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One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest

dir. Milos Forman; screenplay by Lawrence Hauben & Bo Goldman from Ken Kesey’s novel

Rated R, Color, 133 minutes

Cast: Jack Nicholson (Randle Patrick McMurphy), Louise Fletcher (Nurse Mildred Ratched), Scatman Crothers (Turkle), Danny DeVito (Martini), Christopher Lloyd (Taber), Will Sampson (Chief Bromden)

Overview

"Escape" to a mental asylum. Doing time on a prison farm, Randle Patrick McMurphy (Nicholson) gets out of work detail and escapes the rigors of prison life by pretending to be crazy. Shipped to a mental asylum, he becomes the prisoner of a much more hateful system, presided over by a quietly sadistic head nurse (Louise Fletcher).

Rejuvenating the asylum. To his amazement McMurphy finds his fellow inmates are "no crazier than any other s.o.b. on the street," and he finds that all have distinctive personalities with strange and pathetic quirks, although a few have retreated into entirely monistic states. To bring life to the dead atmosphere, McMurphy introduces card games (with pornographically illustrated cards), organizes basketball games, and even conducts a field trip for his fellow inmates, but at every turn Nurse Ratched is there to administer vicious punishment, attempting to break McMurphy's spirit.

End of the Party. At one point McMurphy smuggles two girlfriends (Marya Small and Louisa Moritz) into the ward and passes out a cache of booze, giving a wild midnight party for the inmates and initiating the emotionally disturbed Billy Bibbit (Brad Dourif) into sex. Nurse Ratched finds Billy in bed with one of the girls the next morning and exacts revenge upon McMurphy. Confronted with this unassailable truth about their captivity, the inmates finally take action.

Electrifying drama. Beyond jarring and electrifying drama, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a naked study in rebellion and mistreatment, wonderfully enacted by a mostly nonprofessional cast. Nicholson is in his usual but powerful mold (Five Easy Pieces, 1970; The Last Detail, 1973) as a cagy antihero ready to jab the system at every opportunity, even knowing he cannot win against it, or change it, and is even prepared to die before submitting to it. Fletcher appears in her only effective role.

Nicholson's performance. Nicholson, who won the Oscar for Best Actor, gives a performance that is nothing less than great; in fact, this was his greatest role to date, albeit the psychological posture is so traumatic (not to mention distasteful) that no young child should be subjected to this performance or the film itself. Misread as humorous in spots, the entire film is a juggernaut indictment of an uncaring, destructive medical system that makes prisoners of the mentally disturbed, rather than working toward their health and happiness.

Background. Actor Kirk Douglas acquired the rights to Dale Wasserman's play (originally written by Ken Kesey as a novel) and had a great success acting in it on Broadway in the 1960s, but by the time this film was made in 1975, he was too old to play the lead and turned the property over to his son Michael. The fledgling actor-producer brought in Milos Forman as director.

Awards. In addition to Nicholson's Oscar, the movie swept the top 1975 Academy Awards, winning Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Fletcher), and Best Screenplay.

Questions for discussion of the Kesey novel

courtesy of Leslie Werden

AS YOU READ...

1. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is narrated by a long term resident of the psychiatric ward, Chief Bromden. As a reader, can we trust his perspective? Why or why not?
2. Is Chief Bromden a “static” or “developing” character? How so? What, if anything, guides/adds to/detracts from Bromden’s position through the novel?
3. What is the role of the female in the novel? Given the time period in which it was written, is this significant? Why or why not?
4. Boggs discusses Jungian Criticism in terms of a “quest” by a “hero” struggling to “become an independent, self-reliant being,” and to complete the quest, the hero must “free himself from the Great Mother (338). Do you see any of this in the novel? Do you agree with it or disagree?
5. Regarding the basic theme of the novel, do you think it’s universal, rewarding, valuable, or something else?
6. How would you characterize McMurphy? What is his role in the novel?
7. What symbols do you see throughout the novel? How are they “charged”?
8. Barry Leeds, author of “Theme and Technique in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” says that McMurphy serves as a savior or Christ figure. Do you agree or disagree with Leeds’ “Christ metaphor” theory? Why or why not?

AFTER YOU READ...

1. If you were to create a movie version of this novel, what elements would you leave in? What would you take out? Are there certain characters that must remain in the film version and others that could be omitted?
2. How would a director deal with the point of view issue? What difficulties might he or she face? How would the director deal with tone, mood, attitude, etc.?

Questions for discussion of the film adaptation

courtesy of Leslie Werden

1. In both Letter from an Unknown Woman and Rear Window, we considered the problems of adapting first-person point-of-view from literary fiction to the cinematic narrative.  What is the filmmakers' response to those problems in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest? What changes occur because of the change of point of view?
2. Is Chief Bromden an "auxiliary" character in the film?  Why or why not?
3. How does the relationship between McMurphy and Chief Bromden change from the book to the film?
4. What do you see as the theme of the novel?  Does it change in the film?  If so, to what?  How does this affect the overall texture or meaning of the story?
5. John Zubizarreta, in his article "The Disparity of Point of View" (on reserve), states that the conflict between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched "takes on the proportion of myth: man versus woman, good versus evil, freedom versus confinement, individuality versus conformity, sex and death in perpetual antithesis."  Which of these do feel is most strongly emphasized in the film?  In the book?  Why?
6. Are the same symbols from the book present in the film? What are they? Why are they significant? Which symbols are left out? Are there symbols added?
7. Do music and setting play a major or minor role in the film?  How so?
8. Of the various interpretive approaches Boggs catalogs for analyzing the whole film, which do you think seems most useful in analysis of One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, and what insights or meanings does it yield?