One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is an extremely interesting story and I thoroughly enjoyed the film (I even want to read the book now because I enjoyed the film that much!). I think that the most interesting scene in this film is the one where Chief killed McMurphy. I don't even like to call or think of it as killing him because I believe that what he did was what McMurphy truly would have wanted. Because of the lobotomy, McMurphy was basically turned into a vegetable and Chief was such a good friend that he knew that he would never want that for himself.
I think what is so interesting about this is that everyone in the mental hospital thought that Chief was, essentially, a vegetable too. Chief acted as if he was blind, mute, and dumb, which is what he witnessed McMurphy embody. Chief understands how McMurphy feels and he doesn't want McMurphy to live a life that Chief had to pretend to lead. Along with this, McMurphy was such a hopeful spirit. If anyone else else saw him in that state, they would all be discouraged and a light would fade in their lives.
Chief is a good friend, and although he killed someone, he did what McMurphy would have wanted if he had the ability to do anything about his life at that point in time.
Do you think that Chief suffocating McMurphy was ethical?
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest takes place in a mental institution. We see how the patients are treated/punished because of their bad behaviors. What I found to be particularly disturbing is how McMurphy was punished with having a lobotomy and basically becoming permanently disabled. I think that this was completely unjust and uncalled for. This disgusting act shows how much mental institutions have changed over the past few decades. There were probably many other options of punishment, but the lobotomy makes absolutely no sense to me. Obviously McMurphy deserved some form of punishment for trying to kill Nurse Ratched, but the actions that the staff of the institution took show how they are incompetent at trying to actually help/cure the patients. There are many better solutions to issues that the patients create within the hospital besides shock therapy and lobotomies. Even though most of these patients have severe problems, there is no reason for these forms of "curing" them.
Do you think McMurphy's punishments were justified?
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest directed by Milos Forman is a film with a strong message about societies expectations vs. the individual needs. The audiences sees all these patients in need of medial assistance while McMurphy comes in and just wants to avoid work. McMurphy is mentally stable, however, works really hard give the impression that he is 'crazy'. He acts irrationally and causes disturbances in the institution schedule and environment. There were many instance where McMurphy purposely goes against whatever Mrs. Ratched wants in expression of fighting against the system. McMurphy believes the patients deserve better treatment and care in contrast to Mrs. Ratched's beliefs of just having everyone under control. McMurphy smashes glass, talks to TV, refuses to take medication and promotes patients to take charger of themselves. After all of these different events the most significant is when he brought two girls, alcohol and a party to the floor in the middle of the night. This resulted in a sequences of negative events, Billy kills himself and then McMurphy tries to choke Mrs. Ratched to death. This ended up with McMurphy being 'treated' (punished) with a lobotomy. This symbolized McMurphy fighting for the patients support and Mrs. Ratched constantly repressing them.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a very emotionally distraught film. One of the most compelling themes throughout the film is Randy McCmurphy's influence that he has on the rest of the characters in the mental hospital. Throughout the film, we see Randy's true character develop into this life changing leader. From the beginning, Randy is trying to make a difference on these people's lives. The first scene that we see Randy helping others begins with him trying to get Cheif to communicate with him and play basketball. The others are constantly telling McCmurphy that there is no point in trying, because he is deaf and cannot speak. Randy refuses to take no for an answer. Later on in the film, McCmurphy gets fed up with the nurses, and takes the school bus to the sea where he piles the rest of the crew onto the bus. All Randy wants to do is get the rest of the guys to live a little, and venture out of the nurses' rules. Another aspect that makes the film very intriguing is Randy's reactions to the nurses' rules when compared to the rest of the gentlemen. As the film carries on, and after Randy decides to throw a party in the home, the camera focuses on a close up shot of Randy looking out of the open window. He had a perfect opportunity to escape, and has previously, yet does not take power of the chance. The close up shot of McCmurphy reflects him thinking about his decision and the impact he has had on the rest of them. The fact hat he stays, says so much about his character. Do you think that McCmurphy stays because he feels an obligation to his friends, or is it because he wants to get revenge on the nurse?
