Summary
In this section of the film, McMurphy's attitude and actions come back to bite him, undermining his freedom. A group of psychiatrists, including Spivey and Ratched, discuss McMurphy and his disruptive effects on the institution. They all agree he is not insane, but dangerous, and Spivey suggests they send him back to the work farm. The men all agree that perhaps incarceration is a better fate for McMurphy, but Ratched speaks up and suggests that if they send him somewhere else they are just passing off the problem and not tackling it themselves. They agree that he should stay at the hospital, and put their trust in Ratched to correct his misbehavior.
The controlling atmosphere of the institutional meeting is contrasted with the fun that McMurphy has brought to the ward by teaching the patients to play basketball. Even though the game is chaotic and rules are broken or forgotten all together, the men come together through the game and find pleasure in the community of the ward. Chief Bromden blocks a basket and makes a slam dunk for his team. For the first time, Chief is no longer a catatonic and unresponsive, but a hero and an athlete, visibly pleased with his sports victory. Everyone cheers. We see that McMurphy is as galvanizing and helpful as he is disruptive.
Even though McMurphy has brightened the ward with his playfulness, he is primarily treated as a threat to the order of the hospital by the authorities. At the pool, McMurphy speaks to one of the orderlies, who tells him that he is being held in the institution indefinitely until the authorities deem it appropriate for him to leave. While McMurphy thought that he had a specified release date, he learns second hand that there is no deadline for his departure, which upsets him. McMurphy's desire for freedom has only undermined his ability to leave and rejoin society. His rebelliousness, rather than having the effect of disrupting the formalities of the hospital, has only ensured his own captivity.
The news that he has been committed to the hospital indefinitely only makes McMurphy more agitated and unstable, and drives him to encourage more and more chaos. When a smug Nurse Ratched asks if anyone would like to lead the group therapy meeting, McMurphy raises his hand and complains about his indefinite stay in the ward. Much to McMurphy's shock, Mr. Harding admits that he is not committed and that he can leave whenever he wants, and that many of the men at the institution are also there voluntarily and can leave whenever they want. McMurphy is horrified that they would choose to stay, yelling at the men in disbelief, which stirs up dissent among the patients. Mr. Scanlan asks why the dorms are locked during the daytime and on the weekends. Cheswick asks why his cigarettes have been confiscated, and refuses to follow Ratched’s orders when she tells him he cannot have his cigarettes. Nurse Ratched gets more bothered by her lack of control of the meeting and the men pass around a cigarette, Cheswick insisting that he does not want anyone else’s cigarettes but his own. When Cheswick continues to prod Ratched about why she confiscates their cigarettes, Ratched tells the men that they have lost their cigarettes and money to the gambling ring that McMurphy opened in the tub room. Because of McMurphy’s dealings, they have lost cigarette privileges. When Taber finds a burning cigarette in the cuff of his pants that Harding placed there in the chaos, he has a complete breakdown, flailing and yelling. Cheswick rails against Ratched’s rules, yelling, “I ain’t no little kid,” as the tension escalates. In the midst of the chaos, McMurphy punches through the nurse’s glass to get the cigarettes, which results in his getting in a fist fight with one of the orderlies, who takes control of him. Chief Bromden comes to McMurphy’s aid and grabs the guard.
McMurphy's violence and drive for freedom has only backfired, and he is brought upstairs to the ward for more chronically ill patients, along with Chief Bromden and Cheswick. As they wait in a hall, a nurse gives them pills and Cheswick is brought away by two doctors for electroshock treatment, screaming that he has done nothing wrong. McMurphy gives Chief Bromden a piece of Juicy Fruit chewing gum and Chief says “thank you,” the first words he has uttered the whole film. In a shocking reveal, Chief begins speaking, to McMurphy’s delight and disbelief. Unfazed, Chief Bromden reveals that everyone thinks he is deaf and dumb, but he can in fact speak and hear and is only pretending. Recognizing Chief Bromden as his greatest ally in the ward, McMurphy suggests they try to break out of the institute and run away. Chief Bromden was willing to risk his position in the ward to fight back against the orderly in the ward, so McMurphy feels he is a worthy sidekick.
Electroshock therapy is depicted as a violent and inhumane punishment for McMurphy. The nurses lay McMurphy down and administer the treatment, while he convulses and writhes in pain. A placid nurse administers the painful treatment with the camera looking down at the proceedings from above. The pain of the procedure takes on horrific proportions, before the scene finally shifts to a meeting in the ward, where Ratched confronts two patients about sharing medication. McMurphy returns to the ward, limping and catatonic. The electroshock treatment appears to have dulled his demeanor considerably, until he winks at Chief and breaks from his posture and expression, grinning, to show that it was all an act. Ratched is unamused and disapproving, as McMurphy yet again manages to dodge all consequence.
