Epic and Beautiful

Rating: 10/10 (24 May 2007)

There is nothing that I can say or add that will testify to the greatness of this cinematic masterpiece. Many of the viewers here, considerably older and more familiar with writing critical reviews have already decked this work of art with all the glistening lace of high-brow comments it deserves. Still my concise and modestly candid opinion can nudge itself comfortably in the microcosm of viewer appreciation. I can start by saying that I saw this film two years ago and although I haven't seen it since, the theme and acting is so livid and memorable that it's as if I saw it yesterday. Ken Kessey's novel provides the essence of the story which is beautifully woven and crafted into first person through the perspective of Chief Bromden. Fans of the novel are not only delighted by the crisp, descriptive rendering of Chief's character but also of the characters of the patients of the ward of whom protagonist Randall Patrick McMurphy consists. He at once rejects the policies of the ward which are distinctly aimed at subjecting the patients to a systematic, vegetative mode of life from which there is no escaping. There were scenes in the film when tears welled from my eyes mainly when the other patients acknowledged that they were free to leave the ward at any time, but were afraid. The famous 'you should be bird-doggin' chicks and bangin' beaver' quote from McMurphy after he is stunned by patients' divulgence made me smile at its humor but sympathetic towards his situation.
The ward staff are also beautifully rendered and at once realistically strict and unflinching in their tempers. The chief of staff, Nurse Ratched is the most implacable of the ward employees as she does her best to suppress the freedoms of the patients to as great an extent as possible. McMurphy rivals her, or as the book indicates, is at war in a battle field over her strictures and insinuations. The climax of their dispute seems to end when McMurphy is strangling the life out of her with his hands like vice grips delving her throat until the blood flows to her face and cheeks. At this juncture, there seemed a remote chance that McMurphy had won the battle, but here, Ken Kessey shows Nurse Ratched's despotic wield of authority. Although it seems destined, the death of McMurphy's mind through lobotomy and then his physical death at the hands of the chief conclude the film on an idyllically sad note.
Randall Patrick McMurphy's fictitious existence is just a small example of the mavericks in society who have risen up against powers which threatened to be far greater than their own. They have stood at the doorstep of impossibility and shattered it through courage and forbearance.