Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest

The novel One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey does a great job portraying how individual people must stand up to society, Although the movie version is a terrible remake of the novel and does not focus on the main points of the book, for example the film version does not focus on the importance of the break from the combine, and the significance of Big Nurses role in the book. When Books are turned into movies producers usually try to relate to the book as much as possible, unfortunately the maker of the film version did a horrible job at this, forgetting to incorporate the importance of the main points in the book.

This one's actually from Kaelie

The movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was an intriguing film with good acting, but if failed to portray the main points of the book written by Ken Kesey. When they produced the movie, they didn't do a good job emphasizing the importance in the break from the Combine and Big Nurse's rule. The book really showed us how big of a deal it was when the men in the hospital began to rebel against Big nurse. In the movie, there wasn't much emphasis on the importance of the control panel being lifted. We weren't even told that it was called the control panel. While in the book, it was a big symbol of breaking free from the rule of the power driven leaders. The book focused more on the individual vs. society and how the individual usually can't win. In the movie it was just the story of the book rather than an inspiration with a big theme. The movie didn't include the morals and ideas that the book did. The biggest downfall of the film was the lack of Chief’s narration. Without his perspective and point of view telling us the story, it loses its personal touch with the other characters. Another thing that was different in the movie was the level of craziness of the patients. They’re didn’t depend on their guts as it did in the book but more on if they could even survive in the real world. It was a mistake for them to have the other patients leave the ward because with Chief being the only who actually leaves, it doesn’t show the freedom from the rule as well. In the book, when they had the majority of the patients leave, it showed how McMurphy had impacted them and made them want to change their lives because they were unhappy in the ward. It showed how they actually could go against Big Nurse and leave instead of just having one person be able to do that like in the movie.

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest

I think the book One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, wrote by Ken Kesey, is a really good book, and the movie is a good movie, but i think if you dont read the book is better, because the movie go really fast and change a lot of things, when you read the book,you think that Mc Murphy is a big guy , but in the movie the actor make a really good work but is not how you imagine he'll be when you read the book, also in the movie they have really different things, like when they go to the fis trip, in the book Chief go and in the movie he stay in the Combine. The big nurse make a really good job but when you read the book you think ta she is bigger and that she is very mean and she is always mad, and in the movie she looks nice even if sometimes she is not, because she wont let them do what they want to do like watch the World Series...Also at the end of the movie there is not lobotomy in McMurphy, Chief kill him with a pillow, and then he break the window and he run away,the mens in the Combine see that the window is broken and they can leave but they just get really excited but they dont run away they stay looking the broken window,but the most of the guys inthe Combine are there because they want to stay because they are not insane they dont have to stay in a Combine...

didnt really read much of the book,

from what i could tell the characters seemed more normal in the book than the movie, and while the fishing trip etc. was different, it still made a good movie

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

After reading Ken Kesey's novel, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, and watching the film directed by Milos Forman, there are some concepts in the film that are lost that are from the book. For example, the book is narrated by Chief Bromden where as the film the narration is lost. You don't get to know Chief very well until the end. He is projected as an unimportant character in the film. When R.P. McMurphy shows up to the Combine in the film, he isn't as carefree and laughing as he was in the novel.The actor, Jack Nicholson, plays the McMurphy character more as serious and not as carefree. He doesn't seem as joking; taking in the scene where McMurphy saunter down the halls with his white whale boxers with a towel around him asking Big Nurse where his clothes are. (Another physical trait is that Nicholson doesn't have red hair, he isn't tall and burly with big hands as McMurphy is described in the novel.) Not only are McMurphy and Chief different, the film portrays the patients as insane, rather in the novel they are, according to McMurphy, "not the average man on the street, but not nuts". In the film, you get a better view on how mental patients are, but you can't picture these people on the street as of "normal". In fact, you wouldn't want these crazy people, just as Taber or Martini on the street causing chaos or disrupt among other people. Another scene that isn't true is that Chief doesn't go on the fishing trip with the boys, as well as the doctor. They aren't "drunk" and having a good time with Chief, it's just a bit backwards in the film. Big Nurse herself isn't as "big with big breasts". She seems nicer in the book whereas in the movie she's a bit more stern with the patients. Although the film plays multiple scenes in one, (where in some cases are hard to grasp what is going on in the duration of the movie), it doesn't have a "great"job of capturing the book itself, but towards the end of the film it stays somewhat true to the book. The only question that is left in the end though, do the other patients sign out, jump out the window and start anew with their lives in the real world, or do they stay in the Combine as insane as they, assuming, were? The film has it's ups and downs, but personally I don't believe it stuck true to Ken Kesey's novel. Ken Kesey himself declares that the film portrays melodrama and defeats the book's purpose. I can agree with Kesey; I don't think the film did a good job on capturing a great novel that deserved better in the film.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Comparison

