Milos Forman’s
One flew over the cuckoo’s nest (1975)
Genre : Drama
Main actors : Jack Nickolson and Louise Fletcher
Synopsis :
Randle Patrick McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), a recidivist criminal serving a short prison term on a work
farm for statutory rape, is transferred to a mental institution due to his apparently deranged behavior.
This is possibly a deliberate gambit by McMurphy in the belief that he'll now be able to serve out the
rest of his sentence in relative comfort and ease.
His ward in the mental institution is run by a calm but unyielding tyrant, Nurse Ratched (Louise
Fletcher), who has cowed the patients — most of whom are there by choice, categorized as
"voluntary" patients — into dejected submission. While he initially has little respect for his fellow
patients, McMurphy's anti-authoritarian nature is aroused. His needling of Nurse Ratched is initially
just for kicks, but his sense of injustice at their treatment leads him into a battle for the hearts and
minds of the patients. What he finds out only later is that Ratched has the power to keep him there
indefinitely. Rather than simply bide her time with McMurphy and have him transferred, Ratched sees
his behavior as a personal affront and challenge to her authority and becomes obsessed with winning
this contest.
McMurphy gradually forms deep friendships in the ward with a group of men which includes Billy Bibbit
(Brad Dourif), a suicidal, stuttering and helpless young man whom Ratched has humiliated and
dominated, and "Chief" Bromden (Will Sampson), a 6’ 7” (2 m) muscular Native American. Believed by
the patients to be deaf and mute, Chief is mostly ignored but also respected for his enormous size. In
Billy, McMurphy sees a younger brother figure whom he wants to teach to have fun, while the Chief
ultimately becomes his only real confidant, as they both see their struggles against authority in similar
terms.
McMurphy initially insults Chief when he enters the ward, but attempts to use his size as an advantage
(for example, in playing basketball). Later, they and patient Charlie Cheswick (Sydney Lassick) are
detained for being involved in a fight with the ward attendants. Cheswick undergoes electroconvulsive
therapy while McMurphy and Chief wait their turn on a bench. While they wait, McMurphy offers Chief
a piece of Juicy Fruit gum, and Bromden verbally thanks him. A surprised McMurphy discovers that
Chief actually hates the hospital establishment just as he does but handles it in a different way (by
remaining mute instead of using Randle's strategy of open defiance). McMurphy hatches a plan that
will allow himself and Bromden to escape. Following the electroconvulsive therapy, McMurphy jokingly
feigns catatonia before assuring his cohorts and Nurse Ratched that the attempt to subdue him was
unsuccessful.
McMurphy sneaks into the nurse's station and calls his girlfriend, Candy, and tells her to bring booze.
Another woman tags along and both enter the ward after McMurphy bribes the night watchman, Mr.
Turkle (Scatman Crothers). The patients drink while Billy flirts with McMurphy's girlfriend. McMurphy
sees that Billy likes Candy and asks her to sleep with Billy. While Billy and Candy are in a separate
room, the rest of the patients, including McMurphy and the Chief who had been planning to escape,
pass out from drinking, probably because of the extant neuroleptic drugs (Thorazine, etc.) in their
systems.
When Nurse Ratched arrives the next morning she commands the attendants to clean up the patients
and conduct a head count. Billy is found in a room sleeping with Candy. Without stuttering at all, he
announces that he is not ashamed of what he has done. Nurse Ratched then threatens that she will
tell his mother about it. Billy breaks down, his stutter returns, and after being carried into the doctor's
office, kills himself by slitting his throat. McMurphy, furious at what Nurse Ratched did to Billy, tries to
strangle her. McMurphy is violently subdued by Washington, an orderly, and taken away again.
Some time has passed and the patients are seen
playing cards as usual. Nurse Ratched, her vocal cords
damaged by McMurphy's previous attack, is forced to
speak through a microphone for the patients to hear her,
and finds that she is now no longer able to intimidate
them. Later that night, Chief Bromden sees McMurphy
being returned to his bed. When the Chief approaches
him, he finds to his horror that he has been given a
lobotomy. Unwilling to leave McMurphy behind, the
Chief suffocates his neurologically disabled friend with a
pillow at night. He follows McMurphy's plan for escape
by heroically hoisting a heavy hydrotherapy control
panel (which McMurphy failed to lift earlier) and hurling it through a barred window. He is last seen
fleeing the institution to the roaring cheers from Taber.
Active listening : While watching the movie, take notes as you will need to answer the
following after :
1. According to you, what are the most important 2 or 3 scenes in the film? Why?
2. This film is a psychological drama, why ? (illustrate with examples)
3. Why do you think this film won 5 Oscars ?
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Academy Award for Best Picture — Michael Douglas, Saul Zaentz
Academy Award for Best Director — Miloš Forman
Academy Award for Best Actor — Jack Nicholson
Academy Award for Best Actress — Louise Fletcher
Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay - Laurence Hauben, Bo Goldman
4. The final element of your assignment should be a “journalist’s” critic. Say whether you
like the movie or not and explain why. Use some of the elements of the first 3
questions of this assignment to support your critic.