They performed a frontal lobe lobotomy on Mac. He would be vegged out for the rest of his life. Chief knew he wouldn't want to live like that, so he put him out of his misery. When I saw this movie originally, the entire theater was cheering for Mac to kill Nurse Ratched. Oscars all the way around for both Nicholson and Louise Fletcher. Great film
28:56 Chief is looking at the two surgical scars on each side of Mac's head near the hairline, and realizes that Mac's been given a lobotomy, destroying many of the connections between the lobes of his brain. Considering the time since the surgery (the scars are nicely healed) and Mac's total lack of response, Chief realizes that Mac, as the person he was, is gone and isn't coming back.
Problem is that is not how lobotomy's where performed. In reality an orbitoclast was inserted in the orbital socket above the eyeball into the frontal lobe.
@@jcarlovitch There were various methods used. In addition to the path through the orbital socket (transorbital lobotomy), other methods included instruments inserted through holes in the skull or the injection of alcohol through similar holes (prefrontal lobotomy). None of them were precise, involving random damage to various areas of the brain. The transorbital method was often used outside of hospital settings, while the prefrontal method required a full surgical suite.
@@zooks527 True but it was straight through the forehead between the eyes and no longer practiced past the late forties. It always targeted the frontal lobe portion of the brain to control violent people. It rendered the patient unable to plan, organize, and initiate actions. You are unable to use any form of violence without a functioning frontal lobe
@@jcarlovitch That's not correct. J Neurosurg5:514-520, 1948 shows the location of a bilateral prefrontal lobotomy as being well above the eyes and well separated from the midline. TH-cam is blocking adding a link, but a search for the journal information above gives you a few options for the article.
It's upsetting to recount the number of times Mac had a clean chance to escape but didn't because he wanted to do something for his fellow inmates... he truly is a tragic hero.
Mario perfectly identifisd Nurss Ratchet as a slimebag who undermined the patients' recovery so she could keep her job! Also, like the wardens in a sterotypical South American prison, she got a sick pleasure out of mentally torturing the patients and acting like a petty dictator! She should have been one of the patients, herself!
He could have easily left at the end. The window was open and everyone was distracted. But he wanted to see what happened to Billy since he cared. In the end he took Ratchets voice and chief broke free setting an example to the others. I hope all the patients walked out after that.
McMurphy underwent a lobotomy at the end. A lobotomy is surgery that cuts away pieces of the brain. Earlier he had undergone electro shock therapy, which is also nasty, but not as horrific as a lobotomy. There can be no improvement from a lobotomy. His personality is gone. Actually the ending is very hopeful, though the journey there has had much suffering. When the Chief recognizes that he is a full human being he has regained his freedom and acts to become physically free by escaping. It is a very positive ending because it shows that we can break out of all the oppression and control around us and become full, free persons.
Lobotomy was the treatment of choice until thorazine came along in 1954. Thorazine has the same intended effect, "induction of psychic indifference", essentially a semi-vegetative state. It was actually marketed as a "chemical lobtomizer" - lobotomy without all the mess. Thorazine and in fact all of the so-called antipsychotics cause shrinkage of the frontal lobes. Now they prescribe them for children. ECT has no benefit. It erases biographic memory and causes micro hemorrhages, eventually dementia. It should be banned permanently
I see this story as an allegory. Nurse Ratched is the authoritarian leader. The people, the patients in this story, give her power over their lives in exchange for security and routine. She tells them what to do and when to do it and they like it because it's easier for them to live that way than to be responsible for themselves. That's why it's an important plot point that many of them are there voluntarily. Then McMurphy shows up. He's a nonconformist, he doesn't follow the rules, that's why he's being held involuntarily. He's basically a rebel and this is why he is almost immediately Nurse Ratched's enemy. Then he starts stirring up rebellion and the more the nurse tries to squash the rebellion, the more rebellious they become. Ultimately the nurse uses brutal measures to regain control. It's a happy ending though. The nurse has lost. Billy and McMurphy might be dead but the Chief, the most quiet and seemingly tame patient, escapes after being inspired by McMurphy.
I think the film is a thounsend miles far from happy endingville. Only the Chief is able to escape. I think the ending in the novel is more happy, because almost all the patients went out of the clinic after they realizes that the Nurse is indeed evil, and she was unable to speak anymore after mac almost broke her neck.
@@jackprescott9652 As an allegory, that's about as happy an ending as you can want. If it ends with the nurse losing her power and all the patients are free, that's not an allegory, that's a pure fantasy.
Saw this when I was a kid and it taught me a lot about life and friendships. Really loved rewatching it through your fresh eyes because everything you say is so genuine and true. I always look forward to your videos.
I was in one of these places for 3 years from age 15 to 18 due to drug abuse, beginning in 1971. The hospital scenes in the film are very accurate. The patients are very real, head nurse, assistant nurse, the way the meds are dispensed is spot on, the basketball scenes, the escape (I did that twice, once to a ferry to Nantucket the other to NYC then Michigan then Missouri) the whole thing is very very accurate except one - lobotomies don't leave scars. They leave holes, the skull is bored into with a drill leaving a hole a little smaller than a golf ball. Eventually skin grows over the hole leaving a large indentation. Most patients have two, some have many more. The psychiatrist digs out pieces of the brain. And the patient - 100% vegetable, barely able to walk or talk. I knew many lobotomy patients, shock treatment victims too. And they call it "therapy". I was in the place with Michael Douglas's younger brother, Michael produced this film.
@@jamessullivan4391 Neurosurgeons would need to perform the lobotomies David is describing - the leucotomy. And many mental hospitals were true hospitals, so had the facilities and staff to perform these procedures. But the transorbital lobotomy, developed and marketed in the US by Dr. Walter Freeman, was performed in doctor's offices by psychiatrists. ECT (electro-convulsive therapy) is still practiced today, but it isn't the horror show of days past. The truth is, for the worst cases of treatment-resistant depression and bipolar, it actually helps. But you have to have tried literally everything else, with everything documented, and two psychiatrists have to sign off to approve it. It's all done under twilight sedation, with the smallest doses needed to essentially induce mild seizures that kinda reset everything. I point this out because it actually helped a friend of mine. She's married and a mom, and has a lot of good things in her life, but she wasn't gonna make it. Her bipolar disorder was gonna kill her. And while she definitely got some short-term memory issues out of it, she's been able to live normally and experience pleasure. She doesn't want to die everyday. So yeah, ECT has a real purpose in alleviating suffering, while the lobotomy was just plain evil and was more used to make mentally ill people (and some absolutely not) "easier to manage".
''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' is one of my all time favorite movies! Saw it the first time when I was 10 years old, it had a huge impact on me (story, characters, especially Jack Nicholson's ''R.P. McMurphy'', the evil ''Nurse Ratched,'' ''Billy'' and my favorite ''Chief Bromden'', the music, and the emotional ending) have seen it many many times since then. Another great Jack Nicholson performance is ''The Last Detail'' (1973), very funny, but also quite tragic. But of course, there are also more great early Jack Nicholson movies like ''Five Easy Pieces'' (1970), ''Carnal Knowledge'' (1971), ''The King of Marvin Gardens'' (1972) and ''Chinatown'' (1974). Greetings From The Netherlands.
Basically, Mac was making the patients better while Nurse Ratchet was making them worse. Mac was never crazy and was killed by corrupt individuals within a corrupt system.
