The movie, * One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, first debuted as a book in the ear
ID: 3443972 • Letter: T
Question
The movie, *One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, first debuted as a book in the early sixties and then was performed on Broadway in 1963 and later came to theatres in 1975. The author, Ken Kesey, used his experiences working in a mental institute to write the book. His portrayal of the characters are so indicative of what the so called ” insane” were like and demonstrates how they were treated, regardless of their true level of mental illness. Were they really insane or did they just not act the way society said they should?
For Week 2, your first assignment is to watch the movie and answer the following questions. The discussion question for this week reflects the content of this movie.
Write a synopsis about your first impression of the movie.
Why do you think they chose the narrator to be Chief Bromden?
Do you agree or disagree that a central theme of the movie is Insanity vs Sanity?
Pick three of the characters, describe what you have observed about their behaviors, and what, if any, mental illness you think they suffer from.
Who is the protagonist in the movie and why did you choose them?
Explanation / Answer
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a 1975 American comedy-drama film directed by Miloš Forman, based on the 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey.
The characters shown in the movie are mentally ill people ,However they were not really mentally sick and they just pretended to be sick.
synopsis about my firdt impression of the movie :Touching and moving, a great cinematic experience.
The film portrays the horrible truth about how patients were treated in mental institutions back then, and tells the story of someone who desperately wanted to break out, to rebel, to change things, for himself and for the others. I was compelled by this film, from the very first frame. I never took my eyes off it, and I will definitely be thinking about this film for a while. I thought it was great the way one of the very first frames depicted the institution as something far more similar to a prison than a hospital. Milos Forman did a great job of making that contrast very powerful to the viewer. The film is very moving and a truly beautiful cinematic experience. Every single actor gives a stellar performance, every single character is perfectly written, every single line, every single frame is absolutely perfect. I wouldn't change a thing in this film. It has a great pace, you never lose interest, but it never seems to be rushing to get through it, either. It's simply perfect.
narrator to be Chief Bromden
Kesey’s decision to have Chief Bromden tell the story in ‘One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ was probably the most significant one he made in writing the novel. Critics see Kesey’s treatment of point-of-view as a masterstroke.
On the one hand, Bromden fantasises, this gives the reader a very vivid impression of the emotional and psychological states of the patients. The novel is about rescue or salvation and Bromden’s inner condition gives us a clear idea of what the patients need rescue from; and the exaggeration in his fantasies also spotlights and emphasises the matters important to theme.
The combination of hallucination and truth in the narration is a notable stylistic accomplishment. Fact and fantasy alternate, but the reader has no difficulty distinguishing one from the other, and thus they successfully compliment one another.
The Big Nurse is seen more clearly by the Chief than by anyone else, as that age-old ogre of tyranny and fear simply dressed in nice near white. Of course, McMurphy and the Nurse are also people, in a human situation, but in the distorted world inside the Indian’s mind these people are exalted into a kind of immortality. To do this, you need fantasy. You need to jar the reader from his comfortable seat inside convention. You need to take the reader’s mind places where it has never been before to convince him that this crazy Indian’s world is his as well”. Thus the distortion or exaggeration in the novel is deliberate, and is created by manipulation of point-of-view.
Kesey’s choice of Bromden or narrator allows for a hero of event and a hero of consciousness, McMurphy is the former and Bromden is the latter. . As Bromden tells McMurphy’s story he comes to understand himself better and eventually regains control of himself and acquires sufficient strength to flee the institution and face the world again.
central theme of the movie is Insanity vs Sanity
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest explores the idea of what it means to be sane or insane, and, most importantly, who gets to define what qualifies as sane and insane. One of the novel’s most salient indication is that the psych ward, Nurse Ratched, and all the other tools of “sanity” in the book are, in fact, insane. This question becomes central with the arrival of Randle McMurphy to the ward, a likeable, crass gambler who may have faked psychosis to get relocated to the ward from a work camp. Regardless of Nurse Ratched’s personal suspicions that McMurphy is not, in fact, insane, Ratched must treat him as insane because only then can she exercise control over him. In other words, a ward that is meant to help cure those who are insane is instead treating as insane a man who its chief nurse believes to be sane—a fact which is, arguably, itself insane behavior.
Three characters from the movies and their illness
Pete Bancini - A hospital patient who suffered brain damage when he was born. Pete Bancini continually declares that he is tired, and at one point he tells the other patients that he was born dead.
Martini - Another hospital patient. Martini lives in a world of delusional hallucinations, but McMurphy includes him in the board and card games with the other patients.
Ellis - A patient who was once an Acute. Ellis’s excessive electroshock therapy transformed him into a Chronic. In the daytime, he is nailed to the wall. He frequently urinates on himself.
Protagonist in the movie
The novel’s protagonist. Randle McMurphy is a big, gambler , and a backroom boxer. His body is heavily scarred and tattooed, and he has a fresh scar across the bridge of his nose. He was sentenced to six months at a prison work farm, and when he was diagnosed as a psychopath for “too much fighting and sexuality”—he did not protest because he thought the hospital would be more comfortable than the work farm. McMurphy serves as the unlikely Christ figure in the novel the dominant force challenging the establishment and the ultimate savior of the victimized patients.