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One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Movie Review Essay

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Movie Review: One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

Today, movie production in Hollywood is all about sequels and remakes. In other words, Hollywood is beginning to run out of ideas. One such film that has been rumored to be remade is the classic title One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, directed by Milos Forman. The drama follows a convicted morally independent felon, R.P. McMurphy, who has been sent to be evaluated at a mental institution. McMurphy, played by Jack Nicholson, rebels against the strict rules of Nurse Ratched who is in charge of the institution and tries to share his love for the world outside the institution with his inmates, who are treated there voluntarily.

Jack Nicholson's overall performance in this movie is astounding, not to mention the superb acting of Louise Fletcher, playing the role of Nurse Ratched. Nicholson plays similar roles in many of his previous titles. You could say that a lot of his personality shines through in his acting, making it easy to argue that Louise Fletcher, who plays a very authoritarian role, might have had to face a greater challenge acting out her character. Therefore, perhaps, her acting should be considered better than Nicholson's. Regardless of this, both actors play their roles very well, getting the viewer immersed in the story.

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McMurphy is thinking. As an example, McMurphy had the change to escape from the mental institution twice. The first time he made sure to say good bye to all his inmates but instead decided to stay and in the process help his inmate get together with a girl. The second time, during the morning after, he once again stood in front of the open window, looking undetermined whether to leave the institution or take part of the mess that his planned escape had generated. He ignored the shouts from his friends outside the institution and headed back

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His scars also inform us, you guessed it, that McMurphy is different from the other patients in the ward in a sense that the damages of life have toughened him up as opposed to other the patients who are very weak minded and subservient. This is shown to us throughout the book by the fact that McMurphy is the one who opposes Nurse Ratched's tyrannical rule while the other patients just follow his

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In novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, a leader organizes a group of mental patients and rebels against the figurehead of the broken institutional system of the mental hospital. McMurphy pushes The institutions rules of order, bringing out the evil in the situation. Bromden, due to his bias narration, misconstrues Nurse Ratched as the antagonist where, in truth, she falsifies this by trying to maintain order and by ultimately seeking the best for her patients. Kesey chooses Bromden as the narrator, by doing this, he introduces an element of skepticism for the audience as Brombden opposes the institution.

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In both novels, the situation that the characters are placed in is fertile ground for any unscrupulous anti-hero’s perfect rebellion. In McMurphy’s case, Nurse Ratched has a chokehold on all the patients and almost all the staff, even though she isn’t the formal leader. She is a master manipulator, and through this, creates a sense of total powerlessness. “All twenty of them, raising not just for watching TV, but against the Big Nurse, against her trying to send McMurphy to Disturbed, against the way she’s talked and acted and beat them down for years” (Kesey 81). McMurphy constantly disobeys her wishes and plots events, ranging from minor to major, that rebel against the Nurse.

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