I just watched this and im struggling to see her as a villian. Im rooting for Jack but calling her a villian is a reach. I just see her as someone who takes her job seriously,and believes in the work shes doing. Meanwhile Mcmurphy believes its all a complete joke. I think its safe to say both are right to a certain degree. Everyone blames Ratched for Billys suicide. But Mcmurphy pressured him to sleep with Candy and he clearly wasnt ready. Mcmurphy has the exact same problem as Ratched. Problem being neither truly understand or empathize with the needs of the mentally ill
@@K.C.C.L maybe you need to rewatch it, many more times, if you don't consider her as an evil person. Or just watch this episode of Analyzing Evil: th-cam.com/video/SSB_IX560S4/w-d-xo.html
@@K.C.C.L Wrong, McMurphy didn't pressure Billy, that's what he wanted, he just arranged it with Candy. Billy was on cloud 9 till Ratchet deliberately triggered his fear of his domineering puritanical mother. The fact you cant see that McMurphy had empathy for the other patients and what a cold horror Ratchet was is worrying, her actions were totally responsible for Billy's death, she was punishing him for daring to experience a little happiness, something that she probably never has. I guess cutting part of McMurphy's brain away, even though they know he's not mentally ill, was them just taking their job seriously as well
I view that as a comment on the treatment of Native Americans. Though they were native to the nest, European immigrants tossed them out of their rightful place and feigned a relationship with the mother bird (land) to survive.
1. These hospitals did take in voluntary patients. Patients who had issues they wanted resolved and so put themselves in the hands of psychiatrists for help. They could leave whenever they wanted. 2. Nurse Ratched wasn’t acting as she did out of wanting to keep her job… that would’ve been the opposite action. She had a power/control kick. If/when patients got better, there would always be new patients being admitted… so she’d always be in a job anyway. 3. They were often given ECT electroconvulsive treatment in the old fashioned, ignorant belief that it would reset their neural integrity. This was a barbaric approach with no science behind it. It was eventually outlawed as a treatment procedure somewhere in the late 1950s or ‘60s if I remember correctly. 4. They gave McMurphy a frontal lobotomy… ie they cut away part of his brain. Again, this was the belief at that time that it would cure psychotic issues. Barbaric with no medical/scientific basis. Also outlawed around the same time. 5. Billy was also - I believe - a ‘voluntary’ patient. He had women issues probably due to a dysfunctional relationship with his mother. His pathological lacking of confidence became manifest in his stuttering. McMurphy (and Candy) instilled a lot of his missing confidence back in him. Ratched didn’t like that as it undermined her professional status. She intended to punish Billy by bringing up his mother (a friend of Ratched). This worked and sent him back into his psychologically damaged persona. 6. They turned McMurphy into - in effect - a vegetable. They took away the essence of the man… his personality, his vitality, his soul. Would you like to live like that? Hence why The Chief killed him. It was a MERCY killing. He couldn’t stand to see his friend reduced in such a way. Again, would anyone like to live like that? 7. Didn’t you recognise the young Danny de Vito?
@Daniele Iannarelli - ECT is still used today on approximately 1 million patients annually worldwide. It is used as a last resort, mainly for patients with severe life-threatening depression, mania, or bipolar disorder who have failed to respond to other treatments.
@@previouslyachimp Shocking! Excuse the pun. It’s barbaric and - as far as I was aware - it had been banned in the US and UK for decades. There’s no scientific basis for it.
@Daniele Iannarelli - I think the reality is that they'll try anything if someone is imminently suicidal. Anecdotally, they say it helps some people, but it is truly a desperate affair if that is the only option. My heart goes out to such poor people.
@@BlueShadow777 That is simply not true. It induces a mild seizure, and while it's true they don't know all the ins-and-outs of why seizures helps, there's mountains of evidence and studies (aka, scientific basis) that it does. In the US, there's a lot of hoops you have to go through to get it - namely, every single other thing available has been tried, and two psychiatrists have to sign off on it. But it's not the horror show you see in movies. It's done under twilight sedation, with the smallest doses of electricity needed to induce the seizure. People go back to work the next day. This is repeated over a few weeks (6-12 treatments), and because of how it essentially resets everything, people with the worst of the worst treatment-resistant depression or bipolar can go years without needing it again. Or ever. The way it was done in the past was barbaric. The way it's done today is absolutely not.
@@BlueShadow777 ECT is a pretty effective treatment for severe depression. When it works as intended, it jolts you out of the depressive state and the effect can last a long time. Some patients are treated for seasonal depression with only a few sessions per year. Nowadays, ECT is given under anesthesia, and the patient is also given muscle-relaxing drugs beforehand. The main side effect is some temporary memory loss, wich is an acceptable effect compared to the state of mental agony and severe debilitating depression these patients suffer from. This treatment is given voluntary of course. This movie is set in a time when ECT was used more liberally, but it is depicted in a very negative way and this very movie gave the treatment such a bad rep that it was abandoned my many institutions This was also the time when the first generation of anti-psycotic drugs were invented. These drugs were effective but very sedative, and turned patients into drooling zombies. Again, the alternative treatments were often reduced to lobotomy or keeping the patients chained up in a padded cell. I could never argue for lobotomy, but you need to understand that the doctors who invented the treatment had seen patients live for decades under extreme mental distress, often mutilating themselves out of despair, or being dangerous to family members, staff and other patients. Untreated psychosis can be very, very scary. Most of all to the patients themselves.
Lobotomy was a hell of an "invention". It was sold as helping with many psychological problems but mostly just destroyed the people. In general there were some really questionable practices in place in these wards. Stuff that could be straight out of a horror movie.
To me this movie teaches me, among many things, to not trust authority. Free spirits like Mac don’t hurt people unless they have to fight back against those who try to cage him. He doesn’t accept unjust rules. Finally I love how he taught the chief to be free.
Ken kesey wrote his novel in 1962. It was written as the Chief's narrative. In 1962, mental institutions were places where patients were subject to terrible abuse. For the convenience of the staff, patients were kept docile in a fog of psychotropic drugs ("medication time, medication time"). Anyone acting out could be given EST (Electro Shock Therapy). This left the patient dazed and confused, but passive. Whole areas of memory might be wiped out by this procedure. Some people who were given the "therapy", would become unable to recognize members of their own families afterwards . For the harder to handle subjects, partial or full lobotomies were the solution. These poor souls had no one to advocate for them. No one but Ken Kesey. And Randall P. McMurphy. After the publication of Kesey's book and the release of the film in 1975, much light was brought to bear on the conditions in mental institutions, and much legislation was passed to protect patients from abuses. I love this film - Thank you for watching it.
Thanks for the reaction, guys. Brad Dourif is such a versatile actor, from this to David Lynch's Dune, to LOTR, and Chucky and many things more in between.
I second someone else's suggestion- react to "Cool Hand Luke", starring Paul Newman and another great cast. It deals with another outcast of society who finds his freedom even while in prison.
I know it's a ultimately a sad movie, but the reaction was so much fun! I'm happy you got to see Nicholson in a role in which he's not a villain! I thought you both had great things to say about it, especially towards the end, and after the movie. I love how Joy said immediately that she understood the title. (I totally agree! Only ONE flew over the cuckoo's nest!) I know you're seeing "The Departed" and "Chinatown" soon! Looking forward to both! THANKS!
Before it was a movie (and a play), "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was a novel. In the novel, you learn where the title of the book/play/movie comes from. It comes from a nursery rhyme read to Chief by his grandmother when he was a child: Vintery, mintery, cutery, corn, Apple seed and apple thorn, Wire, briar, limber lock Three geese in a flock One flew East One flew West And one flew over the cuckoo's nest. To Chief, McMurphy represented that one unusual bird who flew neither East nor West.
