The birds fly home in Kesey’s Cuckoo’s Nest

Being a film nerd, I’m very familiar with One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and have seen it many times. One of the all-time great movies. I was hoping the original book from which it was based, by Ken Kesey, would live up to my expectations, and thankfully it did.

From the opening pages, I envisioned each character as the actor that portrayed them, which wasn’t hard to do, because the film mostly followed the course of the book. It takes place in a mental asylum in Oregon, which is run with an iron fist by head Nurse Ratched. She uses her powers of manipulation to control everyone on the ward, from the staff to the patients. The patients in particular, both the “acutes” (those that can move around and speak) and the “chronics” (elderly and/or vegetative people) live in fear of her. This way of life though is thrown into turmoil when new arrival McMurphy comes to the ward. He supposedly has chosen to be sent here to avoid time in jail, but he doesn’t necessarily seem crazy. And as he gets to know those around him, he realizes neither are the other patients, or at least, “no crazier than the average asshole out walkin around on the streets.” McMurphy makes it his goal to disrupt, pester, and interrupt Ratched at every turn. The book plays out as a war between these 2 forceful and strong-willed characters.

Whereas the film closely followed McMurphy, and he is obviously the cog turning the wheel of the book too, the book’s main character is Chief Bromden, the Native-American who has been on the ward so long no one remembers a time when he spoke, and have thought he was deaf and dumb, a “chronic.” McMurphy realizes he can hear though, and befriends him. Because we are inside Bromden’s head, we see the world as he sees it. He “hears” the commotion in the walls of the asylum, the machine that is controlling everyone. In the beginning, he sees himself very small and weak (though in reality he is 6’8” and strong as an ox). He sees the boisterous McMurphy as the big and powerful one, and McMurphy makes Bromden a bet that he (McMurphy) will “grow” Bromden until he is the size he used to be before coming to the hospital. As McMurphy’s influence on Bromden and the other accutes plays out, Bromden does indeed find himself more powerful, and the others go from being meek and subservient to Nurse Ratched, to being openly defiant by the end.

There are obviously differences in the film and book, and I think the is the rare instance when both are equally great for their own reasons. Jack Nicholson’s larger than life persona drives the film, but the more subtle intricacies explored in the novel are equally as compelling. Fans of the film should definitely check this one out.