One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Film) Essay Questions

How does gender factor into the power struggle between Nurse Ratched and the patients?

In the hospital, Nurse Ratched and her assistant are the female characters most present in the lives of the patients. As such, Ratched represents a maternal figure for all of them, a power she often wields unforgivingly. McMurphy's dislike for Ratched is rooted not only in her abuse of power, but also his contempt for her as a woman. Candy and Rose act as foils for the nurses; they are permissive, nonjudgmental, compliant, and largely empty-headed.

What does the title of the movie mean?

The title comes from a nursery rhyme:

"Three geese in a flock.
One flew east, one flew west,
One flew over the cuckoo's nest.
O-U-T spells OUT,
Goose swoops down and plucks you out"

The story of the nursery rhyme becomes the final image of the movie. The nursery rhyme tells the story of four distinct characters, two of them flying in opposite directions, the third flying over the cuckoo's nest, and the fourth being plucked from the nest by a goose. It is debatable how these characters align with characters in the movie, but on some level, McMurphy is the cuckoo who flies the nest, because his lobotomy has rendered him "cuckoo" or crazy, and because Chief, in killing him, transports him out of the misery of the hospital into a new realm of existence. The bird plucked out is most likely Chief, who learns to trust his own strength and break out of the hospital—the "nest"—to find liberation. While there is not a literal alignment between the nursery rhyme and the movie, the title conflates the patients in the hospital with the animal world, in alternating states of captivity and freedom.

What does the film and the acclaim it received tell us about attitudes towards psychiatry and mental health practice in the 1960s and 70s?

The almost universal acclaim that met the film, and that continues to follow it, suggests a general ambivalence or skepticism about psychiatry at this time. While psychiatry and mental health institutions can be places that help people get better, the film suggests that the stigmatization of mental health patients—at least according to McMurphy—is oppressive and infantilizing. Ratched, a mental health professional, is one of the great movie villains of our age, suggesting a widespread distrust of mental health work and its efficacy and the ethics surrounding its practices. The movie can be read as a critique of the corrupt and primitive treatment practices that took place in the mental health profession during the 50s and 60s, such as electroshock treatment and lobotomization. Made in the 1970s, but set in the early 60s, the film takes a retrospectively critical perspective on the mental health landscape of the recent past.

What does it mean that McMurphy dies in the end?

McMurphy tempts fate one too many times and becomes a martyr for the ward, showing that too much expression of personal freedom ends in suppression. The lobotomy represents McMurphy's deflation and subjugation at the hands of the institution. Thus, Chief kills McMurphy in order to save him from the fate of being brain-dead and dependent. Chief is, in some sense, giving McMurphy his freedom back. The film takes a complicated perspective on freedom by showing that only in death can McMurphy achieve freedom from the suppressive ways of society and the institution. The film leaves it ambiguous as to who actually achieves freedom, Chief Bromden or McMurphy, but suggests that perhaps they each achieve their own individual versions of freedom.

How is the film's naturalism and realism important to the story?

The naturalism employed by the filmmakers gives the movie a chilling tone and makes the drama that much more pointed. There is almost no soundtrack other than the music that plays on the record player in the ward. Otherwise the sounds of the ward permeate the movie, and the cries of patients show the viewer just how lonely and empty is the hospital. The acting is subtle and the shots are often tight, showing the slightest changes in expression and emotion. The viewer feels very close to the action and drama of each scene, making for an intense experience of spectatorship.