A stellar triumph...

Rating: 9/10 (24 November 2012)

Oregon 1963. Randle McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) a criminal ,is admitted in mental asylum due to insanity, faked by him to avoid jail . His ward mates are the stammering nervous wreck Billy Bibbit (Brad Dourif) who fears his mother, timid & childish Charlie Cheswick (Sydney Lassik, delusional Martini (Danny DeVito) ,paranoid Dale Harding (William Redfield), profane Max Taber (Christopher Lloyd), Chief Bromden (Will Sampson) a gigantic deaf & mute native American.
The institution is run by the domineering Nurse Mildred Ratched (Louise Fletcher).McMurphy discovers that the patients fear her & their fear of her is stronger than their will to get cured, her therapy sessions & schedule meant to keep the patients docile & under control than curing them. McMurphy quickly becomes the dominant & most troublesome patient in the ward by his complete disregard for authority & rules, challenging Ratched whenever possible.When she refuses to let him watch the world series, he defiantly stands in front of the switched off TV, shouting baseball commentary,causing other patients to disrupt the ward.
He also teaches the patients basketball ,making the withdrawn Chief admire him. Once he steals the bus meant to take the patients on a tour, herds his fellow patients aboard, picks up his hooker girlfriend Candy (Marya Small) ,and on reaching the shore, takes them all fishing in a boat after tricking its captain.This is one of the only two outdoors scene in the entire film, and it makes the viewer feel the brief freedom that the patients enjoy in the open sea, away from the claustrophobic environment.
This leads to stricter restrictions on him. He learns that the hospital can detain him indefinitely. All the other patients in the ward, except hard cases, are voluntarily committed. During one of the sessions, Cheswick,McMurphy & Chief fight with the guards and are hence sent for electro-therapy.McMurphy learns to his delight, that Chief has only been pretending to be deaf & mute all this time to avoid attention.
That same night, he decides that he has had enough and decides to escape, as he cannot risk being sent back to prison. He asks Chief to come with him, but he declines, stating his fear of the world. He calls Candy and another girl, asking them to smuggle liquor with them. They sneak in, and McMurphy even ropes in the warden in the liquor party involving the patients, which quickly leads to the dismantling of the entire ward.
McMurphy prepares to leave and sees that Billy is the most emotional to see him go. He decides to have Candy spend a night with Billy. McMurphy and the other patients then, unluckily for them, fall asleep due to combined effect of alcohol and medication.
Nurse Ratched and the orderlies arrive in the morning to find the ward wrecked completely. All the patients are summoned. McMurphy and Chief are held back as they try to make a quick getaway. She is enraged to find a half dressed Billy with Candy, who for the first time faces her confidently without stammering. Ratched ,using her usual weapon, threatens that she will tell his mother about it. Billy reverts to his old stammering and nervous self and is locked up in a room. Unable to control his nervous breakdown, he kills himself. McMurphy is devastated and viciously attacks Nurse Ratched. He nearly strangles her to death before being knocked down by the orderlies and taken away.
The scene moves many days ahead. All kinds of rumours are flying around about McMurphy, ranging from he has been subdued like a lamb to he has escaped. The Chief listens curiously. Nurse Ratched is shown smiling weakly, a shadow of her former self.
Late that night as others sleep, McMurphy is brought in and laid on his bed. Chief rushes over to him and whispers that they escape right away. Getting no response, Chief tries reviving him and is horrified to see that he has been lobotomized .Chief decides that he cannot leave his friend in such a pitiful existence,as a symbol of Ratched's victory. He suffocates McMurphy to death before the others wake up. He then smashes the window of the ward by a heavy slab and escapes just as dawn breaks.
Jack Nicholson as Randle McMurphy is the soul of this film, and he plays the anti authoritarian, rebellious, crazy and unpredictable character to perfection. His performance is a lesson for any aspiring actor and a treat for any admirer of cinema.Louise Fletcher brilliantly plays one of most coldest villains ever.Of the supporting cast, Brad Dourif as Billy Bibbit is the best.Small but significant performances are given by Christopher Lloyd , William Redding . Will Samspson as Chief Bromden is impressive.
Milos Foreman adapts the novel with a few minor changes (in the novel, Chief Bromden is the narrator and all the other inmates escape in the end).The story uses the context of a mental institution to portray the never ending & largely hopeless struggle of the individual against the establishment, resulting in the certain destruction of the individual / section fighting it, but it has to be carried on for the hope of change. The film ends in McMurphy's defeat &destruction, but he also ends up shrinking Ratched into a mere mortal from someone who looks invincible. Out of the two people whose life he changes, Billy meets a sad end, but Chief Bromden lives upto the hope sowed in him by the doomed McMurphy, thereby signifying a little change that has been achieved.The closed settings depicting the mental ward and the robotic movements & compliance of the patients to the numbing schedule depicting safe but hated slavery of the individual is a contrast to the final scene of the film which shows the dawn breaking through the smashed window from which Chief Bromden escapes to an uncertain but welcome future.
Which one would you choose?