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was one of the most powerful films that we watched all year. It had the most depth to it when dealing with the serious issues of the mental illnesses at the hospital, but also had moments where it was balanced with lighthearted comedy. I think the two most interesting relationships in the movie were between McMurphy and Nurse Ratchet and between McMurphy and Chief Bromden. I think that McMurphy and Nurse Ratchet had similar ideas of the fact that they wanted to change the mental hospital, but they went about it in two very different ways. Nurse Ratchet believed that all the patients should always listen to the doctors and nurses and never question them, and she was able to keep that rule over them until McMurphy showed up and decided to make other changes of his own by creating real friendships with the other patients in the ward. McMurphy created some good relationships with the other patients and helped them to not be so afraid of Nurse Ratchet, but the most powerful and effective relationship was between McMurphy and Chief Bromden. Until McMurphy came to the hospital, all the patients had the mutual understanding that Chief was "deaf, dumb, and mute" and never questioned it and simply ignored him the whole time.
Chief was the first patient that McMurphy spoke to when he first entered the ward, and I think that shows something about his character and what he wanted to achieve at the hospital in that he wanted to change everyone's life, not just the ones that would respond to his actions. And even though Chief didn't immediately respond to McMurphy, his actions paid off in the end because Chief revealed to McMurphy and only McMurphy that he wasn't deaf or mute. I think he did this for McMurphy only because McMurphy was the only person in the entire ward that didn't immediately write him off as useless or worthless just because he'd never spoken to anyone.
What other relationships in the movie do you think were the most powerful?
Nurse Ratchet believes that she can "fix" McMurphy where I believe McMurphy can fix himself and the other inmates. Throughout the entire movie McMurphy has been there for the guys to stand up for them when they're too scared to do so themselves. A lot of zoom in's on Nurse Ratchets face show how she's reacting to McMurphy's situations and scenarios he's doing. One in particular was when he was getting the guys to start playing around on the basketball court and got one really tall patient to lift him up. McMurphy was allowing the boys to have fun for once and to not feel so isolated where Nurse Ratchet was onlooking with a glare in her eyes. There were dozens of other scenes where McMurphy is trying to take charge and provide fun for the boys and Nurse Ratchet looks with such anger.
This movie was infuriating, but also amazing. I havent read the book but I have heard that it is much more serious compared to the movie. however, even though the movie is very light hearted at times, the ending is very intense. its almost harder to watch because compared to the rest of the movie, when billy dies and how mcmurphy ends up, is very hard to watch and intense.
The worst part about the whole thing is the the reality of it all. The movie, and the ending in general really captures the dillusion of this time period. Nurse ratched single handedly causes billy's suicide and she believed she was helping him.
"One flew east, one flew west, One flew over the cuckoo’s nest." The famous line from a childhood nursery rhyme rings true as we talk about "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". At first it is not as apparent as it becomes towards the end, but this line is a motif that can relate to all of the characters in the movie, and those of us outside of the story.
When you're a kid, the word "cuckoo" is often used to describe something we find crazy, or a little strange. In reality, Cuckoo birds are known for not raising their own young. They have become incapable, making the "Cuckoos Nest" a very lonely and solitaire place to be. In the movie, I think that the "Cuckoo's Nest" is referring to a stage in your life where you don't have everything together, and it's a stage where these people need a guiding light, or host parents. This doesn't necessarily mean that everyone whose "flew over the cuckoos nest" is mentally ill, but more unstable than your usual self. However, each person's journey "Over the Cuckoos Nest" does has a different duration. Some people, like the birds that are left with a host family, are successful in getting out of their "Cuckoo stage", because the family is the right match. Others cannot become successful enough to leave the nest, as they don't have host parents to nurture them to independence, or their host parents can't offer their "breed" the specific needs they need to triumph.
