There are few more challenging personal bouts, than the one in our minds. To constantly be creating the illusion, that we're normal, we're sane, we're just like everyone else. In the early 1950's, this was the uniform many people brandished, to protect themselves from individuality. In fact, anyone who'd seemingly “lost their mind” was treated like the scum of the earth. Subsequently, the so-called “institutions” where any poor soul accused of insanity would go to rot, were of the highest devilry.
Mental asylums during this period were some of the most rigid and transgressive places on the planet. Many of them resembling correctional facilities, rather than hospitals. Alas, this was their system – correcting the mind, rather then mending or healing it. What many patients of such institutions at the time had to suffer was nothing short of psychological torture, stacked atop their personal struggles. However, what I want to talk about is the idea of non-conformity, in other words, the oppressed not the oppressors. While Randle McMurphy's trials against imperious conformity aren't the traditional look of rebellion, they still tell a fantastic tale of defiance.
In fact the movie's title itself is a story of rebellion – a nursery rhyme recounting birds leaving a nest: “One flew east, One flew west, One flew over the cuckoo's nest”. But those birds aren't birds and that nest isn't just a nest. They're people, and this mental asylum is the nest from which they must fly to escape.
Randle McMurphy's facade of insanity isn't where we usually see a great story of reform start. I mean there's nothing honorable in faking madness to protect yourself from the real consequences of a crime. Yet that's what makes this such a strong example of a film that breaks the bounds, and that pushes back against a greater perception. While his trials of lunacy start as an attempt at freedom, he finds himself in a place of equal authoritarianism, and with that he becomes a catalyst for rebellion and change. Instead of rotting in a cell without any chance of upheaval, the ward gave him at the least someone to oppose.
Nurse Ratched and the ward of course represent the “nest” in this scenario, dictating how her patients - those non-conforming to society or in other words, insane - should live and be treated with disdain. What I think this film does better than most in regards to it's contrarian approach, is the subtle and gradual nature of it. With an over 2 hour runtime, we observe a battle of wills between the the “defiant cuckoo”, McMurphy, and the iron fist of Nurse Ratched, slowly grow into something rebellious. I use the word rebellious because, this slow-burn is exactly what spurs McMurphy's wardmates into joining him in acts of defiance. All of them marginalized members of society, who despite being at the bottom of the totem pole, really deserve so much more.
Legendary film critic, Roger Ebert notes that One Flew Over a Cuckoo's Nest (1975), is remembered as a comedy, but really what it does so well, is paint the illusion of victory. Many audiences rejoiced in the Chief's escape, while McMurphy meets an inconsolable end. But this is the way of the rebel, the sacrifices that come with the job are what balance the scales and ensure that there is no such thing as “comfortable rebellion”.
In my opinion, to describe McMurphy's death as justified, is little consolation to the enduring impact that his living actions had. The reason for Ebert's comments is to distinguish the themes of the film. The difference of rebellion and revolution is the implication of violence and destruction. Realizing that many viewers would describe this film as a comedy due to all of McMurphy's pranks and jestful acts against Nurse Ratched, proves why it's such an important non-conformist film. Ultimately, it's McMurphy's choice to attack Nurse Ratched after Billy Bibbit's suicide that leads him to death. The moment anger takes it's place in rebellion, instead of mockery, is when the scale is teetered and the battle of wills, lost.
The Chief can only do as much as suffocating McMurphy with a pillow, to repay and allow him a dignified death. This is a story as old as time, one we've telling since the tragedians of ancient Greece. The confirmation of rebellion by death. This is the stamp of approval, that will be remembered forever because the man who led the charge has paid the ultimate price for another's freedom. Sad to think that martyrdom has been universally accepted as this noble cause for survival, but I suppose many if not all who've found themselves in McMurphy's position throughout history, have had little say in the matter.
Perhaps people are right, we should just laugh and accept what this film presents us, because it does so brilliantly. And for McMurphy's case…well no point in being spiteful or disappointed. If anything, he'd have echoed the words of Euripides, - a forefather of Greek tragedies - defining himself:
I would rather die on my feet, than live on my knees
Share your thoughts!
Be the first to start the conversation.