from amusing to disturbing and despite their madness, they are always more human than Nurse Ratchett.
This film is one of the few to receive the "Big Five" Oscars (Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Film, Best Director & Best Script) and the only one on which I fully agree with the Oscar comittee. Both Nicolson & Fletcher nail their characters perfectly, never waivering once. Forman works with an individual style that fits the movie perfectly & the script can't be faltered. The award for Best Film was just a formality after all of these.
Summary: This is one of the few films I haven't thought I could've improved. It's a story of power & humanity that manages to connect with it's audience and delive it's message with chilling accuracy. Oh, and as for the question as to whether it's better than the book: I don't know, I never read it.
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