Review of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) by Sam M — 06 Nov 2013

One of the more difficult things to get right in a movie is full and rich character development. Unlike books, movies are shorter, the plot comes faster and the elements are more immediate. A film maker has only a short time to get the characters right before the audience wants to get the plot going--about twenty minutes, certainly no more than thirty. Many films get by with only two or three fully fleshed out character and the others done in broad strokes, using the shorthand of either stock or, in some cases, downright cliché players.

"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is one of the great exceptions. One of the standout brilliant scenes, in this film of many, takes place in the first few minutes when McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) is forced to sit in a group session with all the other residents of the ward. This is where the cast of characters are introduced to the audience. With Nurse Rached (Louise Fletcher) as mediator, the personalities and quirks of all "the crazies," as McMurphy refers to them, come to the surface in efficient, yet subtle, fashion. Not only are the characters fully drawn, but the relationships between them are apparent.

Part of this is due to Forman's ingenious camera work. By, for the most part, avoiding long shots, which tend to lend a "third person" quality to the narrative, and placing the camera inside the circle of chairs, the audience is drawn into the action and placed in a "second person" position and, at one point or another, occupying the place of every one of the characters.

In this way, the "second person" viewer not only sees and experiences the interrelationships of the ward, but is also called upon to form his own relationship with each character--like them or not. The audience "investment" in the narrative is established and from there the plot takes off.