a classic though it has unrealistic portrayals of mental hospitals and mental illness

Rating: Null/10 (13 September 2005)

***It is true that some mental health advocates have criticized the film for having unrealistic portrayals of mental hospitals and mental illness. ***It is also true that Ken Kesey also loathed the fact the film was not told through the eyes of Chief Bromden, like the book was, for he saw this as fundamental to the story. For these reasons Kesey never saw the film.
But this movie is not just about the average life going on in a mental institution. A serial petty criminal who has been sentenced to a fairly short prison term, decides to have himself declared insane so he'll be transferred to a mental institution, where he expects to serve the rest of his time in (comparative) comfort and luxury.McMurphy's ward in the mental institution is run by an unyielding tyrant, Nurse Ratched, who has cowed the patientswho are mostly there by choiceinto dejected institutionalized submission. In this submissive world Randell shows us the meaning of freedom and non-commitment. He is the fist one who talks the deaf and dumb chief. He shows us how to attach some sort of social importance to every individual. Even if he is sick, even if he is mentally sick he is a human being who needs social communication. Somebosy is not supposed to be in an institutionalized submission just because he is "crazy". That is the bottom-line of the importance that is supposed to be given to every unique individual.And Jack Nicholson is totally nice in his performance.I watched him as a senior citizen in "About Schmidt " as someone who loses his mind in solitude in "Stanley Kubrick's Shining" and as an aggressive therapist in "Anger Management" but for use this movie is the biggest part of his career. As for Louise Fletcher, I did not love her performance and I don't understand why she got the academy award. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a culturally significant movie which will be always stay as a classic in spite its having unrealistic portrayals of mental hospitals and mental illness.