One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest novel
(1962) and movie (1975)
Director:-Miloš Forman
Writer:-Ken kesey
Main Characters:
Jack Nicholson as Randle McMurphy
Louise Fletcher as Nurse Ratched
William Redfield as Dale Harding
Will Sampson as "Chief" Bromden
Brad Dourif as Billy Bibbit
Sydney Lassick as Charlie Cheswick
Danny DeVito as Martini
Christopher Lloyd as Max Taber
The title is derived from
an American children's folk rhyme. In a detail not included in the film, the
novel shows it to be a rhyme that Chief Bromden remembers from his childhood.
Vintery, mintery, cutery, corn,
Apple seed and apple thorn,
Wire, briar, limber lock
Three geese in a flock
One flew East
One flew West
And one flew over the
cuckoo's nest.
ADAPTATIONS:
Adaptations in the
characters:
In Kesey’s novel the Chief is the narrator, the filter
through which we view McMurphy and the others. Thus, the novel is also a plea
from the Native American subculture, from the most oppressed of U.S. minorities.
The film carries no such plea. In the novel the Chief ultimately inherits the
legacy of his father, one who died flying over the cuckoo’s nest. The father is
alluded to momentarily in the film, but it is clear that here the Chief
inherits from McMurphy, not from his father. The elevation of McMurphy from
catalyst to prime mover creates a fundamental ideology in the film.
The characterization of chief Bromden
is a good example of the changes made from book to movie. His past is a vital piece of information
contributing to the mood and understanding of the story. In the movie, Bromden is nothing more than a
crazy Indian who doesn't want to talk so pretends to be deaf and dumb. In the book, Bromden has flashbacks to his
childhood, lighting on significant points in his childhood. His background is never even brushed upon in
the movie.
McMurphy
is a very crafty, cunning man. In the movie, McMurphy is not only wild but
rude. He tried to never be outright rude
in the book (more aggravating for the nurse) yet in the movie he was. He never stopped being wild in the movie,
leading you to believe that maybe in fact he is crazy. Mcmurphy's true
character was lost in the writing of the screen play, his intelligence and
cunning is lowered greatly by changes made by the screen writers.
Ms.
Ratched is a powerful woman in both the book and the movie. She knows how
to play with people’s minds and manipulate groups. She keeps a tight grip on the ward using refined
methods which cannot be ignored to get what she wants. In the book Ms. Ratched is the most powerful
woman in the hospital, what she says goes.
In the movie however, she not only doesn't have complete control but it
seems as though the doctor thinks himself as having authority over her. The
movie was probably changed just so they wouldn't have to go into detail about
why and how powerful nurse is.
Adaptations in story line:
In the
novel, Chief Bromden is the narrator who reveals the story of the
battle of wills between Nurse Ratched and Randle Patrick McMurphy and undergoes
the most notable changes in the novel. While detailing the events in the mental
institution, Chief reveals biographical information of his own life before his institutionalization.
In film Chief as the story's narrator, discards the background story of Chief,
and relegates his character to secondary to McMurphy. In the film, McMurphy is
clearly the hero.
Chief's episodes of witnessing the inner workings of the
Combine and its fog machines are eliminated
in favor of scenes that expand on McMurphy's character and his background.
Chief
eventually becomes fully communicative in the novel while muttering only one
phrase — "Juicy Fruit" —
in the film. This explains how McMurphy is able to bring Chief along on the
fishing trip in the novel, a detail not explained in the film. Also missing
from the film are several key symbolic elements, including McMurphy's poker-hand tattoo, known as the dead-man's hand that foreshadows
his death.
In the film,
McMurphy boasts that he was conned into rape
by a teenaged girl who lied about her age. In the novel, McMurphy's boasts
of being seduced by a nine-year-old girl
are related with a sense of false bravado and world-weariness. His initial imprisonment
isn't for statutory rape, it's for being "a guy who fights too much and fucks too much."
In the
novel, McMurphy freely admits to conning his fellow patients for his own
financial gain. The film only shows McMurphy winning cigarettes from his mates.
Certain
critical scenes from the novel are eliminated in the cinematic version. Of
these, the suicide of Cheswick, is
most notable. Cheswick's character was the first individual in the novel to
receive invigoration from McMurphy's tricks.
One scene
not in the film is McMurphy's final con
against the Acutes. In the novel, McMurphy manipulates Chief Bromden to
lift the control panel after McMurphy takes bets from the Acutes that it can't
be done. McMurphy, of course, had already hedged his bet by having Chief display
his ability to lift the panel previously. When Chief performs the trick for the
Acutes, he feels used and betrayed by McMurphy. The film balances a scene of
McMurphy unsuccessfully trying to lift a basin with the scene of Chief lifting
it successfully and flinging it through the window while avoiding the scene of
Chief lifting it to win a bet for McMurphy.
Another
scene in the film differs greatly from the novel. The fishing episode in the novel is a planned event that Nurse
Ratched repeatedly attempts to sabotage. Despite this, McMurphy convinces
Doctor Spivey to join the group when the prostitute Candy arrives with only one
car. In the filmed version, McMurphy
hijacks a waiting institutional bus and instructs the film's principal male
cast to participate in an act of rebellion.
The film
also differs from the novel in its depiction of the events leading to
McMurphy's introduction to electroshock therapy. The novel carefully
establishes a character not in the film, Big
George. The film employs the initial altercation between McMurphy and
Washington as the impetus for Nurse Ratched to send McMurphy, Chief, and
Charlie Cheswick (who doesn't commit suicide in the film) to the Disturbed
Ward.