Sunday, November 13, 2011

#33 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)



Plot summary (with spoilers): Randall Patrick McMurphy was imprisoned and sentenced to do hard labor on a work farm in Oregon for five counts of assault and the statutory rape of a 15 year-old girl. He decided that hard labor was for suckers and he would pretend to be crazy. Though the doctors doubted his story, he said all the right things and got himself transferred to a mental institution for the rest of his sentence.
On his first day, the woman who runs the ward, Nurse Ratched, conducts a group therapy meeting with the other patients. She sits them in a circle, and begins with Mr. Harding.
 Last time in group, Mr. Harding was discussing his marital problems. Would you like to discuss them further, Mr. Harding?
No thank you.
McMurphy sits; arms crossed, bored as hell.
Nurse Ratched flashes Harding an irritated look. She presses, goads him into speaking. Harding's very verbose, an educated fop. He begins speaking at length about his wife, using vocabulary beyond the comprehension of most present. Another patient, Taber, calls him out on it. Says he's full of shit!  Says he's a homo. Harding lashes back. Cheswick doesn't want anyone to fight, and he almost cries. Billy Babbit sits, curled up in a ball, not wanting engage.
To McMurphy, this is the best show in town. He smiles and leans back, taking it all in, laughing with delight.
The rooms dissolves into chaos. Nurse Ratched allows herself a hint of a smile before telling her orderlies to jump in there and maintain order. The beatings are swift and soon order is maintained. Nurse Ratched adjourns the group.
McMurhpy meets Chief, a huge American Indian and a "chronic", meaning he can't speak or understand English and is barely aware of his surroundings. McMurphy tries to get him to raise his arms and stand underneath a basketball hoop and help get rebounds. It doesn't work too well, though Chief does raise his arms.
At the next group meeting, McMurphy wants to change the group's schedule temporarily to let everyone watch the World Series. Nurse Ratched thinks that will confuse and alienate the older patients. McMurphy counters that Christ, it's the World Series. Nurse Ratched allows a vote, but of the nine in group, only Cheswick and Taber vote with McMurphy. Furious, McMurphy bawls out the others later. He's sick of these crazies. I'm getting out of here!  How?
He goes into the washroom. There's a large marble sink in the middle of the room. I'm gonna lift this and throw it through the window and escape! The others laugh, call him crazy, bet against him. McMurphy breathes in and out, grabs both sides and lifts with all his might, turning bright purple. Gasping, lifting again. Nothing happens. The others are amused.
Well at least I tried, goddammit.
Another day, another group session, another Series game, another demand for a vote. Nurse Ratched stares, implacable as ever. Fine, Mr. McMurphy. Let's have another vote. All nine in group raise their hands. McMurphy's delighted. Well, there we go.
But Mr. McMurphy, there are eighteen members in the ward. She's referring to the chronics. They don't even know what's going on! They're still members of the ward, Mr. McMurphy.
McMurphy just needs one vote. He scampers around to each of them, trying to get them to raise their hands, but none can even acknowledge him. Nurse Ratched gets up, meeting's over. But McMurphy reaches the Chief, encourages him to raise his hand, just like on the basketball court, and the Chief does it!  Victory!
Sorry Mr. McMurphy, the meeting's over. You can try again tomorrow.
McMurphy's pissed. He rants and rails, and Nurse Ratched just stares. But her eyes are smiling with a sadist's delight.
McMurphy goes back over to the couch in the main room and stares bitterly at the off TV. But suddenly, something wonderful starts to happen. He sees the game. It's on. He narrates what he sees, loudly. The others are curious. They walk over to him as he begins to call the plays. "And the pitcher throws a curveball, a little on the outside, but he gets a piece of it, it's going it's going it's gone!  HOME RUN!!"
Everyone gathers around the magic TV and cheers. Nurse Ratched tries in vain to get them to settle down.
McMurphy begins calling the next play, chomps down on an invisible hot dog. It's the best game they've ever seen.
Next on the docket, the patients are meant to ride a bus to another facility for the day, but McMurphy manages to commandeer it before the orderlies get on, and drives everyone to a fishing dock. He picks up his two best girls, Candy and Sandy, and they sail all day on the boat. Martini and Harding even manage to catch a fish, a big one. When the police finally arrive by helicopter to take them back to the institution, the men care about none of it other than the big fish they caught.
It's then that one of the orderlies breaks the news to McMurphy. You still don't know where you are, do you? Your prison sentence is over in 63 days, but you're here until Nurse Ratched says you're better. Period.