While this film is Ken Kesey's take on society (Kesey actually worked at an asylum) as a madhouse, asylums were originally created to keep the mentally ill off the streets or out of the public eye, and prior to psychological treatments, they were also interested in how to keep the patients calm & quiet. That's essentially what drugs & lobotomies were for (and to a certain extent, what they're still used for). With the advent of the transorbital lobotomy (so-called "icepick lobotomy"), they could lobotomize patients faster and cut down on needing to keep them in a chemically-induced stupor. ECT is still used to "reset" a patient's overactive brain (however barbaric it seems, it tends to work- with some cognitive side-effects.) Early pre-scientific "treatments" called for ice baths, solitude, and a whole slew of activities that amounted to little more than torture. Nelly Bly, the famous 19th century reporter, went undercover and admitted herself to an asylum & described the horrid conditions for her book "10 Days in a Madhouse", which was made into a movie of the same name back in 2015 that you might check out. You might also check out the very good miniseries (I think it's on Netflix) "Ratched" which focuses on Nurse Ratched's early days as a nurse- sort of an origin story.
Great movie with great acting, but very dark story, and for that very reason this isn't a movie I've ever revisited after seeing it in the 70's. Too depressing for me. But it was worth it once again to see this with your reactions. You need to see another classic 70's flick; MARATHON MAN with Dustin Hoffman.
Yeah me too, saw it when it came out and although I thought it was a very good film I've never re-visited it until now. Too sad. I was disappointed by Marathon Man though, I saw it after reading the book and I've always thought Hoffman was miscast somehow.
I met Louise Fletcher on the set of the film she did just before Cuckoos Nest as my mom was in the crew behind the camera. in fact, my mom was asked to do a quick one-line cameo on the day I was there, and Ms. Fletcher not only coached my mom but sat next to me as they filmed the scene. but if I was really going to brag..... I'd mention the time Jack, Warren and Julie, Bob Altman, and most of his crew popped by our place for a bbq because they built a whole 1800's western set blocks from our home. braaaag.
@@reservoirdude92 full credit goes to my mom, of course, all I get is goofy bragging rights from some fuzzy old memories that usually impress drunken people at parties. and speaking of drunken people at parties..... Bob Altman (he insisted I call him Bob btw - even though I was a little kid) rented the house kitty corner from ours for editing and nightly dailies for McCabe and Mrs Miller. Mike Nichols also used the house editing Carnal Knowledge too, my mom apprenticed on both films, so no imdb credit (boo hoo)... talk about a party house that was sheesh.
A classic in my DVD collection. It was a mercy killing by Chief. Nurse Ratchet loves the power and control. A sadistic woman that caused the suicide. ✌️
Nurse Ratchet is not a dedicated health care professional. She's a tyrant, misusing the power she's been granted in this position, getting smug delight from every petty cruelty she's able to dole out. In the name of 'helping' the patients, she controls the men on the ward, taking quiet pleasure in robbing them of their choice, their agency, their dignity, treating them like children, beyond the needs of therapy. Instead of recognizing Billy's breakthrough, newfound confidence and lack of stutter, she takes it as a personal affront that someone might escape her clutches, and especially through such unorthodox means that she did not order, and therefore she browbeats him back into his pain and shame, more than he can handle. It's a small kingdom, but it's hers, and Mac is a challenge to her authority. He's not mentally ill, he's simply a non-conformist. And Nurse Ratchet is all about conformity. Which is why after he attacks her for what she did to Billy, she gets in her last bit of vindictive cruelty and recommends him for lobotomy. Mac ends up permanently brain damaged through surgery, severing his frontal lobe in his brain, turning him into a mindless vegetable. And Chief knew he would not want to exist like that....
in my opinion Mac was the true Lunatic in this movie.. just bcuz a true lunatic dont give a damn or not afraid of any repercussions i've seen many murder cases, and people who tries to manipulate their ''innocence'' are wicked people who act lunatic but they are normal... but people who calmly admits and even give explicit details are the true lunatics ''based on society'' Mac was bad in his way regarding ''not having fortune to fit anywhere'' but at least he was honest and real with himself.. like ''i am a piece of trash, and now what?'' but Nurse Ratched hated him for being like that.. even more for not be able to control him too.. in the end Chief was like you might kill his body, but his spirit lives through me! amazing movie for people who can think outside of the box
I have to disagree. The film didnt become dark at the end. It was dark from the beginning. The nurse especially used her power to control everyone. They didn't like the way he stirred up the people. Made them care about things. She wants them to just be quit and follow the rules. She knew he wasn't crazy but convinced them to keep him so she could get her revenge for making trouble for her.
I disagree, Brad Dourif has an amazing career from the hapless racist deputy in MISSISSIPPI BURNING or Jim Jones' (Powers Booths) heroin addict lover in THE GUYANA TRAGEDY: Jim Jones Story. He's been in The Lord of the Rings and Chucky franchise. Not bad adding One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest?
Some are just meant to be character actors. He was an extremely sought after character actor his entire career. He never would have made it as a leading man.
I don't think he's been mentioned, but the guy that shows Jack and his family the hotel in The Shining, the one that talks to the kid from head to head without using mouths, is the employee that seems to be on their/his side. His name is Scatman Crothers
The acting by everyone in this film is so good ,Sydney Lassick played “Cheswick” what a brilliant performance that gets overshadowed I think by the headliners, thanks again
GREAT movie!My mother was in and out of mental institutions and I know how bad the Doctors are at their jobs.I visited her many times and people are just like that but drugged up to keep them docile.
They used to have free hospitals for the mentally ill. Back then society believed it was better to keep such people in institutions rather than allow them to live on the streets. It was possible to have a person committed against their will if a panel of like 3 doctors signed off on it or a judge decided you needed to be there. Laws were changed in the 70s and nearly all such hospitals are now long closed. This film had a part to play in that process. You cant confine a person against their will if they are cognizant enough to have self agency. Even if they aren't capable of holding down a job they are allowed to exist freely so long as they dont break the law.
"One flew over the cuckoos nest" has been considered a slang term immates used to reference those who escaped. But It actually comes from a nursery rhyme or lullaby Chief Bromden's gramma used to sing to him, as a child. As it appears in the novel: Vintery, mintery, cutery, corn, Apple seed and apple thorn, Wire, briar, limber lock Three geese in a flock One flew East One flew West And one flew over the cuckoo's nest.
This film portrays a small part of what was and still is in some places, the reality of psychiatric hospitals, a sad reality, where people are crammed and treated like laboratory rats. I live in Brazil, and most of these types of hospitals, until recently, were ten times worse than the one portrayed in this movie. In this film we can see, in addition to Jack Nicholson, one of the best actors of all time, other actors at the beginning of their careers, with spectacular performances. A masterpiece.
The voluntaries are free to leave, but they think they can't make it on the outside. And that's the way Nurse Ratched likes it. She doesn't want to help the patients, but to control them. That's why she wants McMurphy to stay in the hospital rather than go to jail. He has defied her authority, so she wants to break him. This is a great movie, and it's based on an even greater book. The narrator in the book is Chief Bromden, who is schizophrenic. He hallucinates through much of the story, and what he sees is a sort of commentary on reality. I recommend it to anyone with an interest in fiction.
What to realize is prior to the 1980s, this was the warehousing of the homeless. Many would have been picked up living on the street. With mental health or drug issues. While then they were forced to follow the rules. Now anyone who breaks the housing rules, would be kicked out of the shelter.
McMurphy was turned into a vegetable when he was given a lobotomy. He was such a force of nature and that was taken away from him. Chief did him a kindness, yes, by freeing him. Nurse Ratchet didn't want to help the patients. She just wanted to control them. This movie won a lot of Oscars, including Best Actor and Actress (or Supporting Actress), movie, director and more.
The title comes from an old school-yard children's rhyme. I cannot remember it, except for the chant "One flew east, one flew west, and one flew over the cuckoo's nest!"
Mac is 'unlawful good'. Nurse Ratched is 'lawful evil'. This is a common Anti-Hero theme in Seventies movies. It was in the Seventies that people stopped believing in government and institutions. The story itself is set in an earlier time - perhaps in the Sixties. Nurse Ratched has a Forties era hairstyle which sets her apart.
