After viewing "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" I completely understand why it has won 8 academy awards. I think this film could be viewed numerous of times by the same person without ever getting old. After watching it the first time I got the basic plot and overall storyline of the movie. It is only after viewing it again that you can actually set aside the storyline and perhaps look deeper into the film. The deciding factors for a films availability to be viewed more than once depends on the person in my opinion. For me, especially in this genre, a movie must contain underlying messages and symbols throughout the whole movie. These underlying symbols are constantly drawing me back to v ...view middle of the document...
This film reveals how some mental institutions could simply be keeping the mentally ill away from society rather then making them better to re-enter it. At the time this movie was made it did go away from what was contemporary. This was one of the first films to depict the life in a mental institution. Not much attention was brought to this subject, especially in film, until this film was made.This film showed me a lot about mental institutions in general and how they operate. While this is only a movie I can assume there is some validity to these "treatments" they practice on the patients. Not only did it shed light on the workings of a mental institution, but it also shed light on life itself and the importance of every man's life. No one deserves to be judged by someone else on how mentally capable they are. I guess to some certain extent it is expectable, but when a man who is capable of some control in his life is taken it completely away, that is not helping them. The characters in this film where incredible in portraying life in an institution. The patients looked extremely credible, each of them having their own different personalities, thus proving my point and the underlying message of the movie that all men deserve the right to life. It is this individuality that shows that these men are actually men and are not rotting zombies who need to be quarantined from the rest of society. The most important character, in my opinion, was Nurse Ratched. She is the epitome of head nurses of such wards. Her authority is how she "treats" her patients, which only worsens these men's psychological state. This is evident throughout this movie, one example being at the end when Billy finally begins to rebel and seems rehabilitated. Nurse Ratched then uses the one thing she knew would bring him down and back under her authority, mentioning what he has done to his mother. This broke him back down mentally to the state he was once before. This is reoccurring throughout the movie, Nurse Ratched using her authority and bending the rules in every way possible to ensure she is in complete control of these men, control of even their own decisions.Aesthetically this movie is a work of art, thus its recognition with best picture award. The lighting in the film is very important factor which helps place the viewer in the institution. It uses moderate lighting when showing sce...