Randall McMurphy is an example of one who flew over the cuckoo's nest, but never got out. He was dropped with a host family, or Nurse Ratched, but it wasn't a good fit. Ratched could not offer McMurphy the type of nurturing that he needed in order to fully develop. McMurphy ended up a vegetable because once the cuckoo has been dropped with a host family, even if its not a good match, there are no reassignments later. McMurphy died, like all the other cuckoo birds that were not nurtured properly. Had he been dropped in the nest of another, things could be different.
Do you think there is a deeper meaning to the title of the book/film?
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was particularly interesting to watch after reading and viewing Silver Linings Playbook because it was a different perspective on people with mental disorders. In Silver Linings Playbook, we didn't get to see Pat when he was in the facility while in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, a mental ward was basically the only setting. One of the most interesting concepts of the film was the relationship between Nurse Ratched and McMurphy. The two are basically polar opposites, but for some reason they seemed to have a weird connection. Before McMurphy went to the ward, Nurse Ratched had all of the patients on a tight schedule and took pride in maintaining order. When McMurphy came and started to shake everything up, she did everything she could to put him in his place. Nurse Ratched's name comes from the word "ratchet," which is a both a verb and a noun for a device that uses a twisting motion to tighten bolts into place. This is very fitting to her character because she is constantly trying to keep everyone in place while McMurphy causes chaos and makes the other patients riot against her. McMurphy seems like Ratched's worst nightmare, so it confuses me why she voted for him to stay in the hospital. I think she wanted him to stay at the ward because thought she could save him, or make him a better person. I also think she wanted him to stay because she saw the ways he was positively affecting the other characters. In the end, however, it becomes evident that she cannot control McMurphy's crazy schemes and quiets him down once and for all.
If McMurphy was such a menace to Nurse Ratched, for what other reasons do you think she voted for him to stay at the ward?
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, I think, was one of the most powerful movies we have watched all year. Even though the plot and more importantly, setting, were somewhat depressing aspects, there was still comedy and light hearted moments in the film. I think this mix of elements is hard to accomplish and this film does it flawlessly. With that being said, one of the characters that really stood out to me was Chief Bromden. In the beginning of the film he seems really easy to take advantage of since most of the men in the ward make fun of him from the start for being "deaf and dumb". One time where you can see this is in the basketball game scene where Mac tries to convince Chief to participate in the game. Because of the use of the medium shot here, you can see all the other men and their expressions. They are clearly amused and surprised that someone is even talking to Chief. It shows what little faith they have in him.
But this pre conceived notion about Chief is not true. He can talk and hear, but chooses not to. That was interesting to me, as to why he didn't talk for the whole film until the end when Mac gives him a piece of gum. That particular part was intriguing to me because of the close up shots used. I liked how there was the extreme close up of Mac giving Chief the piece of gum and then the pan to his face when he says "juicy fruit". It allowed for the viewer to see Chiefs change here and how all the other men were wrong about him.
Why do you think Chief chooses to stay silent until this point in the film? What effect did this have on you when you see him kill Mac and then escape?
While RP (played by Jack Nicholson) wasn't a very good guy, he was the only person who actually cared about the mental patients, and his actions had an overall positive effect on all of them. The staff at the mental institution were strict and very tough on the patients (ex: badgering Billy Babbit about his attempted suicide, not telling RP what was in the medicine. Over the course of the movie, RP helped everyone grow out of their shells, and even start questioning Nurse Ratched and her staff on their own.
One of the moments when you see this change, is when Cheswick starts questioning Nurse Ratched, and later demands getting his cigarettes. This is a powerful scene because everyone begins shouting, and it really shows how far they've progressed (compared to the first time we see them meeting, and no one wants to say anything).
Another moment that really surprised me was when Chief finally talked, saying "thank you" when RP gave him gum. People believed that he was deaf and mute, so no one paid attention to him. The only person to include him in anything was RP.