Netflix ran a serise a couple of years ago called Ratchet and was about the early life of Nurse Ratchet finishing with her becoming the head Nurse in the asylum if memory serves me right, worth a watch guys..
Thanks for the review. I have seen this movie several times since I was young. Recently I rewatched this movie with my wife since she hadn't seen it before. She didn't enjoy it and her take on it was totally different than pretty much every person who watched it. She liked Nurse Ratchet and thought she ran a tight ship and didn't like Mac and the chaos he created in the ward. I found it very strange...
ohh i see.. well there is some sense of chaos in this movie but only for those who lived in a ''rule-based environment or household'' that is bcuz probably your wife had a good life back in her childhood and at her home.. but someone who comes from a bad background or trauma etc.. to be put down just bcuz he/she had something to say? isn't fair.. and the heroes of the past did the same thing as Mac.. speak out and die bcuz of it. but bcuz of heroes like that we enjoy most of the laws that protect the sane people without even knowing it
I get the impression that reactors don't understand, or haven't heard the idiomatic American usage of cuckoo to mean insane (like crazy, Looney/lunatic, nuts and nuthouse for asylum/mental institution, mad, off your rocker, loco, bonkers, etc.). The entire cast is excellent, Christopher Lloyd (Doc Brown I Back to the Future) delivers a powerful compelling performance that makes the climax sublime, along with Will Sampson (Ten Bears from The Outlaw Josie Wales). This film endures, and rightfully so.
Why kill him? The Indian did his friend a favour. They permanently brain damaged McMurphy, which is probably the most evil thing that could ever be done to somebody.
Rather startling how many younger movie goers have not seen nor heard of this film. It "swept" the Oscars and is probably Jack Nicholson's most memorable role. And of course it's the Big Nurse who should be the one in the nuthouse.
Nurse Ratchet was a dictator. She hated Jack Nicholson's character because he was a free spirit, an individualist who couldn't be controlled. He was a happy man, a man filled with life She couldn't rule him ,so she had to destroy him. But, in the end Jack won because the Chief and the other inmates followed his example and got his freedom.
My favourite film, easily seen it over 200 times. You got a thumbs up just for reacting to it but I'd give you a second thumbs up if I could for a lovely review. Nurse Ratched is too good at her job and doesn't like anyone to challenge her at all, then McMurphy comes and does exactly that.
Great movie with a tragic ending and not (as your reaction affirms) one you want to watch if looking for something to leave you uplifted. Very depressing. But if you want to get the aftertaste of that movie out of your mouth, by cleansing your palate with another Jack Nicholson portrayal of mental illness that actually has a happy ending, I highly recommend "As Good as it Gets." from 1997. Nicholson really nails it in his performance in this film. And just as the title suggests I doubt you'll find any of this genre that you'll enjoy more. "As Good as it Gets" is, by the way, my absolute favorite Jack Nisholson movie, with "The Last Detail" from 1973 clocking in as a close runner-up. Well worth checking out (and I do mean both of them).
I was 18 when I saw this movie at the theatre. It definitely deserved it accolades. Nurse Gratchett (that's what my circle of friends called her as she was mean as shit) was incredibly played by Louise Fletcher.
This movie came out at a time when there was a campaign to end incarceration for the mentally ill and close institutions like this across the US. Now the mentally ill make up a large portion of our homeless and prison populations. Not a positive move in my mind.
Medication has come a very long, long way since the 1950s~1970s. A large portion of the mentally ill can become functional and live independent lives as a result. However, you make a good point for those who cannot be effectively treated with medication. Or the marginal who slip through the cracks and end up on the street. Chronic drug / alcohol abuse is also a leading causal factor in homelessness. They are inseparable in most cases.
@@lawrenceallen8096 funny how those with little to no actual first-hand experience with the medical system seem to think it's only the "marginal who slip through the cracks....." whereas, those who've spent most of their lives asking for help, and not being "able" to receive it..... might say "the majority who slip through the cracks....." I dare any of you to spend just two weeks in a psych ward, let alone being indefinitely incarcerated in an institution..... and tell me your list of comparisons doesn't outweigh your list of contrasts with this film.
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They performed a frontal lobe lobotomy on Mac. He would be vegged out for the rest of his life. Chief knew he wouldn't want to live like that, so he put him out of his misery. When I saw this movie originally, the entire theater was cheering for Mac to kill Nurse Ratched. Oscars all the way around for both Nicholson and Louise Fletcher. Great film
28:56 Chief is looking at the two surgical scars on each side of Mac's head near the hairline, and realizes that Mac's been given a lobotomy, destroying many of the connections between the lobes of his brain. Considering the time since the surgery (the scars are nicely healed) and Mac's total lack of response, Chief realizes that Mac, as the person he was, is gone and isn't coming back.
Problem is that is not how lobotomy's where performed. In reality an orbitoclast was inserted in the orbital socket above the eyeball into the frontal lobe.
@@jcarlovitch But thats not important. It's for the audience so the character can see the procedure was done.
@@jcarlovitch There were various methods used. In addition to the path through the orbital socket (transorbital lobotomy), other methods included instruments inserted through holes in the skull or the injection of alcohol through similar holes (prefrontal lobotomy).
None of them were precise, involving random damage to various areas of the brain. The transorbital method was often used outside of hospital settings, while the prefrontal method required a full surgical suite.
@@zooks527 True but it was straight through the forehead between the eyes and no longer practiced past the late forties. It always targeted the frontal lobe portion of the brain to control violent people. It rendered the patient unable to plan, organize, and initiate actions. You are unable to use any form of violence without a functioning frontal lobe
@@jcarlovitch That's not correct. J Neurosurg5:514-520, 1948 shows the location of a bilateral prefrontal lobotomy as being well above the eyes and well separated from the midline. TH-cam is blocking adding a link, but a search for the journal information above gives you a few options for the article.
It's upsetting to recount the number of times Mac had a clean chance to escape but didn't because he wanted to do something for his fellow inmates... he truly is a tragic hero.
He cared about the fellas in the end. He was a good fiend.
Mario perfectly identifisd Nurss Ratchet as a slimebag who undermined the patients' recovery so she could keep her job! Also, like the wardens in a sterotypical South American prison, she got a sick pleasure out of mentally torturing the patients and acting like a petty dictator! She should have been one of the patients, herself!
Stood up for his boys through and through! Can’t buy that kind of loyalty.
Its been noted that Macs character was a Christ like one in a weird and mental way.
He could have easily left at the end. The window was open and everyone was distracted. But he wanted to see what happened to Billy since he cared.
In the end he took Ratchets voice and chief broke free setting an example to the others. I hope all the patients walked out after that.
McMurphy underwent a lobotomy at the end. A lobotomy is surgery that cuts away pieces of the brain. Earlier he had undergone electro shock therapy, which is also nasty, but not as horrific as a lobotomy. There can be no improvement from a lobotomy. His personality is gone. Actually the ending is very hopeful, though the journey there has had much suffering. When the Chief recognizes that he is a full human being he has regained his freedom and acts to become physically free by escaping. It is a very positive ending because it shows that we can break out of all the oppression and control around us and become full, free persons.
Lobotomy was the treatment of choice until thorazine came along in 1954. Thorazine has the same intended effect, "induction of psychic indifference", essentially a semi-vegetative state. It was actually marketed as a "chemical lobtomizer" - lobotomy without all the mess. Thorazine and in fact all of the so-called antipsychotics cause shrinkage of the frontal lobes. Now they prescribe them for children. ECT has no benefit. It erases biographic memory and causes micro hemorrhages, eventually dementia. It should be banned permanently
My heart soars when the Chief escapes out the window every time I see this movie.
One of my favorite films. The entire cast was excellent.
