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Example research essay topic: Patrick Mc Murphy Cuckoos Nest - 2,072 words

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Ryan Enfantin o Insanity The transfer from print to film is neither a straightforward nor an accurate process, and as such has left many casualties by the wayside: The Cider House Rules, Jurassic Park, and so forth. Typically poor adaptations are either changed too much or too little: many are made to be suitable to too wide an audience or have additions which clumsily contrast with the more directly transferred parts, and many are so sloppily adapted that vestigial scenes disrupt the movies flow while not contributing anything that connects to any other part of the much shortened movie. One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest is adapted nearly perfectly, making significant changes only where necessary for the move to film, and adding ideas of its own which beautifully match the rest of the movie. One of the key movies of the 1970 s, when exciting, groundbreaking, personal films were still being made in Hollywood, Milos Forman's One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest emphasized the humanistic story at the heart of Ken Kesey's more hallucinogenic novel. By examining the film s formal organization and conceptual content we are enable to see the film s purpose and impact. This film works on many different levels of profundity and along the way forces the viewer to question society and it s foundations.

Mac, the protagonist, is a new patient at an unnamed mental institution, transferred from a nearby prison. He seems to have been committed not for mental illness but because hes resistant to authority. In the past hes been arrested for assault, fighting, statutory rape he may be criminal, and he may deserve to be in jail, but hes certainly not insane. He was just too much work for the prison guards, cause I dont sit there like a goddamn vegetable, he says. His prison sentence has a couple of months left to run and he gets himself assigned to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation.

It means no more work detail in prison and he sees it as an amusing break. The prison warden wants to determine whether or not Mac, played by Jack Nicholson is crazy or simply violent and rebellious. So he is thrown into one of the less-insane wards, home to a short lech (Danny DeVito), a wild-eyed psychotic (Christopher Lloyd), a stuttering virgin (Brad Dourif), and a giant mute Indian (Will Sampson). In the hospital he runs up against his wards boss, nurse Mildred Ratched (Fletcher). She appears nice but dominates, bullies and humiliates the men and sadistically crushes any initiative. Mc Murphy plays the outsider coming in and serving as the inspiration for change.

He starts out slow engaging the patients in card games and trying to overturn rules about TV watching. He makes bets about how quickly he can make nurse Ratched hate him. Mc Murphy also attempts to befriend Chief, a very large Indian who is a patient at the hospital. Chief is a deaf dumb Indian who cant say a word according to the other patients, but Mc Murphy is intent on teaching him, to begin with, how to play basketball.

He teaches him well, for when the patients and workers organize a game, Chief steals the show. Before long, Mc Murphy jumps over the mental hospital fence (aided by Chief) and takes a bus full of mental patients on an unauthorized fishing trip. The characters are so likeable, the performances so convincing, that soon we are silently cheer Mc Murphys attempts to topple The System. When the doctors feel that Mc Murphy is swinging the lead and should be passed back to the prison service, Ratched views him as unfinished business and angles to keep him in the hospital.

For Mc Murphy, his holiday in the hospital seems to be going well. Despite occasional frustrations and disciplinary issues, he is enjoying himself and, from the viewers perspective, he appears to be making a difference to the lives of some of the other patients. Nurse Ratched does not view this difference as a benefit. Finally, Mc Murphys holiday is interrupted when he learns that there is a big difference between the hospital and prison. He can on longer expect automatic release when his sentence is up. Far from it, he discovers that he faces a much longer stay than he expected.

Although at first glance this film seems to be a simple comedy depicting an insane asylum, this movie carries with it heavy statements concerning humanity and its norms. These thematic issues are revealed through the film s cinematography, editing, sound, and mise-en-science. Forman payed careful attention to formal content when creating this film. Every aspect went through painful detail to make sure that the movie flowed. The script is spectacular. Ken Kesey s novel was cut up, re-written, and perfected.

Though a few scenes of importance that were left out of the film could have helped to really develop the characters, they are not missed unless the viewer has read the book. An abundance of light is shed on each of the assorted personalities of the ward, leaving room for much enjoyment. Though the lead character is clearly established, each supporting character lets their presence be known. The dialogue is very cleverly written, yet it is often too subtle to catch on the first viewing.

Another aspect of the film is the lighting. The lightning always looked a bit flat and pale (it has a muted color scheme and takes place primarily indoors under harsh lighting). The use of lightning helped to create a mood of On a simple level the movie is about a man feigning insanity to escape the drudgery of prison but finds himself standing up for fellow mental inmates against a tyrannical nurse. Viewers throughout the movie are drawn into the war, both psychologically and physically, that takes place between Nurse Ratched and troublemaking inmate Randal Patrick Mc Murphy.

