One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

1975

I have tragic news. I am convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am dying. It’s sad, but true. I mean, my legs hurt, my tummy hurts, my head hurts, my eyes hurt, my face hurts. I bet I have bird flu. Can I even get bird flu? Do you have to be part bird to get it? I bet I am part bird! That would explain some things. I have been called a loon before. Everything is clear now.

You know who else is a loon? Every character from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. I mean what else would you expect when a movie is set in a mental institution?

McMurphy, the main man, (yay alliteration) has gotten himself into a loony bin, even though he is likely not insane. He just wanted to get out of the farm where he was serving his sentence for statutory rape. Being a lazy butt, he wanted to get away from all the hard work he had to do on this farm. Now he gets to hang out with a bunch of crazies. I don’t know how this is better than a prison farm but whatever.

In this institution, we have your typical patients, the delusional, the paranoid, the suicidal, the really big guy who never speaks, you know, the usual. The ward is run by the seemingly-nice-but-really-she’s-evil Nurse Ratched. She’s very controlling, degrading, and ugly. Every morning she makes a group of the patients sit through this mind numbing routine of a sort of therapy session. I wouldn’t really call it that though because no one ends up better through it, no one really talks in it, and its purpose to exist seems only to prove everyone needs to be at the insane asylum longer.

Mc Murphy and Ratched become fast enemies. He’ll try to have the patients out vote her in something, and she’ll ration their cigarettes. One day, McMurphy decides to steal a bus full of all of the crazy people from the institution, and take them fishing. Along the way they pick up one of his old girlfriends Candy. As they spend a day fishing, everyone is beginning to feel better about themselves and Billy, a stuttering adorable young man, has taken a liking to Candy. This will be important later.

Of course, when they get back, they get into a lot of trouble. Ratched tightens her grip on the group tremendously, even using shock therapy if needed. McMurphy, fed up of being there, plans his escape.

After bribing the night watchman and inviting Candy and one of her friends over, McMurphy throws a party for the ward. They all get totally wasted on the alcohol Candy and her friend brought. At the end, as McMurphy, Candy, her friend, and Chief (the tall, deaf, mute who turns out to not be deaf or mute) all are about to leave through the window. McMurphy notices how much Billy likes Candy, and asks him to come with them. Stuttering, Billy says he can’t, that he’s not ready for the real world. He would however like to see Candy again. So instead of leaving, McMurphy suggests that Candy and Billy sleep together right then and there.

Seriously? He must have been insanely intoxicated. That was a ridiculously stupid thing to do. Why would you delay your escape from a mental institution, just so your buddy can have sex with your ex girlfriend?! Maybe McMurphy really was crazy after all…

Anyway, Billy and Candy agree to his idea. They run off to a cell to do the deed. While that’s going on, the affects of the excessive alcohol are starting to take its toll on everyone’s system, including McMurphy’s, and they all pass out.

The next morning, Nurse Ratched walks in to quite the surprise. All of her patients are sprawled across the floor, along with some girls she’s never seen before. She demands a head count, and finds Billy missing. After discovering him and Candy, she attempts to embarrass him in front of the group. However, it doesn’t work. For the first time in the whole film, Billy speaks confidentially, with no stutter whatsoever. His buddies are thrilled.

But, remember, Ratched is pure evil, and purposefully asks him what his mother would think of him. Billy then starts punching himself repeatedly, causing the staff to take him into another room to be dealt with. Foolishly, they leave him alone, and he slits his throat with a piece of glass, and dies. I really hate Ratched. She is a [not a nice word].

Enraged, McMurphy starts to strangle Ratched for what happened to Billy. Everyone is too shocked to stop him. Yay! Maybe he’ll actually kill her! Wouldn’t that be just wonderful?

Sadly, a staffer stops him, and they take him “upstairs,” and lobotomize him. Yeah. It sucks. Like a lot. The next day, we see Ratched has been taken down a notch, speaking in a very timid voice. At least something happy has happened in the end. None of the crazies know what has happened to McMurphy, so they assume he made a glorious escape and is out in the world now, happy. Only Chief knows what happened to him. Because that evening, when McMurphy is brought back to his bed, Chief realizes he’s a vegetable, then smothers him with a pillow, killing him. Chief then picks up this GIANT marble sink fixture, throws it through a window, and leaves the asylum. The end.

Well. Talk about a sad ending. I mean, killing off McMurphy wasn’t that big of a deal. He was played by Jack Nicholson, and he can get annoying at times, so seeing him go didn’t upset me too much. But they killed Billy! Well, Billy killed Billy. But still! Not. Cool. Though, when a movie has you so attached to a character that when they die it upsets you greatly, that must mean they are doing something right, right? I think so.

This movie is one of the three movies in the history of the Oscars to win what they call the Grand Slam, or Big Five. That is it wins the awards Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. In order to win all of these, you must be an incredibly good movie. And that’s what this is. An incredibly good movie. It has the elements a good movie should have. Interesting characters, humor, tragedy, some thought provoking questions, and solid acting. I am glad to have seen this movie before my sadly approaching demise.