I see this story as an allegory. Nurse Ratched is the authoritarian leader. The people, the patients in this story, give her power over their lives in exchange for security and routine. She tells them what to do and when to do it and they like it because it's easier for them to live that way than to be responsible for themselves. That's why it's an important plot point that many of them are there voluntarily. Then McMurphy shows up. He's a nonconformist, he doesn't follow the rules, that's why he's being held involuntarily. He's basically a rebel and this is why he is almost immediately Nurse Ratched's enemy. Then he starts stirring up rebellion and the more the nurse tries to squash the rebellion, the more rebellious they become. Ultimately the nurse uses brutal measures to regain control. It's a happy ending though. The nurse has lost. Billy and McMurphy might be dead but the Chief, the most quiet and seemingly tame patient, escapes after being inspired by McMurphy.
I think the film is a thounsend miles far from happy endingville. Only the Chief is able to escape. I think the ending in the novel is more happy, because almost all the patients went out of the clinic after they realizes that the Nurse is indeed evil, and she was unable to speak anymore after mac almost broke her neck.
@@jackprescott9652 As an allegory, that's about as happy an ending as you can want. If it ends with the nurse losing her power and all the patients are free, that's not an allegory, that's a pure fantasy.
@@flibber123 thats the way the novel ended.
You got it! The hospital is a metaphor for society. It "works on you" as the chief puts it. Either you learn to fit in or it breaks you.
"No crazy people. Only crazy society." You got it!!! That's the whole theme of this film.
Saw this when I was a kid and it taught me a lot about life and friendships. Really loved rewatching it through your fresh eyes because everything you say is so genuine and true. I always look forward to your videos.
I was in one of these places for 3 years from age 15 to 18 due to drug abuse, beginning in 1971. The hospital scenes in the film are very accurate. The patients are very real, head nurse, assistant nurse, the way the meds are dispensed is spot on, the basketball scenes, the escape (I did that twice, once to a ferry to Nantucket the other to NYC then Michigan then Missouri) the whole thing is very very accurate except one - lobotomies don't leave scars. They leave holes, the skull is bored into with a drill leaving a hole a little smaller than a golf ball. Eventually skin grows over the hole leaving a large indentation. Most patients have two, some have many more. The psychiatrist digs out pieces of the brain. And the patient - 100% vegetable, barely able to walk or talk. I knew many lobotomy patients, shock treatment victims too. And they call it "therapy". I was in the place with Michael Douglas's younger brother, Michael produced this film.
But Psychiatrists are not surgeons so they would not perform the lobotomy.
@@jamessullivan4391 Neurosurgeons would need to perform the lobotomies David is describing - the leucotomy. And many mental hospitals were true hospitals, so had the facilities and staff to perform these procedures.
But the transorbital lobotomy, developed and marketed in the US by Dr. Walter Freeman, was performed in doctor's offices by psychiatrists.
ECT (electro-convulsive therapy) is still practiced today, but it isn't the horror show of days past. The truth is, for the worst cases of treatment-resistant depression and bipolar, it actually helps. But you have to have tried literally everything else, with everything documented, and two psychiatrists have to sign off to approve it. It's all done under twilight sedation, with the smallest doses needed to essentially induce mild seizures that kinda reset everything.
I point this out because it actually helped a friend of mine. She's married and a mom, and has a lot of good things in her life, but she wasn't gonna make it. Her bipolar disorder was gonna kill her. And while she definitely got some short-term memory issues out of it, she's been able to live normally and experience pleasure. She doesn't want to die everyday.
So yeah, ECT has a real purpose in alleviating suffering, while the lobotomy was just plain evil and was more used to make mentally ill people (and some absolutely not) "easier to manage".
1971??? Woh!!! The bad old days. That must have been rough.
Calling bullshit. The last lobotomy in the US was in 1967. Also, shock therapy doesn't hurt when done right, it also _can_ help people.
@@davidgagnon3781 nah he was probably a brat whose parents tried everything and put him there to learn discipline
''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' is one of my all time favorite movies! Saw it the first time when I was 10 years old, it had a huge impact on me (story, characters, especially Jack Nicholson's ''R.P. McMurphy'', the evil ''Nurse Ratched,'' ''Billy'' and my favorite ''Chief Bromden'', the music, and the emotional ending) have seen it many many times since then. Another great Jack Nicholson performance is ''The Last Detail'' (1973), very funny, but also quite tragic. But of course, there are also more great early Jack Nicholson movies like ''Five Easy Pieces'' (1970), ''Carnal Knowledge'' (1971), ''The King of Marvin Gardens'' (1972) and ''Chinatown'' (1974). Greetings From The Netherlands.
All very good recommendations. Particularly Chinatown, Five Easy Pieces & The Last Detail.
All great recommendations. Jack Nicholson is my favorite actor.
Basically, Mac was making the patients better while Nurse Ratchet was making them worse. Mac was never crazy and was killed by corrupt individuals within a corrupt system.
well being ''awake'' means crazy in this system.. even for today's standards... RIP Mac
This was in fact one of the very finest motion pictures ever produced. All star actors, acting so real, incredible.
She is actually one of the greatest villains in movie history. Btw, haven't you noticed her hairstyle, she's got two horns!!
god damn, I don't remember when I wanted to murder somebody as much as her
Won an oscar for it, rightfully so.
I just watched this and im struggling to see her as a villian. Im rooting for Jack but calling her a villian is a reach. I just see her as someone who takes her job seriously,and believes in the work shes doing. Meanwhile Mcmurphy believes its all a complete joke. I think its safe to say both are right to a certain degree. Everyone blames Ratched for Billys suicide. But Mcmurphy pressured him to sleep with Candy and he clearly wasnt ready. Mcmurphy has the exact same problem as Ratched. Problem being neither truly understand or empathize with the needs of the mentally ill
@@K.C.C.L maybe you need to rewatch it, many more times, if you don't consider her as an evil person. Or just watch this episode of Analyzing Evil:
th-cam.com/video/SSB_IX560S4/w-d-xo.html
@@K.C.C.L Wrong, McMurphy didn't pressure Billy, that's what he wanted, he just arranged it with Candy. Billy was on cloud 9 till Ratchet deliberately triggered his fear of his domineering puritanical mother. The fact you cant see that McMurphy had empathy for the other patients and what a cold horror Ratchet was is worrying, her actions were totally responsible for Billy's death, she was punishing him for daring to experience a little happiness, something that she probably never has. I guess cutting part of McMurphy's brain away, even though they know he's not mentally ill, was them just taking their job seriously as well
when the chief said he was taking murphy with him he meant he was taking his spirit with him when he escaped
i thought of that too!
Also the book begins with a poem, "one flew east, one flew west, and one flew over the cuckoo's nest. "
I view that as a comment on the treatment of Native Americans. Though they were native to the nest, European immigrants tossed them out of their rightful place and feigned a relationship with the mother bird (land) to survive.
1. These hospitals did take in voluntary patients. Patients who had issues they wanted resolved and so put themselves in the hands of psychiatrists for help. They could leave whenever they wanted.
2. Nurse Ratched wasn’t acting as she did out of wanting to keep her job… that would’ve been the opposite action. She had a power/control kick. If/when patients got better, there would always be new patients being admitted… so she’d always be in a job anyway.
3. They were often given ECT electroconvulsive treatment in the old fashioned, ignorant belief that it would reset their neural integrity. This was a barbaric approach with no science behind it. It was eventually outlawed as a treatment procedure somewhere in the late 1950s or ‘60s if I remember correctly.
4. They gave McMurphy a frontal lobotomy… ie they cut away part of his brain. Again, this was the belief at that time that it would cure psychotic issues. Barbaric with no medical/scientific basis. Also outlawed around the same time.
5. Billy was also - I believe - a ‘voluntary’ patient. He had women issues probably due to a dysfunctional relationship with his mother. His pathological lacking of confidence became manifest in his stuttering. McMurphy (and Candy) instilled a lot of his missing confidence back in him. Ratched didn’t like that as it undermined her professional status. She intended to punish Billy by bringing up his mother (a friend of Ratched). This worked and sent him back into his psychologically damaged persona.