As Mc Murphy begins to rule the ward with reckless abandon, leading the mutiny of the other patients against the oppressive forces within the hospital, the head nurse begins to feel her power over them dwindling. The disasters that come as a result of this tension make for one of the best dramas ever put on screen. This tension between Ratched and R. P. Mc Murphy is captured brilliantly on screen through the use of disturbing close- ups which make it perfectly clear to the audience that a war of the worlds is indeed raging on. Louise Fletcher beautifully conveys a controlling authoritarian who cleverly hides her passionate frustrations with Mc Murphys rebellions beneath the bitter sweet face of an angel.

Similarly, Mc Murphys blunt laughter and mischievous facial expressions convey his sly underground intentions. The superb realism behind Nicholson and Fletcher's performances magically draw viewers into a suspenseful tug of war for ultimate power. Yet, if we examine the movie a little closer we find more. At another level, it s about standing up for yourself in a society, which tries to keep you down.

Every character is a metaphor. Every idea and notion is symbol of something else. You think theyre in a mental institution? Okay, but that institution represents our planet, our world. They live in their part of the earth while others live in theirs. They interact but only at an arm s length away and mostly to be scolded.

These inmates, or patients, are being kept inside an ordered society and their throats are too tired to scream for its downfall. In comes Randall Patrick Mc Murphy. He presents an immediate change to their ordered world, flashing photos of naked women on the back of playing cards. At once, the inmates are drawn to this new guy. A man who presents pornography, gambling, and swearing to a sanitized world (fuck you Mayor Barry, taking away those poor New Yorkers sex shops). This guy represents chaos.

Nurse Ratched, keeper of the order, sees it. But she doesnt back down. She doesnt give up her little fight after he starts fighting back. She is society. And society always beats individuality. Always.

Mac seems doomed to fail, because One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest is a parable for how our society refuses to tolerate nonconformity. Most of Macs ward mates undeniably have problems, but many of the patients are voluntary they can leave when they like. Which begs the question, are they crazy or just afraid to face the real world? Maybe theyre afraid of rejection from a real world that cant deal with their strangeness?

Even in the institution, the place where theyre supposedly getting some help, patients are electro shocked and drugged into submission. Director Milos Forman doesnt editorialize in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest he doesnt turn mental illness or mere oddity into something ennobling; theres no sentimental musical score telling us how to feel about his characters. He just shows us the stark reality of those who run far a field of the herd. Forman's One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest is a microcosmic look at the individual defying authoritarian rule on the grounds of a psychiatric ward. It is a clever commentary on the courage required to break pre conditioned restrictions and plunge head first into liberation. The message of this outstanding film can branch out into the macrocosmic worlds of everyday humanity from the student raising hell in the classroom or the company worker breaking executive laws all in the name of a greater cause.

We can also examine the film in terms of historical context and its specific contribution to the cinema. What many, if not most, Americans may not know is that this film was important as a statement against oppression of the individual in Communist Czechoslovakia of the 1970 s. Milos Foreman made this film just about seven years after Russian tanks crushed the Prague Spring youth movement which tried putting a human face on socialism. From 1968 on, state oppression of the individual became much worse. Czech film director Foreman had earlier made films which tweaked the noses of the communist government bureaucrats. But after 1970 it was difficult to impossible to make such films anymore inside Czechoslovakia.

Czech censors had little problem letting this American film into Czechoslovakia. They wrongly interpreted it to be critical of cruel treatment given mental patients in American hospitals. They welcomed any anti-American propaganda and they failed to grasp that Foreman had made a film condemning all tyrannies and condemning them. Czech citizens of 1970 s could identify the film as a parody on their troubles under communism.

Unlike a lot of films pitched at the youth culture of the 1970 s, One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest really hasnt dated a bit, because the qualities of human nature that Forman captures playfulness, courage, inspiration, pride, stubbornness are universal and timeless. Forman populates his film with memorably eccentric faces, and gets such freshly detailed and spontaneous work from his ensemble that the picture sometimes feels like a documentary. The hospital corridors are empty and stark, the colours muted. The whole atmosphere is bleak. Milos Forman shows what he is capable of and gives a hint of his ability which he would later display in Amadeus. The script is spectacular.

Ken Kesey s novel was cut up, re-written, and perfected. Though a few scenes of importance that were left out of the film could have helped to really develope the characters, they are not missed unless the viewer has read the book. An abundance of light is shed on each of the assorted personalities of the ward, leaving room for much enjoyment. Though the lead character is clearly established, each supporting character lets their presence be known. The dialogue is very cleverly written, yet it is often too subtle to catch on the first viewing. The film always manages to break away from the gloomy white interiors of the mental ward with some sort of adventure, usually concocted by Mc Murphy, that always inspire a sense of wonder and veneration.

The radical transformation in the attitudes of the occupants of the ward creates reason for further awe and celebration. Picture One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest is simply flawless. Despite the fact that the film was shot on a low budget and has always looked a bit flat and pale (it has a muted color scheme and takes place primarily indoors under harsh lighting), the image here is sharp and the colors are solid.


Free research essays on topics related to: cuckoos nest, nurse ratched, patrick mc murphy, ken kesey, mc murphys

Research essay sample on Patrick Mc Murphy Cuckoos Nest

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