One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Film)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was made into a film 13 years after its publication. First it was a play, written by Dale Wasserman, which was purchased by Kirk Douglas, who played the role of McMurphy on stage. He sent the book to a young Czech filmmaker named Milos Forman. But Forman never received the book, likely held up by a Czech customs agent.

Douglas became too old to play the part, and he gave the property to his son Michael to produce. Finally it all came together, and Michael, coincidentally, approached Forman without knowing that his father had already thought of him. Forman, by that time, was a celebrated director of Czech films such as Loves of a Blonde and The Fireman's Ball, but One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest would be his first film in English.

By this time, Jack Nicholson was a big star and a natural to play McMurphy. Many of Nicholson's mannerisms that are endemic to impersonators of him came from his performance as Randle Patrick McMurphy: the furrowed brow, the moving eyes, the evil grin, the nasal voice. Nicholson would win an Oscar for this role, his first of three, and in a way he overwhelms the film too much.

When I first saw this film as a teenager, I considered it one of my favorites. But after viewing it again a few nights ago for the first time in years, it felt a little dated. I still enjoyed it, but seeing it right after having read the book highlighted some of the problems with it.

For one thing, the book is narrated by the Chief, and of course, in the film that is changed--their is no narration. The Chief, thusly, is pushed to the margin, and though his role in the magnificent ending of the film is still there, his inner voice is missed in the film.

Secondly, the dynamic of the ward is completely different. The screenplay, written by Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman, creates a different world on the ward. The character of Harding, the ineffectual intellectual played by William Redfield, is portrayed as figure of fun and bullying by the other inmates, who mock him for using big vocabulary words. In the book, there is none of that. In fact, the character of Taber, played by Christopher Lloyd, is invented to provide a conflict in the ward, as he is constantly needling other inmates.

So we have a lot of new dialogue in the film, and new scenes, such as the basketball game, which uses Will Sampson as the Chief effectively, and several scenes of group therapy that are created out of whole cloth. But what remains in the book, but much more superficially, is the iron fist employed by Nurse Ratched, played coldly by Louise Fletcher (who also won an Oscar). But the film makes it more of a grudge match being McMurphy and Fletcher, and less of a political allegory.

The film was made in the Oregon State Mental Hospital, and its director, Dean Brooks, played Dr. Spivey, and his natural stiffness as an actor actually works. There are some other interesting supporting actors, such as Danny DeVito (with hair) and Brad Dourif as Billy Bibbitt, who would be nominated for an Oscar.

The film mainly succeeds as a vehicle for Nicholson, who is so good it's scary. Fletcher, to her credit, doesn't try to compete, and her performance is placid and controlled as Nicholson's is wild. Forman's direction shows the ward as a place of white tile and tranquil music, until Nicholson turns the place into a party. Now, though, the film, shot by Haskell Wexler, looks dreary and TV-like. I'm not sure if this was intended, but it just has a '70s look that perhaps is unavoidable.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a great film, perhaps not as great as I first considered it, but I'll repeat--given a choice, read the book.