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest written by Ken Kesey is a great book. In this novel the narrator

Chief is a unique and complex character. Everything is showed through his perspective. He suffers from P.T.S.D, he fought in world war 2 as a pilot. He sees everything as mechanical, making this book much more interesting than the film. In the film version we loose this uniqueness, witch is a vital importance to the impact this makes you feel. We also loose in the film the symbolism of hands that is written about in the book. The symbolism of hands in this book gives a sense of a character McMurphys are big and strong and he is a strong character. Harding's are dainty and soft, and he is gay. So that is another big piece we are missing from the film. In the book there is a lot of talk about Hardings "sexuality" In the book he seems much more homosexual than in the film, he just seems cowardly in the film. this is also important because he is there because he cant handle his own sexuality and what comes with it from society. The whole purpose of the combine is to produce products that can function in society. In the film this piece is missing as well. The fishing trip in the film was much different than it was in book. In the book the purpose of the fishing trip was to get the men some "guts" that they did not posses and it was meant for them to get away from what was holding them back,(the combine) in the book Chief goes on the fishing trip with them. But in the film he does not which is ironic because out of everyone in the story Chief developed the most guts out of anyone else. The characters in the book check themselves out at the end of the book, in the movie they don't so, you don't get a real idea of what McMurphy has accomplished with these men. He did what he wanted he gave them "Guts" In the film this is gone. The novel has much more of an impact than the film

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest in book form shows the theme of an individual vs. society the best. The book gives us chefs perspective, this is important because it shows us how mcmurphy changes chef. The film does not show us how he changed the men. In the book the last living acutes sign out, while he is getting a lobotomy. The movie portraits them as CRAZY and in the book they are much more functional. The movie shows the battle between big nurse and mcmurphy and this is important because that is the largest theme, individual vs. society, but he wins more impact fully in the book than in the movie.

the movie does not show the major themes of the book

the movie doesn't show how Mac Murphy pulls chief out of the fog, it doesn't show how they get guts on the fishing trip, it doesn't show how normal the patents are, it doesn't show many of the nurses control methods, it doesn't show the significance of the of the control panel being thrown out the window, it doesn't show the nurses control over the staff, things loose meaning without chief's narrative, no one but chief ever leaves, mac murphy isn't there liberator he's just a bad influence and it doesn't talk about his military history, the characters aren't as well described. the story just looses a lot of meaning when you watch the movie.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Although the film version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a good movie, it ultimately fails to communicate the themes portrayed in the book by Ken Kesey. Kesey's novel is about the individual versus society, and how society controls people forces people to turn out as clones in a way. In the book, there is really nothing wrong with a majority of the patients; they are not completely insane. The reason that they are locked away from society is because they are different than others. They aren't just another replicate of every other person in society who rides the subway to work and comes home to their perfect little family and house with a white picket fence. Society doesn't know how to react to people who are different, so they lock them away. However, even in the ward the patients are strictly controlled. The Big Nurse has complete power over the patients before McMurphy arrives. She scares them into behaving the way she wants them to. But once McMurphy comes to the ward, he shows the patients that they don't have to stand for that, and she doesn't have the power to control them unless they give it to her. He completely changes the patients' outlook on things, even though he has to pay for it in the end. In the novel, once McMurphy gets a lobotomy most of the patients leave. This is important because it shows that even though McMurphy is now a vegetable, he succeeded in giving the patients the "guts" they needed to leave the ward.
The film version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest does not communicate these same messages. The patients in the movie all are actually crazy. A lot of them would not be able to get along in society even if they had the guts- unlike in the book. They sort of need to have control in their lives, because they are too crazy not to. This ruins the whole idea of overcoming the control and power of "the conbine". We also loose Chief's narration in the film, which dramatically changes the way we see the story. Ontop of that, at the end of the movie none of the patients leave the ward, except for Chief. Most of the patients are sort of right back where they began.

Cuckoo Themes

I think one of the biggest themes in the book was to have the guts to even attempt to overthrow a higher power. In the book this is one of the most viewed themes, in the movie you see some moments where it appears but isn't as strongly pushed as in the book. I also think chiefs' narration also helps to see the combine as a whole not just through McMurphy and Big nurse. Chief lets us get everything that's going on like the staff meetings the green slime on the walls, his visions in the fog and everything. The film rushes everything and reduces chiefs part dramatically. Another theme that ties into the first is the members struggling to fit into society. In the book its one of McMurphys main goals to get them to understand that they can easily fit into a normal society. But the movie kills that theme by depicting everyone as completely loony. The book they seem like they actually could just fit right in to normal society. But the movie makes you think that they are better off leaving them in the combine.