Review of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) by Shin K — 17 May 2018

Directed by Milos Forman and is about Randall Patrick McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) who gets transferred to a mental institution, the mental institution is ran by Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) who tortures her patients and so the high spirited Randall is forced to stay in a very closed-minded hospital. Jack Nicholson gives an outstanding and charismatic performance as R.P. McMurphy and really sells the role extremely well and Louise Fletcher does a terrific job and so does everyone else in the film. Mental illness is shown in a very realistic way and it doesn't sugarcoat any of it. "Power" is a pretty big subject in the film, Nurse Ratched is very power hungry, Randall views the patients as powerless, when Randall was fighting one of the guards Chief viewed him as powerless so thats why chief came in and tried to help him, it is something that occurs a lot. From the beginning shot it shows nature with Native American like music playing, in my opinion the music symbolizes the patients with what sounds like someone crying. At the end of the film the music plays again also showing another shot of nature but in a less crying and in a more uplifting tone to show that the patients are not suffering as much now that Chief has broken the window and escaped free. The classical style music the nurses play I think symbolizes power as it powers over the patients which forces them to shout. R.P. McMurphy gives the patients joy as the film progresses and he cares for the people around him for example when Billie committed suicide he could have just left and went off to Canada but he decided to stay and choke Nurse Ratched. On my first viewing I thought Nurse Ratched wasn't a bad person but just someone doing her job but as I watched it again I am convinced she is a bad person who pressures her patients. I loved Chief's character development throughout the film, at first he starts out as someone who decides to not speak and pretends to be deaf and he still did (except in front of Randall McMurphy) but as the movie goes on he gains courage from Randall and he gains the courage to escape and utilize his strength which was his strong muscles, the first time he utilizes one of his strengths (which was his height) was in the basketball game. The scene where the supervisor comes in and the patients and Turtle hide is an extremely funny scene but I also felt anxious in the same time thinking if they were to get caught. one of the themes I got from this film was that people with mental illness are not dumb and can think for themselves. This is a film I highly recommend, the film is great in both emotionally and aesthetically and if you haven't checked it out you should.

(btw I haven't read the book but I will in my senior year of high school so wish me luck).