6. They turned McMurphy into - in effect - a vegetable. They took away the essence of the man… his personality, his vitality, his soul. Would you like to live like that? Hence why The Chief killed him. It was a MERCY killing. He couldn’t stand to see his friend reduced in such a way. Again, would anyone like to live like that?
7. Didn’t you recognise the young Danny de Vito?
@Daniele Iannarelli - ECT is still used today on approximately 1 million patients annually worldwide. It is used as a last resort, mainly for patients with severe life-threatening depression, mania, or bipolar disorder who have failed to respond to other treatments.
@@previouslyachimp
Shocking! Excuse the pun.
It’s barbaric and - as far as I was aware - it had been banned in the US and UK for decades. There’s no scientific basis for it.
@Daniele Iannarelli - I think the reality is that they'll try anything if someone is imminently suicidal. Anecdotally, they say it helps some people, but it is truly a desperate affair if that is the only option. My heart goes out to such poor people.
@@BlueShadow777 That is simply not true. It induces a mild seizure, and while it's true they don't know all the ins-and-outs of why seizures helps, there's mountains of evidence and studies (aka, scientific basis) that it does.
In the US, there's a lot of hoops you have to go through to get it - namely, every single other thing available has been tried, and two psychiatrists have to sign off on it. But it's not the horror show you see in movies. It's done under twilight sedation, with the smallest doses of electricity needed to induce the seizure. People go back to work the next day.
This is repeated over a few weeks (6-12 treatments), and because of how it essentially resets everything, people with the worst of the worst treatment-resistant depression or bipolar can go years without needing it again. Or ever.
The way it was done in the past was barbaric. The way it's done today is absolutely not.
@@BlueShadow777 ECT is a pretty effective treatment for severe depression. When it works as intended, it jolts you out of the depressive state and the effect can last a long time. Some patients are treated for seasonal depression with only a few sessions per year.
Nowadays, ECT is given under anesthesia, and the patient is also given muscle-relaxing drugs beforehand.
The main side effect is some temporary memory loss, wich is an acceptable effect compared to the state of mental agony and severe debilitating depression these patients suffer from.
This treatment is given voluntary of course.
This movie is set in a time when ECT was used more liberally, but it is depicted in a very negative way and this very movie gave the treatment such a bad rep that it was abandoned my many institutions
This was also the time when the first generation of anti-psycotic drugs were invented. These drugs were effective but very sedative, and turned patients into drooling zombies. Again, the alternative treatments were often reduced to lobotomy or keeping the patients chained up in a padded cell.
I could never argue for lobotomy, but you need to understand that the doctors who invented the treatment had seen patients live for decades under extreme mental distress, often mutilating themselves out of despair, or being dangerous to family members, staff and other patients.
Untreated psychosis can be very, very scary. Most of all to the patients themselves.
Poor Scatman Crothers. Jack Nickolson gets him fired in this movie and then kills him
in another.
The book is amazing, it’s all told through Chief’s narration.
Wow really?? Definitely one for me to add to my collection now 💗
Lobotomy was a hell of an "invention". It was sold as helping with many psychological problems but mostly just destroyed the people. In general there were some really questionable practices in place in these wards. Stuff that could be straight out of a horror movie.
To me this movie teaches me, among many things, to not trust authority. Free spirits like Mac don’t hurt people unless they have to fight back against those who try to cage him. He doesn’t accept unjust rules. Finally I love how he taught the chief to be free.
This film is a masterpiece. I’m so glad you reacted to this one. It’s a personal favorite of mine. The acting is off the charts.
Ken kesey wrote his novel in 1962.
It was written as the Chief's narrative. In 1962, mental institutions were places where patients were subject to terrible abuse. For the convenience of the staff, patients were kept docile in a fog of psychotropic drugs ("medication time, medication time"). Anyone acting out could be given EST (Electro Shock Therapy). This left the patient dazed and confused, but passive. Whole areas of memory might be wiped out by this procedure. Some people who were given the "therapy", would become unable to recognize members of their own families afterwards .
For the harder to handle subjects, partial or full lobotomies were the solution.
These poor souls had no one to advocate for them. No one but Ken Kesey. And Randall P. McMurphy.
After the publication of Kesey's book and the release of the film in 1975, much light was brought to bear on the conditions in mental institutions, and much legislation was passed to protect patients from abuses.
I love this film -
Thank you for watching it.
Thanks for the reaction, guys. Brad Dourif is such a versatile actor, from this to David Lynch's Dune, to LOTR, and Chucky and many things more in between.
His run on Star Trek Voyager was really good.
"Cuckoo's nest" is really just another term for psychiatric hospital, just like "nuthouse" or "crazy farm."
man you guys sure react to some of the great films ever made. This is in my top 3 of all time. Heartbreaking ending though.
Masterpiece
I second someone else's suggestion- react to "Cool Hand Luke", starring Paul Newman and another great cast. It deals with another outcast of society who finds his freedom even while in prison.
Ahhh those 50 Eggs 😯
Cool Hand Luke was a great movie! One of the best
Agreed, great movie
Cool Hand Luke is one of my favorite movies. That and The Long Hot Summer are my two favorite Paul Newman movies.
Oh yes, love Cool Hand Luke
I know it's a ultimately a sad movie, but the reaction was so much fun! I'm happy you got to see Nicholson in a role in which he's not a villain! I thought you both had great things to say about it, especially towards the end, and after the movie. I love how Joy said immediately that she understood the title. (I totally agree! Only ONE flew over the cuckoo's nest!) I know you're seeing "The Departed" and "Chinatown" soon! Looking forward to both! THANKS!
Nurse Ratchet is one of the biggest villains of all time
Before it was a movie (and a play), "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was a novel. In the novel, you learn where the title of the book/play/movie comes from. It comes from a nursery rhyme read to Chief by his grandmother when he was a child:
Vintery, mintery, cutery, corn,
Apple seed and apple thorn,
Wire, briar, limber lock
Three geese in a flock
One flew East
One flew West
And one flew over the cuckoo's nest.
To Chief, McMurphy represented that one unusual bird who flew neither East nor West.
While this film is Ken Kesey's take on society (Kesey actually worked at an asylum) as a madhouse, asylums were originally created to keep the mentally ill off the streets or out of the public eye, and prior to psychological treatments, they were also interested in how to keep the patients calm & quiet.
That's essentially what drugs & lobotomies were for (and to a certain extent, what they're still used for). With the advent of the transorbital lobotomy (so-called "icepick lobotomy"), they could lobotomize patients faster and cut down on needing to keep them in a chemically-induced stupor.
ECT is still used to "reset" a patient's overactive brain (however barbaric it seems, it tends to work- with some cognitive side-effects.)
Early pre-scientific "treatments" called for ice baths, solitude, and a whole slew of activities that amounted to little more than torture.
Nelly Bly, the famous 19th century reporter, went undercover and admitted herself to an asylum & described the horrid conditions for her book "10 Days in a Madhouse", which was made into a movie of the same name back in 2015 that you might check out.
You might also check out the very good miniseries (I think it's on Netflix) "Ratched" which focuses on Nurse Ratched's early days as a nurse- sort of an origin story.
Great movie with great acting, but very dark story, and for that very reason this isn't a movie I've ever revisited after seeing it in the 70's. Too depressing for me. But it was worth it once again to see this with your reactions. You need to see another classic 70's flick; MARATHON MAN with Dustin Hoffman.
Yeah me too, saw it when it came out and although I thought it was a very good film I've never re-visited it until now. Too sad. I was disappointed by Marathon Man though, I saw it after reading the book and I've always thought Hoffman was miscast somehow.
