Sunday, August 5, 2007

Movie review-One flew over the cuckoo's nest

So I saw two movies today, the second one was One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. I had read this book several years ago and had wanted to see the movie since then, but never had until today. This was a great movie. Jack Nicholson is great as a character that you cannot be totally sure if he is sane or insane. Those seem to be characters that Jack excels at or maybe all of his characters are a bit loco, but he does such a great job of bringing out the humanity in all of the characters he plays. I also marveled at Danny DeVito in this movie, it took me a minute when I first saw him to be sure that Danny was the actor. Christopher Lloyd is also a great actor in this movie. This movie really shows the humanity behind individuals who are considered mentally disturbed. I also love the characterization of Nurse Ratched. I didn't remember the book very well and I was thinking that Nurse Ratched was going to have a stronger personality in terms of being loud and demanding. Louise Fletcher did an amazing job of showing this women as a dictator and in total control of the entire ward including both nurses and patients and yet she always seemed so in control of her emotions and feelings. She never seems to yell or have to really intimidate anyone and yet everyone is so afraid of her. I hate to use the word bitch as a descriptor for Nurse Ratched as that word is so demeaning and misogynistic especially when used against a women in a position of power, but I feel like it really fits this character. She controls the lives of these men from what they watch to when they eat to whether they have cigarettes and then at the end of the day, she tells them goodbye as though it was just a day at the office. It may be a day at the office for her, but these men are totally under her control that they talk about how much they hate this place and her and yet they will not leave even though several of them can. It is a great movie and great performance by everyone involved and since I have not mentioned him yet, Will Samson is amazing as Chief.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

She was a bitch for sure. I don't think anyone familiar with the book or movie will disagree with that assertion.

You're right on about the movie. One of the first I ever purchased when I began my collection.

And Ken Kesey is a great writer.

I've read "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" four or five times now, and it is still every bit as powerful.

Another book you might want to check out is "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test." Although written by Tom Wolfe it's about Ken Kesey and his "Merry Pranksters."

Excellent book.

Dr. Monkey Von Monkerstein said...

I loved this film as well. I appeared in a theatrical version of 'Cuckoo' and it remains one of the productions that I have been in that I was most proud of. I played one of the paitents.