Classic 70s Movie: “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”

September is Classic 70s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from Kalen Deremo.

Movie Title: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Year: 1975

Writers: Screenplay by Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman; based on the novel by Ken Kesey

Lead Actors: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Will Sampson, Brad Dourif, Vincent Schiavelli, Sydney Lassick, Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd and Scatman Crothers.

Director: Milos Forman

IMDB Plot Summary: Upon admittance to a mental institution, a brash rebel rallies the patients to take on the oppressive head nurse.

Why I Think This Is A Classic 70s Movie: The ’70s was a decade of groundbreaking cinema. Subjects that had been purposely overlooked or censored for years were suddenly not so taboo, and in the case of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, that subject was mental illness.

Prior to Cuckoo’s Nest mental illness in film was mostly explored through psychological thrillers and horror. Sicknesses were used as plot devices to surprise the audience with an unsuspecting twist ending or confuse them with complex stories that involved altered perceptions of time, space, memory or character. Most notable in this line of work is of course Alfred Hitchcock, the godfather of the psychological thriller.

There were, however, some films prior to 1975 that at the heart of their story addressed mental illness in reverent fashion, films who’s underlying theme and message was the exploration of the human mental condition. Some of the more popular titles in this field include A Streetcar Named Desire, Persona, Red Desert, Lilith, Shock Corridor, Through a Glass Darkly, Head Against the Wall, Lust For Life, The Snake Pit, David and Lisa, The Three Faces of Eve and The Fire Within.

But it was Cuckoo’s Nest that put mental illness on the map, placed firmly in a genre stranglehold for years and even decades to come. Cuckoo’s Nest ostensibly opened the door to the concept of mainstream mental-illness drama. Since it’s debut in 1975 motion-picture dramas centered around mental illness have skyrocketed at a near exponential rate, and though many have achieved noteworthy success, none have cemented themselves as paragons in our culture quite like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

My Favorite Moment In The Movie: The “Juicy Fruit” scene. For the entire duration of the film leading up to this moment the audience and cast of characters are led to believe Chief Bromden is incapable of speech due to physical and mental limitations. In other words, as they so often eloquently coined mental illness diagnoses in past decades, Chief is “deaf and dumb.” At this junction in the story everything is bubbling over. Patients are succumbing to their incessant mental pangs, Nurse Ratched is becoming increasingly more vigilant, R.P. McMurphy is planning to escape, and for a brief moment everything stops all thanks to a stick of gum. As an audience we get to sigh a fresh breath of relief before entering the final whirlwind movements of the story while at the same time realizing, as is often the case with mental illness, that not everything is as it seems.

My Favorite Dialogue In The Movie: “What do you think you are, for Chrissake, crazy or somethin’? Well you’re not! You’re not! You’re no crazier than the average asshole out walkin’ around on the streets and that’s it” — Randle Patrick McMurphy

This line, to me, epitomizes what Kesey was trying to summarize in his novel, and what Forman ultimately conveyed with his film: Craziness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. It’s subjective. Who are we to judge another man’s sanity when at heart we all possess varying degrees of crazy? The men in the mental institution might not be able to function in society as economically as the passerby in suite and tie, but by no means does that make them any less respectable or deserving of attention, especially when the suite-and-tie cheats on his spouse, fails make his kid’s soccer games, disrespects those he feels are lower on the socioeconomic ladder than he and other dirty deeds all for the sake of fueling his narcissistic ego. Cuckoo’s Nest is a film about society, its pariahs and how unfair we are in drawing the distinct lines that separate them, when in reality we’re all just variations of McMurphy: a little more crazy than we’d like to think.

Key Things You Should Look For When Watching This Movie: Two things. First, the acting. It’s incredible — from everyone. Every time I see this movie I’m always blown away at the collective portrayal of the mentally ill from everyone involved. Second: Watch Nurse Ratched. Pay attention to her character arc. Often times villains are in your face from the opening scene doing typical nefarious acts. Nurse Ratched is a totally different animal. Rather than manifesting innate oppressive characteristics, she seems to develop them as a result of her situation. Even at her most sinister Nurse Ratched is subdued, insidious, almost passive. Though infamous for being one of the most evil malefactors in cinema, Nurse Ratched really isn’t all that bad. It’s what she represents (the system) that’s evil.

Thanks, Kalen! To show our gratitude for your guest post, here’s a dash of creative juju for you. Whoosh!

You may follow Kalen on Twitter: @PrincePickaxe.

We already have a set of 80s Movies and 90s Movies. This month, we’re working on 70s Movies.

Thanks to all of you for your participation in this project, creating a resource for writers, movies we should all watch to help learn the craft of screenwriting!