Day 5: January 7th, 2014: One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) - Miloš Forman

When I looked at the list of my eleven remaining films, something made this one jump out. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is a film that gets brought up countless times in normal conversation, if only to call something crazy. And each time I’m reminded that I’ve never seen the film that gave Jack Nicholson his first Oscar!

Okay let’s not get too cocky. So One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest tells the story of R.P. McMurphy, a criminal admitted to a mental hospital for evaluation after having served some time for the statutory rape of a 15 year old girl. Quickly into the film, McMurphy realizes that he prefers serving time in a mental institution than in a jail, but he first must break the type-A Nurse Ratched. Nurse Ratched is a total badass, without ever batting an eye. She’s oppressive, cunning, stone-cold, and stubborn. McMurphy is her care-free antithesis, and the film pits the two against each other to reveal just how complex McMurphy is as a character.

McMurphy collects the other colorful characters like a gang leader, and shows them a life of freedom and independence outside of Nurse Ratched’s oppression. There’s Taber, a loud-mouthed madman played by Back to The Future’s Christopher Lloyd. 

There’s also Billy Bibbit, a stuttering teen, Martini, a delusional man played by Danny DeVito, Chief Bromden, a giant Native American man believed to be dumb and deaf. And that’s not even half of the ensemble in the film.

The whole group bonds over their illnesses, as McMurphy refuses to see them as they see themselves. The film takes on a very interesting perspective towards mental illness, one that America still struggles with today. McMurphy proclaims that none of the men in the institution are any more crazy then the men walking around on the street. And the idea that one is only crazy when they see themselves as crazy echoes throughout the film, with characters showing wide ranges of depth and intelligence. 

But in the end, it becomes clear that Nurse Ratched intends on making these men feel as if they need to stay in the institution for their own safety, and McMurphy comes to realize that he can do nothing to change their minds. And he really tries everything. 

It all comes down to a tragic ending that really helps you understand the kind of negative effects institutions that are run by people like Nurse Ratched can have, both on the way we view each other and on the way we view our mental states.

So overall, I deeply enjoyed the film. It follows a similar vein to Silver Linings Playbook, which preaches this idea that while we’re all really messed up, we have the power to view ourselves however we please, whether that can be a good or bad thing is up to us. It’s a little heavy-handed, but not to the point where it’s annoying (ahem Gravity), so I highly recommend it. Plus the writing is amazing. To see why the film won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, take a look at the following gif.