One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

By Ken Kesey

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

In a mental hospital in Oregon run by the tyrannical Nurse Ratched (played by Louise Fletcher in the movie) none of the patients dare to fall out of line. Nurse Ratched is respected, feared, and strict. Her rules must be followed exactly in order to run a tight ship. With the help of mind-numbing medication and the threat of electric shock therapy her institution accomplishes this. Until one day when the happy go lucky, fun-loving trickster R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) joins the inmates. Told by the mute half-Indian Chief Bromden this story examines what it truly means to be crazy, and who you let define it. Also a classic movie directed by Milos Forman.

272 February 1, 1962

4.20

4.5

“All I know is this: nobody’s very big in the first place, and it looks to me like everybody spends their whole life tearing everybody else down.”

Thoughts

Another movie that started off as a book. I never actually saw the movie because the book was just so good, and I didn’t get around to watching it (although I know it won five academy awards in 1975 so it must be good). But having a young Jack Nicholson in my head playing out the actions of R.P. McMurphy in the book was the exact visual I needed to make this book one of the best I’ve read to date. It is truly a sad novel, but you have so much fun learning about all of the crazy characters along the way. McMurphy as a character is a triumph and one of my favorite characters of all time, if not the favorite. He absolutely terrorizes Nurse Ratched which is hilarious, and despite his criminally deceitful backstory he is a good guy at his core. McMurphy not only raises hell in the mental hospital, but he gives all of the waiting-to-die patients something to live for. As they begin to rally behind his madness in favor of saving their sanity, and fighting back against the oppressive powers of Nurse Ratched’s administration we get a deeper understanding of what it means to be free. Sure mental illnesses are nothing to joke about, and I wholeheartedly agree with that. But who’s allowed to determine your happiness and the way in which you live your life? Some nurse forcing pills down your throat? McMurphy calls B.S. on that and makes us all want to take ownership of our happiness, cause we’re all a little crazy at the end of the day anyway, right?