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The movie opens in a mental hospital. The camera shows the more basic parts of the hospital, people lying in beds and nurses walking around announcing “Pill time!” in order to let the audience know that they are viewing the asylum. Next comes the introduction of a man who is being walked in with handcuffs on who is supposed to be a new patient in the hospital. We later learn that the man, played by Jack Nicholson, is named Randle Patrick McMurphy who is a criminal who has been placed into the institution in order to evaluate his mental health. McMurphy is brought to one of the doctors in the facility for an initial evaluation and the doctor believes that he has been lying about his mental health in order to avoid prison time for his crimes.
The ward that McMurphy lives in is run by a very strict and very dictator like Nurse Ratched. We see that Ratched manipulates and dominates the patients in the hospital into submission and the audience begins to ask themselves if all of the patients there belong or not which is a major theme in the movie. McMurphy forms close friendships with two other patients in the hospital; a schizophrenic Native American called ‘Chief’ and a shy timid man named Billy Bibbit. Their friendship turns into a sort of brotherhood as they deal with the harsh conditions put on them by their superiors.
McMurphy’s relationship with Nurse Ratched is strained due to his knowledge of the cruel methods that she uses to oppress the patients in the hospital. McMurphy challenges Ratched daily by undermining her authority over him and the other patients. In one scene, McMurphy attempts to alter change the wards work schedule in order for the patients in the hospital to be able to watch the World Series. He plans to escape to a bar while patients are watching the game but Nurse Ratched puts the matter to a vote and McMurphy’s plans are foiled when the final vote is against watching the game.
During Christmas time, McMurphy invites his girlfriend and her friend to the hospital for a party. The women bring alcohol and the patients in the hospital party and get very drunk. At the end of the night, everyone falls asleep in the ward and Nurse Ratched arrives in the morning to find the entire place completely trashed. McMurphy is found trying to escape in all of the confusion and Billy, who had just been chastised for having sex with McMurphy’s girlfriend the night before, commits suicide and dies because he was left alone for a moment of time. McMurphy, who blames the ward and its orderlies for his friend’s death, breaks out in a fit of rage and strangles Nurse Ratched until he is dragged away by other orderlies in the hospital.
The movie ends with Chief killing his friend in an assisted suicide after he notices scars on his head from a lobotomy that was assumed to have been performed after McMurphy’s altercation with Nurse Ratched. Chief then escapes the ward and flees to Canada.
‘One Flew Over the Cuckoos’s Nest’ causes its audience to evaluate what insanity really is. It takes a deep dive into the inner workings of mental institutions and the corruption that can occur in them. It challenges the audience to re-evaluate what they think is ‘crazy’ vs what they think is ‘normal’ by showing them the different perspectives of all the characters in the hospital who had all been deemed ‘mentally insane’.
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