A good film but lacks the paranoid dimension of the novel

Rating: 9/10 (18 April 2001)

Ken Kesey's novel is narrated by Chief Bromden, who reminisces lyrically about the Columbia River country where he grew up. He also has insights into what is going on in the hospital, such as microphones in the broom handles, and machinery within the walls. But, then, he is a patient in a mental hospital. So that's our narrator, a paranoid schizophrenic. One of the features of film is that the camera is objective. A few directors have tried to create a subjective camera, most obviously by giving it the point of view of the main character or even the narrator. I seem to remember an Alan Ladd vehicle, The Lady in the Lake I think it was. But audiences generally trust the camera's objectivity. So instead of getting this story from a paranoid schizophrenic mental patient, the film gives it to us as objective truth. That the central message of freedom comes across is a tribute to Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher in particular. But there is a dimension missing, and to my mind it is Kesey's implication that America is a madhouse, and the only sane people might be those considered by the society to be mad. Maybe others see that implication but, having read the book before the film was released, I find the certainty of the narration undermines that dimension.