One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Themes

Introduction
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest” released in 1975 is an american dramatic film directed by Milos Forman that was based on the 1962 novel of the same name written by Ken Kesey. The story takes place in a mental institution where the patients are oppressed and controlled by tyrannical nurse Ratched. This Film highlights the contradiction between tyranny and sanity, Conformity as a threat to freedom, Totalitarianism and how it is a threat to individual freedom and autonomy, and control. Many other themes are present in the film however these are the four that stood out to me the most. Forman uses many techniques to show these themes such as camera angles, dialogue, motifs, symbols, and the use of costume. These techniques help us

Shortly after the uniform change Nurse Ratched asks Martini for her cap “my cap, my cap” and puts emphasis on the P as if he is a child and does not understand. This is her ‘testing the waters’ in a sense. She is seeing whether she can still put herself above the men in the ward to regain control and is perhaps trying to show them that regardless of their act of defiance she is still in control and what she says goes. Martini then hands her a dirty cap, and she does not put it on, however I doubt she ever had the intention of actually putting it on regardless as this was just a

It's curious to note that in the beginning she was ‘all powerful’ and toward the end she begins losing power and favorable opinions of the men in the ward. This reminds me of present russia and Vladimir Putin and his very totalitarian government - how he was once a very respected leader in his country (specifically in his country as many “outsiders” did not - and still do not - think favorably of him) but essentially ‘fell from grace’ when he declared war against the ukraine with his own people now disliking him. This is much like Nurse Ratched; how the men in the ward (people of russia) respected her (putin) and the audience (outsiders) did not - then as the film goes on the men begin to lose respect for her. I like the way the film developed and how other underlying themes like the contrast between tyranny vs “sanity” begin to become more prominent