synopsis:

see literature for a comprehensive synopsis of the story.

Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is narrated from the perspective of a six-foot-eight mentally ill American Indian named Chief Bromden. It is ironic that Chief provides the tells the story, since he is mute for most of the events he is describing. His experiences have driven him to feign deafness, to cut off communication with the world. Because Chief Bromden guides the novel, his symbol laden hallucinations are prominent. One powerful recurring image is the Combine, a bureaucratic mechanism under whose auspices Big Nurse squelches the patients' vitality and individuality.in this movie Forman completely elminates the Combine and most of Chief's other hallucinations, replacing them with a more objective perspective of the camera recording action on the ward. Instead of burdening the audience with maintaining sympathy for the truly sick patients on the ward, the film emphasizes McMurphy. Forman eases viewers into the trauma of life on a mental ward by allying them with McMurphy; the audience learns as he learns, oftentimes beholding images of his facial expressions and reactions to the other characters.

about this movie:

'one flew over the cuckoo's nest' is An award-winning cinematic adaptation of Ken Kesey's celebrated novel that captures the rebellious and anarchic energy of the 1960s, starring Brad Dourif, Louise Fletcher, Jack Nicholson and Will Sampson. it is a powerful anti-psychiatry film. Ironically, it was made in the aftermath of the decarceration movement when surgical and electroshock therapies were already in decline. Bracketed by the English translations of Michel Foucault's studies of madness and imprisonment, it reflected society's disillusionment with the psychiatric modalities that had enjoyed so much acclaim two decades earlier.

Evocative portrayals of other patients by Danny de Vito, Dourif, Christopher Lloyd, and Will Sampson, who played the willfully mute "Indian Chief Bromden," marked screen debuts for the three last-named actors and an Oscar for Dourif.