At the next group meeting, McMurphy lashes out at his new friends. Why did you guys let me give Nurse Ratched such a hard time, knowing what it would cost me? He's fucking pissed. Nurse Ratched says that's an excellent question. She has more info to give him. Did he know that most of the patients here are not committed? With very few exceptions, almost all the men are here voluntarily. McMurphy can't believe it. These people really are crazy! Cheswick wants his cigarettes, but Nurse Ratched has confiscated them and is rationing them because McMurphy has won of of theirs gambling. Cheswick wants his cigarettes now! McMurphy takes the one out of Harding's mouth and gives it to Cheswick, but Cheswick bats it away. Harding crawls around looking for it, but Taber sneaks it and puts it in his rolled-up pantleg. Cheswick continues to rant and rail and the group dissolves again into chaos, but it's no longer fucking funny to McMurphy at all. He bursts through the glass at the nurse's station, grabs Cheswick's carton of cigs and throws it at him. The orderlies jump on him, try to restrain him. Chief sees this and lumbers over, attacking the orderlies. A total melee breaks out.
Cheswick, McMurphy, and Chief are taken "upstairs", where they endure terrifying electroshock therapy. While Cheswick's inside, Chief reveals to McMurphy that he can talk and understand everyone. McMurphy's thrilled. You fooled 'em all, Chief! You did it!
After the shock therapy, McMurphy knows he's got to get out. He asks the Chief to come with him, but the Chief just can't do it. McMurphy sneaks into the nurses office and calls Sandy and Candy, inviting them over that night. They'll have some fun, and then escape.
The night orderly, Turkle, sees the women arrive but is bribed by McMurphy to let them in. Twenty dollars and some time with Sandy keeps his mouth shut. But once McMurphy wakes up all the others, and everyone starts drinking it up, Turkle knows he's screwed. So he just drinks more. Heh. The night goes on for awhile, and finally McMurphy tells everyone he's leaving. He steals the keys from a passed out Turkle. Billy doesn't want him to go. McMurphy says he should come with, they'll escape to Canada. But Billy's too terrified to leave. He just wants McMurphy to stay. He inquires about Candy. McMurphy smiles that big beautiful Jack smile, says you want some time with Candy? Fine, but make it quick, we've got to get out of here.
So Billy and Candy go into one of the rooms, and McMurphy and the rest sit outside and drink and wait. And drink. And wait.
Morning. The three orderlies and Nurse Ratched march into the room, mouths agape. McMurphy lies passed out on the floor by the open window. Everyone one is splayed throughout the room, in a hilarious tableau of decadent sin. Nurse Ratched orders the window locked, everyone gathered up, the girl kicked out. She wants to know if everyone is accounted for. An orderly reports Billy is missing.
Where's Billy? Did he sneak out through the window last night?
The men don't answer her. Some are defiantly grinning. She's losing her grip on all of them.
The other nurse finds Billy in one of the rooms. Nurse Ratched runs over. He's naked in a bed with Candy. Nurse Ratched stomps off, Billy chases after her. The room erupts into applause.
Nurse Ratched tries to shame and humiliate Billy. It doesn't work. He stands his ground and all the men love it. Finally, she goes in for the kill.
I just don't know how I'm going to tell your mother about this.
Billy falters. Y-Y-You don't h-h-have to tell her.
Oh, but I do. We're friends. I can't keep this from her. Unless someone forced you to be with that woman. Did anyone force you?
Y-Y-Yes.
Who?
M-M-M(don't say it)M-McMurphy(shit).
Nurse Ratched's triumphant. Please wait for me in the room, Billy. She orders her men to start cleaning up. McMurphy still has Turkle's key. He goes to the window and unlocks it, Chief standing guard. The girls wait outside, signalling him to hurry.
A nurse screams. McMurphy looks back at the scream, then to the open window, then back again. Everyone runs towards the screaming. McMurphy follows.
It's Billy, lying in a pool of blood with a shard of glass gripped in his hand, his neck slashed open.
A doctor hovers over him, while Nurse Ratched pushes everybody back into the hallway. McMurphy seethes at her, murder in his eyes.
Okay everyone, the important thing is to keep to our regular rout--
He lunges at her fucking stupid face and wraps his hands around her neck, squeezing with all his might. He drives her to the floor as she struggles in vain. Suddenly, an orderly bashes him on the head with a baton, and he's out. Nurse Ratched gasps for air and coughs and coughs desperately.
Some time later, the men are playing cards while Chief wanders aimlessly. Nurse Ratched wears a neck brace and her voice is thin and scratchy, but she's in remarkably high spirits regardless. The men tell rumors about McMurphy. He's upstairs. He's dead. He beat up three orderlies and escaped. Chief doesn't know what's true and what's not.
Finally, one night, McMurphy is led back downstairs and put in bed. Chief excitedly runs over to him. I knew you were okay, I just knew it. Come on, let's go. I'm ready to get out of here. I was waiting for you.
But McMurphy doesn't respond. Chief grabs his shoulders and lifts his torso and sees McMurphy's eyes are lifeless and uncomprehending. He hugs him. Weeps. Then puts a pillow over his face. He gets up. Casually lumbers over to the giant marble sink and pulls it out of the ground. He staggers over to the window and hurls it through, blowing it apart. He's gone.
Taber sits up in his bed and cheers, just like the rest of us.

