Who is the Real Madman?

 

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) is a feature film directed by Miloš Forman.

 

The film is set in 1963. In order to escape the forced labor from prison, McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) pretends to have a mental disorder and is taken to a madhouse. McMurphy constantly challenges behaviors of the strict management after Miss Ratched (Louise Fletcher) presents various obstacles. Finally, McMurphy cannot stand life in the madhouse anymore, so he plans to escape with his friend – the tall Indian Chief (Will Sampson).

 

Through McMurphy’s revolution and defense of human rights, the film shows the repression of the madhouse and the desire for freedom from oppression. McMurphy’s revolutions appear greatly show his spirit of challenge and his indomitable personality.

 

His series of revolutions include demand management lower the music, refusing to take medicine, requesting to watch baseball games, driving patients to go fishing, and having a party inside the madhouse. All his behaviors reflect his disdain for the rigid system.

 

His first revolution happens when all patients come to the window to take medicine. He refuses to do the same because he does not want to take something he does not know. However, it is difficult to stand by beliefs that oppose those of the control. Nevertheless, McMurphy not only does not follow, but also raises an objection.

 

He causes further trouble when Miss Ratched rejects his request to watch the baseball game, by sitting in front of that television without any image, and excitedly describing the process of the game he cannot see. He uses this method against Miss Ratched’s inhuman control, and makes her emotion spiral out of control.

 

All of his words and his movements fully reflect his spirit of challenge. He is trying to make Miss Ratched upset. He knows he cannot get the chance to see the game, but he does not want to act as a loser. Fighting until the last second is exactly what “challenge” means.

 

His cheering not only attracts other patients, but also connects viewers. The patients’ disregard of Miss Ratched and increasing cheering uplifts the audience’s emotion.

 

When McMurphy rushes into the ward and finds Billy has already died in a pool of blood, he is thoroughly exasperated. He grabs Ratched’s neck tightly until the care worker stuns him. From McMurphy’s behavior, it is easy to figure out McMurphy wants to kill Miss Ratched at that time.

 

This is the biggest challenge McMurphy initiated to Miss Ratched. It can also be seen from the surprised expressions on other patients’ faces that McMurphy’s behavior is unimaginable for them.

 

The director uses the close up on McMurphy’s face and Miss Ratched’s face. McMurphy’ face is congested with anger. He is clutching so hard that Miss Ratched even rolls her eyes. As the matron in the madhouse, Miss Ratched represents the absolute authority, but McMurphy is still desperate to kill her.

 

John Zubizarreta claims that “McMurphy’s position as hero is uncontested. His call to adventure is the challenge offered by Nurse Ratched… [who has] strict authoritarianism and repressed womanhood…” (62) This example of his tendency to defy power shows his determination to eliminate oppression.

 

This whole movie is built up by the series of McMurphy’s revolutions and his perseverance despite Miss Ratched.

 

Though McMurphy does not move that tank, at least he tries. Though McMurphy has not gained the right to watch the game, at least he fights. He fails his revolutions almost every time, but he still keeps fighting this huge control system. His spirit of persistence and his attitude towards human rights takes deep roots into the hearts of viewers. He bravely rips up the mask of this madhouse. He uses his resistance to sharpen people’s eyes, also helps people find the cruelty and oppression hidden within the madhouse.

 

Miss Ratched’s behavior as well as her language and even her costume are great examples of her repressive nature, which is also the symbol of oppression. Daniel Vitkus notes, “The ward is run by Nurse Ratched, who controls the process of turning men into machines.” (65)

 

At the beginning of the film, the madhouse and the characters, including patients and staff are all in white. At Miss Ratched’s debut, her total black costume suggests she will be different from others. She is reminiscent of the heroine in Psycho; the color change of her underwear implies some plot developments. Her black clothes against the white setting of the madhouse create strong contrast. While highlighting Miss Ratched, these two colors also remind audiences the traditional color of prison, which is what the director alludes to. Black brings the feeling of repression, and it is the same feeling Miss Ratched creates.

 

Miss Ratched always brings the feeling of oppression to audiences, and she does not have many expressions.

While McMurphy is playing basketball happily, she looks at everything from a high viewpoint without any expression on her face. That overlooking angle brings the feeling of pressure. In addition, she is a self-centered person. She is always serious and follows her set of rules. Further more, there are always some reasons to prevent these rules from being broken.

 

In the scene when McMurphy proposes watching the game, she says they must vote first. However, when more than half of the patients vote, the answer is still “no” because the time has passed. Voting is only a feint. The democracy and freedom are just mirages based on the rules she created. At the moment that she closes the window, there is no room for negotiation anymore.

 

That glass window creates the illusion that everyone is staying together, but actually it separates the patients from the nurses and doctors. It also helps the audience realize that this harmonious madhouse actually has a clear classification inside.

 

Her tendency towards oppression also shows during the meeting where she forces patients to talk about past experiences they do not want to mention again. She even euphemistically calls it “therapy.” Her behaviors fully embody her controlling and self-centered personality traits. She uses her own thinking to decide everything in the madhouse. She confines patients by her own ideas and then puts pressure on them.

 

Furthermore, she not only represses patients by herself, but also brings some things or people to give patients pressure.

If watching carefully, Billy does not stutter when he talks with Miss Ratched after coming out from that ward in the morning. When she mentions Billy’s mother, he becomes panicked and small again. And while Billy struggling in pain, she just looks blankly without any mercy. The director uses Billy’s feature of stuttering to help the viewers feel the huge pressure Miss Ratched brings to him.