I met Louise Fletcher on the set of the film she did just before Cuckoos Nest as my mom was in the crew behind the camera.
in fact, my mom was asked to do a quick one-line cameo on the day I was there, and Ms. Fletcher not only coached my mom but sat next to me as they filmed the scene.
but if I was really going to brag.....
I'd mention the time Jack, Warren and Julie, Bob Altman, and most of his crew popped by our place for a bbq because they built a whole 1800's western set blocks from our home. braaaag.
I'd brag about Louise Fletcher and Robert Altman if I could too lol
@@reservoirdude92 full credit goes to my mom, of course, all I get is goofy bragging rights from some fuzzy old memories that usually impress drunken people at parties.
and speaking of drunken people at parties.....
Bob Altman (he insisted I call him Bob btw - even though I was a little kid) rented the house kitty corner from ours for editing and nightly dailies for McCabe and Mrs Miller.
Mike Nichols also used the house editing Carnal Knowledge too, my mom apprenticed on both films, so no imdb credit (boo hoo)... talk about a party house that was sheesh.
you two are some of the most observant and insightful reactors on TH-cam, keep up the awesome work!
A classic in my DVD collection. It was a mercy killing by Chief. Nurse Ratchet loves the power and control. A sadistic woman that caused the suicide. ✌️
Nurse Ratchet is not a dedicated health care professional. She's a tyrant, misusing the power she's been granted in this position, getting smug delight from every petty cruelty she's able to dole out. In the name of 'helping' the patients, she controls the men on the ward, taking quiet pleasure in robbing them of their choice, their agency, their dignity, treating them like children, beyond the needs of therapy. Instead of recognizing Billy's breakthrough, newfound confidence and lack of stutter, she takes it as a personal affront that someone might escape her clutches, and especially through such unorthodox means that she did not order, and therefore she browbeats him back into his pain and shame, more than he can handle. It's a small kingdom, but it's hers, and Mac is a challenge to her authority. He's not mentally ill, he's simply a non-conformist. And Nurse Ratchet is all about conformity. Which is why after he attacks her for what she did to Billy, she gets in her last bit of vindictive cruelty and recommends him for lobotomy. Mac ends up permanently brain damaged through surgery, severing his frontal lobe in his brain, turning him into a mindless vegetable. And Chief knew he would not want to exist like that....
in my opinion Mac was the true Lunatic in this movie.. just bcuz a true lunatic dont give a damn or not afraid of any repercussions
i've seen many murder cases, and people who tries to manipulate their ''innocence'' are wicked people who act lunatic but they are normal...
but people who calmly admits and even give explicit details are the true lunatics ''based on society''
Mac was bad in his way regarding ''not having fortune to fit anywhere'' but at least he was honest and real with himself.. like ''i am a piece of trash, and now what?'' but Nurse Ratched hated him for being like that.. even more for not be able to control him too..
in the end Chief was like
you might kill his body, but his spirit lives through me!
amazing movie for people who can think outside of the box
"Why kill him?" Its mercy. He's dead already.
And the Chief took Mac’s spirit with him
Nurse Ratchet is a symbol for society's demand of conformity.
So well put.
Everybody must be a woke Liberal
There's a line between conformity and sanity, that's for sure. For example, I think conforming to the "no murder" rule is perfectly reasonable
I have to disagree. The film didnt become dark at the end. It was dark from the beginning. The nurse especially used her power to control everyone. They didn't like the way he stirred up the people. Made them care about things. She wants them to just be quit and follow the rules. She knew he wasn't crazy but convinced them to keep him so she could get her revenge for making trouble for her.
Them going on a fishing trip, the baseball scene and the water fight aren't exactly dark. She was bad but that doesn't mean the whole movie was dark.
@@lampad4549 I mean the place thier at. They had dark intentions from the beginning. Treated them like shit.
The acting from everyone was phenomenal ,even nurse ratchet. She made you hate her.
True. I sometimes forget how any hate/dislike you may feel, is down to their acting abilities as well as their Directing 💞
I don't think that you two realize that nurse Ratchet is one of the most evil characters ever portrayed on film.
You two should consider reacting to the movie, "Hair," which is a musical. You'll absolutely flip! One-of-a-kind movie!
Brad Dourif (Billy) was heartbreakingly good. He’s hasn’t had the career “I” hoped for him, but I thought he was super in “Deadwood.”
he was in LOTR and was also Chucky in the Child's Play Franchise
I disagree, Brad Dourif has an amazing career from the hapless racist deputy in MISSISSIPPI BURNING or Jim Jones' (Powers Booths) heroin addict lover in THE GUYANA TRAGEDY: Jim Jones Story.
He's been in The Lord of the Rings and Chucky franchise.
Not bad adding One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest?
Some are just meant to be character actors. He was an extremely sought after character actor his entire career. He never would have made it as a leading man.
You’re right! I never put it together that he was Doc. He was great in both roles.
My favorite movie. Jack is just the best actor ever. And dam everyone in this movie was so convincing
This and, As Good as it Gets, I love him in 😇🥰
20:36 Scatman Crothers, who played Dick Hallorann, the hotel cook who Nicholson killed with an axe in "The Shining".
I was eleven years old when this came out and I can still hear the theater audience cheering at the end ‼️☮️
I don't think he's been mentioned, but the guy that shows Jack and his family the hotel in The Shining, the one that talks to the kid from head to head without using mouths, is the employee that seems to be on their/his side. His name is Scatman Crothers
Great reaction! May I suggest Awakenings with Robin Williams and Robert De Niro? Great movie a bit similar but really really good acting :)
The scene where McMurphy is interviewed by the main guy at the start. They guy was a real head of an institution. And it was totally improvised.
Brad Dourif, who played Billy, is now best known as the voice of Chucky.
Also Worm Tongue in Lord of the Rings.
@@edmason9359 cool, never saw it.
Such a classic film, perfectly cast and a masterclass in acting.
I am pretty sure that Louise Fletcher (nurse Ratched) won an Oscar for Best Actress in a drama for this movie.
The acting by everyone in this film is so good ,Sydney Lassick played “Cheswick” what a brilliant performance that gets overshadowed I think by the headliners, thanks again
I always have tears at the end of this movie tears of sadness and tears of joy .the music gets me every time
GREAT movie!My mother was in and out of mental institutions and I know how bad the Doctors are at their jobs.I visited her many times and people are just like that but drugged up to keep them docile.
Because of this movie a heartless nurse is referred to as Nurse Ratchet. Also it also was instrumental in stopping the lobotomy procedure
They used to have free hospitals for the mentally ill. Back then society believed it was better to keep such people in institutions rather than allow them to live on the streets.
It was possible to have a person committed against their will if a panel of like 3 doctors signed off on it or a judge decided you needed to be there. Laws were changed in the 70s and nearly all such hospitals are now long closed. This film had a part to play in that process. You cant confine a person against their will if they are cognizant enough to have self agency. Even if they aren't capable of holding down a job they are allowed to exist freely so long as they dont break the law.
"One flew over the cuckoos nest" has been considered a slang term immates used to reference those who escaped. But It actually comes from a nursery rhyme or lullaby Chief Bromden's gramma used to sing to him, as a child.
As it appears in the novel:
Vintery, mintery, cutery, corn,
Apple seed and apple thorn,
Wire, briar, limber lock
Three geese in a flock
One flew East
One flew West
And one flew over the cuckoo's nest.
This film is absolutely flawless.
This film portrays a small part of what was and still is in some places, the reality of psychiatric hospitals, a sad reality, where people are crammed and treated like laboratory rats. I live in Brazil, and most of these types of hospitals, until recently, were ten times worse than the one portrayed in this movie. In this film we can see, in addition to Jack Nicholson, one of the best actors of all time, other actors at the beginning of their careers, with spectacular performances. A masterpiece.
