http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073486/
This was a film I'd seen a while ago (right after reading the book) but that was about four years ago. I wanted to check it out again with the book not so fresh in my mind.
The film follows R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) as he is admitted to a mental hospital. The residing nurse is Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher). Immediately, the movie turns into a battle between these two characters. Other prominent roles go to: Billy Bibbit (Brad Dourif), Chief Bromden (Will Sampson), Charley Cheswick (Sydney Lassick), Harding (William Redfield), Martini (Danny DeVito), Taber (Christopher Lloyd), and Candy (Mews Small).
First off, this is one of only three films to win the "Grand Slam" of Oscars so that's worth something. I'll also start off with some comments on the book. I originally read the book before my first watch and I think this is the wrong way to do things. They are drastically different with the biggest change being that the book is told from Chief Bromden's perspective. It really changes the whole feel because it makes the dramatic escape at the end that much more meaningful. With McMurphy the main character like he is in the movie, enough emphasis isn't given to Bromden in my opinion. However, I don't feel it's fair to judge the movie based on how it compares to the book because there's many movies I see where I haven't read the book first.
With these thoughts in mind, I'll move on to some actual commentary. The greatest thing about the film is clearly Nicholson's performance. Nicholson is perfect for this role. The "crazy guy" thing is what he is a master at and this film allows him to demonstrate that. On the flip side there's Nurse Ratched who is also played well by Fletcher. She's great in her complete coldness and inability to show emotion. However, I am actually most impressed with all the people in the hospital. Like I commented on in my notes on Almost Famous, there's lots of acting done here "with the eyes" which means that a lot of the character building is done through mannerisms and gestures. I feel since the movie is dealing with crazy people that it would be easy to really exaggerate these mannerisms. Instead, these traits are more subtle. Sure there's the occasional scene where someone (like Cheswick) just completely loses the ability to have rational thoughts and just starts shouting but these are instrumental to the plot. When the characters are in the background or just interacting with one another they rely on small quirks to make them "crazy" which is a much better approach than all-out wacky behavior. And really this is everyone in the film. While I mentioned a ton of names above, there's probably just as many other actors that are in the film with smaller roles but who are equally great at giving these subtle characteristics to make their characters seem real.
Next, it's amazing how gripping One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest really is. McMurphy is one of the most engaging and likable figures in cinema history. The perpetual question exists: Is he actually crazy? It's never really answered in my opinion. There's the final moment where he snaps on Nurse Ratched and with everything that's happened it's hard to blame him. The film somewhat turns into a battle between "freedom" and "control" (I don't actually feel this is a "good" versus "evil" thing) and she is the complete embodiment of "control." It's hard not to root for McMurphy throughout the entire film. The turning point in my opinion is the scene where he tries to move the water fountain. Here, he realizes he'll fail but he takes the bets so as to get the other people on his side. He embraces failure as a way to get success later on down the road. Not only does this scene flesh out McMurphy in a great way but it also sets up Bromden's great escape at the end.
The film also has one of the best scenes in cinema history. I wouldn't be surprised if this ended up on the list of Best Scenes Seen at the end of the year. The scene I'm referencing is the World Series scene. Here, McMurphy, frustrated at not being able to watch the World Series on the television, decides to narrate his own World Series. Soon, the entire group jumps in hanging on his every world while Nurse Ratched is angered beyond belief. This is one of those "hope" scenes like the ending of The Shawshank Redemption from a few days ago. It shows how powerful the mind is and stuff like that. I just love everything the scene represents.
Finally, some complaints on the film. There's two characters where the movie falls flat: Billy Bibbit and Chief Bromden. First, Billy seems to take a second tier ranking to other main characters like Cheswick, McMurphy and Nurse Ratched for most of the film. However, with the final party scene the film finally seems to realize that Billy hasn't had has much screen time as they would like. They seem to hurriedly try to make us care for this character when they really haven't succeeded (in my opinion) at that regard up until then. Next, Chief Bromden is hardly at all a main character. Like Billy, his character development seems to be rushed. As I mentioned earlier, this ends up making Bromden's escape not nearly as monumental as it could be. Sure, Bromden does a lot of little stuff throughout the movie but he's never really up there with even the second tier characters like Billy, Taber, or Harding. In the book, this is dealt with really well but sadly the movie changes it up so as to focus more on McMurphy.
Overall, I gave this film a 9/10. It has some flaws here and there but it's hard not to say that this film isn't incredibly well done and very moving.
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