Solid movie with great acting, but leaves out the imagery the book described so well.

Rating: 7/10 (24 May 2018)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a serious toned movie, with some mildly disturbing themes, but also has its moments of light hearted humour. The movie is of course based on the book, but without spoiling anything, I can say that they have multiple differences and many small things are left out or not properly explained. Without reading the book first, understanding some of the characters and the ending may be difficult or just confusing. OFOTCN is a solid movie with excellent acting, Jack Nicholson is always a plus, but is lacking in production value and a clear direction. It isn't clear what everyone's intentions are until towards the end of the film we get an idea of what just some of the characters want. The music isn't memorable and the movie's visuals having nothing especially different or specifically appealing about them. Another minor complaint is that the nurse never truly felt evil in the movie as she did in the book. In the movie, she seems to be a woman just doing her job rather than a control freak constantly abusing her powers. The hospital is an evil place as in the book, but it never truly feels evil like in the book. Chief explains things in the book through his own mind that allows us to see the hospitals "true colors" and understand just how evil it is. Without Chief's narration in the movie or any other visual symbolism, the hospital is just... a hospital. The viewer sees what it is from the outside and you can see how the inmates live, but seeing the hospital through their eyes at any point would've made for a much more interesting and in depth experience. When reading the book, I thought of the asylum as like the prison from Shawshank Redemption, which is an excellent film sharing many of the same themes. A truly evil place with a twisted leader, but the movie just doesn't deliver what the book constructed so well.