The voluntaries are free to leave, but they think they can't make it on the outside. And that's the way Nurse Ratched likes it. She doesn't want to help the patients, but to control them. That's why she wants McMurphy to stay in the hospital rather than go to jail. He has defied her authority, so she wants to break him.
This is a great movie, and it's based on an even greater book. The narrator in the book is Chief Bromden, who is schizophrenic. He hallucinates through much of the story, and what he sees is a sort of commentary on reality. I recommend it to anyone with an interest in fiction.
Classic , one of my all time favorites. Such a great cast of actors
Winner of 5 Oscars including Best Picture, one of the most powerful movies ever made.
Great movie, and great reactions....this one is a timeless classic. 💯
What to realize is prior to the 1980s, this was the warehousing of the homeless. Many would have been picked up living on the street. With mental health or drug issues. While then they were forced to follow the rules. Now anyone who breaks the housing rules, would be kicked out of the shelter.
McMurphy was turned into a vegetable when he was given a lobotomy. He was such a force of nature and that was taken away from him. Chief did him a kindness, yes, by freeing him. Nurse Ratchet didn't want to help the patients. She just wanted to control them. This movie won a lot of Oscars, including Best Actor and Actress (or Supporting Actress), movie, director and more.
Alot of leganday actors in the movie. It's one of the best. Watch Fear and loathing in Las Vegas.
Benicio del Toro shouldve won something for his role as gonzo and its johnny depps best movie imo
The title comes from an old school-yard children's rhyme. I cannot remember it, except for the chant "One flew east, one flew west, and one flew over the cuckoo's nest!"
Mac is 'unlawful good'. Nurse Ratched is 'lawful evil'. This is a common Anti-Hero theme in Seventies movies. It was in the Seventies that people stopped believing in government and institutions. The story itself is set in an earlier time - perhaps in the Sixties. Nurse Ratched has a Forties era hairstyle which sets her apart.
Electro shock therapy is still used for extreme depressive states, where it is actually useful.
People like Ratched should never be charged with the well being of others, but unfortunately many are
If you don't recognize Nurse Ratchet as a clear cut villain, then I don't know what to tell you. 😄 And also lobotomy lobotomy lobotomy.
This movie is based on Ken Kesey"s book. These were his observations and motivations for the story. Ken Kesey was part of the LSD culture.
Netflix ran a serise a couple of years ago called Ratchet and was about the early life of Nurse Ratchet finishing with her becoming the head Nurse in the asylum if memory serves me right, worth a watch guys..
Her name was “Ratched”
You two are The One and Only best!!!!
If you like this one then check out "Cool Hand Luke" with Paul Newman. I think there are some thematic overlaps with this one.
26:20 If you Google 'greatest all-time movie villains' you will find that Nurse Ratchet is on most every list.
This is the first time I've heard of someone thinking Nurse Ratched was just doing her job to help them and keep them in line😲
I had a small experience as a carer...so yeah but at the end with billy, Nurse Ratched went out of boundaries.
Thanks for the review. I have seen this movie several times since I was young.
Recently I rewatched this movie with my wife since she hadn't seen it before. She didn't enjoy it and her take on it was totally different than pretty much every person who watched it. She liked Nurse Ratchet and thought she ran a tight ship and didn't like Mac and the chaos he created in the ward. I found it very strange...
ohh i see.. well there is some sense of chaos in this movie but only for those who lived in a ''rule-based environment or household''
that is bcuz probably your wife had a good life back in her childhood and at her home.. but someone who comes from a bad background or trauma etc.. to be put down just bcuz he/she had something to say? isn't fair.. and the heroes of the past did the same thing as Mac.. speak out and die bcuz of it. but bcuz of heroes like that we enjoy most of the laws that protect the sane people without even knowing it
Scatman also in Shining
I get the impression that reactors don't understand, or haven't heard the idiomatic American usage of cuckoo to mean insane (like crazy, Looney/lunatic, nuts and nuthouse for asylum/mental institution, mad, off your rocker, loco, bonkers, etc.).
The entire cast is excellent, Christopher Lloyd (Doc Brown I Back to the Future) delivers a powerful compelling performance that makes the climax sublime, along with Will Sampson (Ten Bears from The Outlaw Josie Wales). This film endures, and rightfully so.
This is one of my favorite movies of all time.
Jacob's Ladder
One of, if not the, best movies of all time!
Nurse "Ratshit" is considered one of the biggest villains in movie history
Why kill him? The Indian did his friend a favour. They permanently brain damaged McMurphy, which is probably the most evil thing that could ever be done to somebody.
Nurse ratchets System Controlling the human spirit through fear and hate rather than freedom and love Macs way.
The more I watch you 2, the more I like the reactions.
The book is terrific and it's told entirely from the Chief's point of view ☮️
Rather startling how many younger movie goers have not seen nor heard of this film. It "swept" the Oscars and is probably Jack Nicholson's most memorable role. And of course it's the Big Nurse who should be the one in the nuthouse.
The Jim Carrey comparison was excellent!
👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Howdy from north Texas once again!!! Another great reaction y’all!!!! Keep up the great work!!!
Nicholson's other greatest performance from the 70s is in "Chinatown"
Nurse Ratchet was a dictator. She hated Jack Nicholson's character because he was a free spirit, an individualist who couldn't be controlled. He was a happy man, a man filled with life She couldn't rule him ,so she had to destroy him. But, in the end Jack won because the Chief and the other inmates followed his example and got his freedom.
exactly!! she was feeding with their weakness!! there is many people who feed on others misery!
My favourite film, easily seen it over 200 times. You got a thumbs up just for reacting to it but I'd give you a second thumbs up if I could for a lovely review. Nurse Ratched is too good at her job and doesn't like anyone to challenge her at all, then McMurphy comes and does exactly that.
Wow, 200 is serious ☺. Am trying to think of a single thing I've watched as much...As a study though, would be understandable 😇😊.
"...but that's like 50% of the population.." - Harsh lol.
Great movie with a tragic ending and not (as your reaction affirms) one you want to watch if looking for something to leave you uplifted. Very depressing. But if you want to get the aftertaste of that movie out of your mouth, by cleansing your palate with another Jack Nicholson portrayal of mental illness that actually has a happy ending, I highly recommend "As Good as it Gets." from 1997. Nicholson really nails it in his performance in this film. And just as the title suggests I doubt you'll find any of this genre that you'll enjoy more.
"As Good as it Gets" is, by the way, my absolute favorite Jack Nisholson movie, with "The Last Detail" from 1973 clocking in as a close runner-up. Well worth checking out (and I do mean both of them).
I was 18 when I saw this movie at the theatre. It definitely deserved it accolades. Nurse Gratchett (that's what my circle of friends called her as she was mean as shit) was incredibly played by Louise Fletcher.
This movie came out at a time when there was a campaign to end incarceration for the mentally ill and close institutions like this across the US. Now the mentally ill make up a large portion of our homeless and prison populations. Not a positive move in my mind.
Exactly, at least then they had somewhere to go.
Medication has come a very long, long way since the 1950s~1970s. A large portion of the mentally ill can become functional and live independent lives as a result. However, you make a good point for those who cannot be effectively treated with medication. Or the marginal who slip through the cracks and end up on the street. Chronic drug / alcohol abuse is also a leading causal factor in homelessness. They are inseparable in most cases.
@@lawrenceallen8096 funny how those with little to no actual first-hand experience with the medical system seem to think it's only the "marginal who slip through the cracks....."
whereas, those who've spent most of their lives asking for help, and not being "able" to receive it..... might say "the majority who slip through the cracks....."
I dare any of you to spend just two weeks in a psych ward, let alone being indefinitely incarcerated in an institution.....
and tell me your list of comparisons doesn't outweigh your list of contrasts with this film.
If I had to pick "only one" movie my best flim of all time....... this one is it, What is yours..?