Point blank: anarchy is not the answer. Over time, civilizations subject themselves to the domination of a system of institutions in order to regulate and protect their existence. Considering the innately selfish nature of humans, the presence of these systems inevitably clashes with free will of the individuals that compose them. The ideological conflict that arises has become a theme that is consistently addressed by commercial cinema. In one such film, Milos Forman’s critically acclaimed One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), a psychiatric hospital houses a standard set of mental patients whose fate is determined by their corrupt nurses. The infiltration of a questionably insane felon shakes up the hospital’s rigid system, paralleling the plight of individual rights within the authority of an establishment. Forman’s feat derives in the film’s ability to express sympathy for the convict while simultaneously upholding the prevailing side of the ideological argument. Thus, the film grimly accepts and submits to the reality that institutions ultimately triumph. To accomplish all of this, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest enunciates the ideological conflict through both story and discourse. The harmony of form and content to exert a unified message is exhibited in a shot sequence selected from the plotline’s climax. The dynamic editing of the sequence echoes the discord between the individual and the institution occurring on narrative level. Moreover, the use of conventional filmic techniques conveys a decisive adherence to the dominant ideology, also agreeing with the story’s ending.
Relating the ideology of a film’s message to the story and discourse that compose it is central to the ideas of many film theorists. In Comolli and Narboni’s “Cinema/Ideology/Criticism,” they outline that “the tools and techniques of filmmaking are a part of ‘reality’ themselves, and furthermore ‘reality’ is nothing but an expression of the prevailing ideology” (Comolli 689). In depicting the reality, the narrative within the film is just as important as the way it is presented. They also claimed that every film is political and provided a classification system for if and how it is connected to its ideological function. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest arguably fits into the type (e) films that “throw up obstacles in the way of the ideology, causing it to swerve and get off course.” Comolli and Narboni go on to describe how “the cinematic framework lets us see it, but also shows it up and denounces it” (Comolli 691). Evidence for this is found through the film when the convict attempts to bring simple pleasures to the hospitals’ hostages, steadily questioning the dominance and righteousness of the institution. The film creates the reality of a mental hospital and proceeds to criticize it from within the conventions of the system.
This concept of revealing counterarguments to the ideology is also supported by a section of Graeme Turner’s Film as a Social Practice IV where he discusses conflicting approaches to an ideology within the text of a film. Turner explains, “This competition usually results in a victory for the culture’s dominant positions, but not without leaving cracks or divisions through which we can see the consensualizing work of ideology.” Following this, he elaborates, “That through such cracks, ideological analysis provides the point of entry to an understanding of the film’s formal process of construction” (Turner 198). In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Forman’s sympathy to the individual through both the narrative and the filmic techniques offers cracks in the dominant ideology supporting the social structures. Without being entirely antiestablishment, the film provides a basis for exploring all elements that contribute to the prevailing position on the matter. Turner’s scheme can be applied to a shot sequence by means of thorough analysis.
The sequence in question takes place from 2:01:17 to 2:01:41 in the film, and from 2:07 to 2:31 in the clip above. It occurs near the end of the film and consists of seven shots. The fight between two main characters in the segment reflects the symbolic struggle between the individual and the institution. Developed through the film as the rebel leader of the innocent patients, Jack Nicholson’s character, R.P. McMurphy embodies the free will and the spontaneity of individual. His symbolic counterpart is the totalitarian chief nurse, Nurse Ratched, played by Louise Fletcher, who personifies the authority of the institution through the relentless command she holds over his life. The character development is key to understanding how this segment relates to the ideological analysis. The building tension between them peaks the morning after McMurphy completely breaches the rules by bringing in young women and alcohol into the hospital. When Nurse Ratched threatens one of the young patients, Billy Bibbit, to suicide after finding him naked with one of the women, McMurphy purely acts on his feelings for her. The subsequent series of seven shots provide a basis for a thorough ideological analysis of the film.
The beginning of the segment provides a premise for the ensuing violence. After the initial sight of Billy Bibbit’s dead body has shocked the patients and the hospital staff, Shot one shows a close up of McMurphy’s face in the doorway grimacing in disgust. Nurse Ratched enters the frame out of focus yelling at the patients to get out of the room. Clearly infuriated, McMurphy’s eyeline stays affixed on Nurse Ratched. His black robber hat characterizes his actions from the night before and hints at his aggression. Cutting to Shot two, the first transition is motivated by Nurse Ratched’s movement through the doorway. Shot two backs out to a mid-range shot of the other side of the door with the nurses physically pushing around all of the patients. Everybody’s expressions are in focus, but McMurphy’s face cannot be seen. As the focal point of the action, Nurse Ratched’s roughhousing has a rippling effect extending out through the others. The square framing simply cuts into this focal point to transition to Shot three, which is a waist-up shot of Ratched, with the others less focused. The camera pans left slightly to follow her motions. She shuts the door, signaling a loud timely bang, and repeats for everyone to calm down. Indicating she is anything but calm, Ratched has trouble maintaining eye contact with anyone she is ordering around. Her voice serves as a sound bridge to the Shot Four, which reveals the people she is addressing. The clean-cut form and content of the first three shots help to establish the mounting tension between parties and to portray the instability of the hospital during this scene.