Review: Loved it the first time I saw it, love it now, love it forever. The story's amazing, first and foremost, but the acting and directing is what really makes it sing. I love Milos Foreman's style. The staging is pretty minimalist and the music soundtrack is pretty sparse, giving the whole thing a very realistic feel. I love the extreme closeups on the actors, and the fact they often talk over and interrupt each other in a very realistic way. It's reminiscent of Robert Altman, but Altman usually makes the camera hang way back, which makes us feel like we're definitely separate and away from the action, while Foreman makes us a member of the group. He's also clearly capable of inspiring great performances. Everyone onscreen gives probably the performance of their careers. I've never been particularly impressed by Danny DeVito or Christopher Lloyd for example, but both of them are amazing here, completely believable in their small parts despite being so recognizable in other things. The other actors playing patients are lesser known, but equally as good. Louise Fletcher took home a much deserved Oscar here, and yet she never really did anything very impressive ever again. Us Star Trek nerds also know her as the villainous Kai Wynn on Deep Space Nine, and she was fine there, but hardly great or notable. Even Jack, my precious Jack who I love so very much, probably peaked here. Or at least gave a performance that ties anything else he's ever done.
It's one of three movies that have won all five major Oscar awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay) and fully deserves all five of them. The other two movies, by the way, are It Happened One Night and Silence of the Lambs. American Beauty won four out of five, but unfortunately Annette Bening lost to Hillary Swank in the actress category.
I wouldn't be doing my unpaid job though, if I didn't bring up another thing. While I choose to interpret this story as the classic "little guy standing up to The Man" trope, I do think it's potentially...troubling that it's not really "The Man" that's the oppressor, here. It's a woman, and her three black male underlings. I've read interpretations that the story is sexist and racist, and represent the growing anxiety of the straight white male in a changing world that no longer gives them exclusive power. Even today, some conservative white males absurdly claims that they're really the oppressed ones, and this movie sort of plays into that. There are some who say it's Ken Kesey's response to the (at the time) just blossoming Women's Liberation and black Civil Rights movements. I do think there's some credence to that interpretation, though by all accounts Kesey was a Nixon-hating beatnik hippie (and also unfortunately homophobic, but that's another thing) so I'm not sure if it's accurate.
At any rate, I love this movie so much that I'm willfully choosing to reject that interpretation, though I don't blame those who may subscribe to it.

Stars: Five out of five.

Next, the only AFI sequel, "The Godfather Part II", and then "The Maltese Falcon".



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