Read the book instead

Rating: 3/10 (2 May 2000)

Despite the fact that the movie version of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" has been critically acclaimed, and despite some memorable performances, especially by Nicholson, Fletcher, and Dourif, I consider this film to be in the end a failure. It totally fails to convey the message and meaning of the novel. I found the end of the film to be depressing, while the end of the novel is anything but. I can understand the filmmakers not wanting to make a film heavy with voice-overs, but without the narrative voice found in the novel, the story is a hopeless and despairing one, which was surely not Kesey's intent. I saw the film before I read the book, and after seeing the film I avoided the novel because I didn't want to be depressed again; after reading the novel I almost wished I hadn't seen the travesty of a fine novel that is the movie version of "Cuckoo's Nest."