Undeterred by the horror of electroshock treatment, McMurphy plans his final rebellion. The hospital closes down for the Christmas holiday and Nurse Ratched says goodnight to the patients over the loudspeaker before leaving for the evening. A television in the ward plays coverage of the bombings of black churches in Alabama, as the patients sit in the dark. For the first time the ward feels like a home, or perhaps like a "nest," and the men are safely cloistered away from the violence and corruption of the outside world. McMurphy peeks into the nurse’s office as Turkle, a night orderly, helps a nurse put on her coat, before sneaking into the office to use the phone to call Candy. He tells her “tonight’s the night” and reminds her to bring booze. It is clear that McMurphy is planning a grand act of rebellion for the Christmas holiday, and he finds a hiding spot just as Turkle comes back to the office.
Analysis
McMurphy continues to sow the seeds of dissent amongst the patients in this part of the film, but it is met with more resistance than in the beginning. The section is framed by the discussion between the psychiatrists about McMurphy being "dangerous" and their decision to keep him in the ward under the care of Nurse Ratched. In this scene, the audience has a window into the private conversations between doctors and authority figures, thus into the workings of the institution and the ways that it controls the patients. The decision to keep McMurphy in the hospital indefinitely is made without his knowledge, and therefore stands in sharp contrast to the fact that many of the patients elect to remain in the hospital of their own free will. Choosing to stay under the watchful eye of the institution, many of the other men clearly feel comforted by authority and by their subservience to a system. The institution stands for what is deemed best for society as a whole, rather than what is best for the individual. This section solidifies McMurphy as a stand-in for the free and transgressive individual in a conformist society, and depicts more of the consequences of his transgression.
Ironically enough, in spite of being a transgressive and disruptive figure, McMurphy continues to prove that he has a good influence on the ward and on group morale. He teaches the men to play basketball and we see them enjoying their newfound camaraderie, healthy competition, and supportive sportsmanship. The men experience a dose of pleasure when they go out in the boat and learn to fish. In teaching the men how to reconnect with games, leisure, and the natural world, McMurphy reacquaints the men with a broad and joyful sense of well-being. The film implies that perhaps McMurphy is a more effective leader than Nurse Ratched and the doctors at the hospital, and yet his influence is predicated on making the men less and less reliant on the institution. Thus, McMurphy's influence not only threatens the authority of Nurse Ratched, but threatens the institution itself, which relies on the dependence of its patients. While the hospital fosters dependency and a certain amount of infantilization, McMurphy teaches them to be more self-sufficient and less dependent.
McMurphy's commitment to finding freedom, for himself and the men, is increasingly tamped down by the institution. When he discovers that he is committed to the institution indefinitely, he experiences a huge blow to his motivation and positive attitude. When he brings his frustration up in a group meeting, he receives a bigger slap in the face: most of the men are not committed to the institution, but rather have the ability to leave. This outrages him and only motivates him more to stage an uprising, so that he can slip away from psychiatric supervision and live his own life. One of the main ways he encourages revolution is by showing the men how they have been infantilized by the institution, but he does not consider that the reason they have been infantilized is often the result of his influence and impertinence. His establishment of a gambling ring in the tub room leads to the confiscation of cigarettes and an increased supervision is a result of his rebellious acts. Thus the audience sees McMurphy as a complicated figure, because he wants to help the men realize their potential and agency, but he goes about it in chaotic and often violent ways.
One of the most startling parts of the film is the moment in which Chief Bromden speaks for the first time. Up until this point in the film, Chief Bromden was a presumably simple-minded and silent character, weighed down by racial stereotypes based on his size and his silence. When Bromden speaks for the first time and reveals himself to be far more knowing and complex than anyone imagined, the viewer shares McMurphy's shock. In this moment, Chief Bromden also becomes McMurphy's greatest ally. They both long for freedom, for very different reasons.
The film depicts the outdated psychiatric method of electroshock therapy both straightforwardly and horrifically. The nurse conducting it is gentle and unfazed as she instills pain on McMurphy, who writhes and resists. Shot from above, the scene depicts the treatment as harmful and sadistic. The viewer sees the pain it inflicts on McMurphy, and for a moment the film becomes a horror. For all its apparent horror, however, the therapy appears to have no effect on McMurphy upon his return, as he struts back to the ward with his usual cockiness and unflappability. Even though the institution becomes increasingly repressive towards McMurphy, he remains unfazed.