When McMurphy refuses to take medicine, she says there might be some other ways non-oral methods to “help” him. After McMurphy finally follows what she asks, she smiles and praises him. She knows patients’ weaknesses and the things they are afraid of, and then takes advantage of these. What she desires is to force patients against their original will to follow hers. This abnormal psychological dynamic is the best embodiment of her oppressive personality.

 

At the end of the film, McMurphy finally stops his revolt. When McMurphy is deported back from the lobotomy lying on the bed, the director gives a facial close-up of McMurphy’s face and the scars on his head. He also uses a close-up when McMurphy is forced to accept the electric shock.

 

The electric shock and the lobotomy shocks audiences no matter if it occurs during the 1970s or now. Doctors use these ways to punish those uncooperative patients to make them calm down. These cruel tools were even classified as one of the treatment approaches.

 

Yates Stripling Mahala also maintains, “…[The treatment] shocked readers and viewers were repulsed by the graphic depictions of mental patients in an institution and the many kinds of barbaric treatments administered to them. The horrific idea of lobotomy and electroshock therapy (EST) took many people out of their comfort zones.” (64)

 

McMurphy’s suffer expressions before and the numbing expression at the end like the nightmares are impressive. The close-up gives the audiences direct visual impact; on the other hand, it also reflects the director’s greatest criticism about this tragic shocking therapy. Additionally, McMurphy firstly takes off his outside clothes in the last scene. Before the lobotomy, he actually never takes off his outside clothes. Director uses the change of his clothes as a signal to show that he has completely lost his spirit because of that cruel lobotomy.

 

From the person who endures everything silently to the only one who truly escapes from the madhouse, the changes enacted on Chief suggest people’s yearning for innocence.

 

Firstly, at the moment he decides to talk with McMurphy, the impulsion of getting back the freedom has already been roused. Before the conversation between Chief and McMurphy, there is a scene in which Chief watches McMurphy driving the car to take the patients fishing. He smiles at that time. That smile includes support, praise, and a little adoration. McMurphy does something he has not thought before. Chief adores McMurphy’s bravery. Chief’s smile also lets the audiences find that the yearning for freedom is still hidden in the depth of his heart.

 

In the scene when Chief knelt at the bedside of McMurphy and excitedly told him that he has been waiting for him to come back, he found this McMurphy is not that McMurphy anymore. His brain has been changed and can never be back again. Then Chief immediately decides to take McMurphy away by killing him. He knows McMurphy couldn’t be free if he lives in this madhouse. Chief is correct, he not only took McMurphy away, but also retained McMurphy’s dignity.

 

At the end, when Chief exhausts all his strength lifting the sink, the director gives a close up of his face. The firm and anger on his face greatly shows his attitude that he must leave this madhouse immediately. When he throws the sink to the window of madhouse, the audiences’ mood also reaches its peak. He finally releases himself and breaks this madhouse by using a part of itself.

 

Gargi Roysircar Sodowsky and Roland E. Sodowsky state, “The Chief then escapes by hurling a control panel through a window and running off into the darkness, presumably toward Canada offering viewers a final ambiguous ray of hope.” (35)

 

In addition, the Indian role of Chief set by the director indicates the most primitive and simple population. The last scene of running to the jungle is suggesting the yearning of original innocence and the impulse to return to nature.

 

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is successful because it mixes a variety of complex emotions, so that audiences can produce different emotional resonance.

 

Peter Hosie claims, “It won the four top Academy Awards of that year - Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Director and Best Film - and startled audiences with its blend of comedy and tragedy.” (43)

 

While Miss Ratched represses McMurphy’s revolutions again and again, he never actually gives up trying. Although McMurphy dies in the end, his death actually takes control away from the system. Chief uses a pillow to kill McMurphy, but actually send him to a place where he can be totally free.

 

All the contradictions and conflicts among these three protagonists depict the idea that people pursuing freedom will always revolt the oppression from society and regime.

 

People are defined to have mental problems because of strange behavior, such as continuous dancing, repetition of the words, or conversations with themselves. However, when doctors and nurses use brutal ways to control people’s minds, they are exactly doing the strangest thing.

 

Now, let us think about these questions again: what kind of person is normal indeed? And what kinds of people are crazy? Who defines these boundaries for us?

 

Maybe we are the crazies and their world is actually the normal world.

 

Nobody can give the answer.

 

 

 

Works Cited

 

Hosie, Peter. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.” Metro Magazine: Media & Education Magazine, No. 65 (1984): 43-45. Google Scholar. Web. 1 April. 2014.

 

Mahala, Yates Stripling. “Teaching Literature and Medicine: Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.” Teaching American Literature: A Journal of Theory and Practice 3.1 (2009): 61-67. Google Scholar. Web. 1 April. 2014.

 

Sodowsky, Gargi Roysircar, and Roland E. Sodowsky. “Different Approaches to Psychopathology and Symbolism in the Novel and Film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.” Literature and Psychology 37.1-2 (1991): 34-42. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 2 Apr. 2014.

 

Vitkus, Daniel J. “Madness and Misogyny in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.” Journal of Comparative Poetics, No. 14, (1994): 64-90. JSTOR. Web. 10 April. 2014

 

Zubizarreta, John. “The Disparity of Point of View in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Literature Film Quarterly 22.1 (1994): 62-69. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 3 Apr. 2014.