The next four shots in the sequence utilize more dynamic, yet still conventional, techniques to present the brawl as an intense and meaningful moment. Shot four begins with an over-the-shoulder shot of McMurphy that also contains an unfocused part of Ratched’s face from behind her. The concentration of the shot is on the brimming fury visible in McMurphy’s under-bite and brow furrow. Entirely overwhelmed, he lunges toward her, his hands reaching for her neck, and the shot pans left to show both of them at a crooked angle. Although both of them can be seen, the focus is clearly on McMurphy’s face. Quickly cutting to the reverse shot of Shot four, the camera takes another perspective in Shot five. The reverse shot is positioned from behind McMurphy as he is strangling her. Ratched’s deeply pained facial expressions are in focus and both of their bodies thrash in and out the frame. An unidentified voice calls from off camera and the next cut is provoked by the sound bridge to Shot six that shows the owner of the voice. It is close-up of another patient yelling at McMurphy to stop that pans across him back up from the skirmish. Shot seven then cuts back to the same frame as Shot five with the focus again on Ratched as McMurphy wrestles her to the ground. The camera pans right and then angles down on the action, accompanied by sounds of exasperated grunting and feet shuffling. These seven shots do not reveal the outcome of the McMurphy’s attack but they work as a solid base for both technical and narrative analysis in relation to the film’s ideology.
The meaning derived through these seven shots applicable to the ideological dilemma can be dissolved to the means through which it exhibits sympathy to the individual as contrasted with how it acknowledges the commercially accepted attitude. As the film takes on an omniscient perspective, Forman uses short takes, edited so there are multiple points of view in each scene. In the time before the sequence, the film’s mise-en-scéne develops the environment of the hospital and the operation of the patients within the institution. The white starched enclosure of the hospital reflects the severity of the institution and how it contrasts with the humanity of its occupants. Also contributing to the aura of the hospital, the film uses shots of locked doors and fences to highlight the patients’ physical and emotional separation from the realities of the outside world. These elements, along with the characterizations, have been established and should also be taken into account in reading the shot sequence for meaning.
To start with, the segment contains conventional editing techniques that favor the humanity of the souls restricted by the implementations of the system. These include the use of uncomfortable close-ups, strategic depth of field in wider shots, and disframing. In Shots one and four, the close-ups fill the screen with the emotions of McMurphy to emphasize the magnitude to which he is pained by Billy’s death. In Shot six, the close-up of another patient draws to the effects of McMurphy on the patients individually. By controlling the characters are in and out of focus within all of the shot frames, both McMurphy’s passion and Ratched’s fear are highlighted. Disframing, where the action shifts beyond the bounds of the frame, allows the strangling of Ratched in Shots five and seven to appear unsettling and chaotic. These techniques, paired with the literally physical conflict in the narrative, convey a controversial anti-conformist perspective that is juxtaposed with the typical view on social structures.
Specifically, the use of close-ups in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest has a deeply powerful effect that is encouraging of individualism. In Balasz’s analysis, “The Close-Up”, he enforces Forman’s techniques saying, “Close-ups are the pictures expressing the poetic sensibility of the director.” He continues with the idea that “they show the faces of things and those expression on them which are significant because they are reflected expressions of our own subconscious feeling,” supporting the meaning derived from the close-ups in the shot sequence (Balasz 274). Another film critic, Biolostocki notes in her analysis, “Forman’s Cuckoo’s Nest, Its Composition and Symbolism,” about the impact of the close-ups: “Those faces, on which a life of psyche not submitted to any norms is engraved, fill up the screen for two hours” (Biolostocki 159). It is clear that the close-ups play into the ideological message and are a marked feature of the film as a whole.
At the end of the film, Nurse Ratched triumphs in her punishment McMurphy by turning him into a mindless “vegetable,” submitting to the workings of the institution she represents and altering the overall message of the film. This submission is echoed during the film in multiple ways and can also be pulled out from the shot-by-shot analysis. In service to the dominant ideology, the conventional techniques – shot-reverse-shot, panning, and sounds bridges – uphold the stability of the film’s form, and thereby affect the overall enunciation of its message. Although does not contain verbal dialogue, the shot-reverse-shot sequence in Shots four and five is a practical procedure for portraying the interaction between two characters. The camera panning in Shots three, four, six and seven, allow for the action to be captured in a way that is visually accessible – another process conventional to commercial cinema. The sound bridges used in the transitions between Shots three and four and between Shots five and six are another example of standard film techniques that the streamline the conflict. Reinforced by these stabilizing techniques, the narrative ending ultimately provides a wholesome view on why society interaction with social structure is so controversial despite the prevailing ideology.
With all of these observations and references are considered, the film’s stance on the ideology of the establishment is clarified. Forman attempts to make some noble points about refusing to surrender oneself to the system and he succeeds in his adaption of the story to its filmic counterpart. Nonetheless, the question of power has no definitive answer in the reality defined by the film or the reality of humanity at large. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Forman provides an instance that questions the path that modern society has chosen. Critic Bialostocki’s concurs:
The weak borderline between freedom and anarchy becomes impossible to maintain. Societies oscillate between chaos and dictatorship and the passive human mass, following the slogans of an insubordinated individual, is able to achieve greatness, but also – destruction and self-annihilation (Bialotocki 160).
Her insight can be applied directly to the message of the film and the foundation of the ideological struggle it concerns.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest enunciation regards this struggle with a viewpoint relatable to the masses. The compilation of form and content harness the reality of the conflict by drawing in the audience with sentimental close-ups and asking them to question the morality of the treatments in the mental hospital. Provoking the matter, the film brings dynamic tension between the humanity of an individual and the institution’s installment of conformity to life. Presented through character development and strategic editing, Milos Forman’s critically acclaimed film, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest relays a widespread resentment towards the prevailing ideology. In doing so, he fights the man, or more appropriately in the case, the woman.
Works Cited
Balasz, Bela. “The Close-Up.” Film Theory and Criticism. ed. Leo Braudy, Marshall Cohen. (2009), pp. 273-275. Oxford University Press: New York.
Bialostocki, Jan. “Forman’s Cuckoo’s Nest, Its Composition and Symbolism.” Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 2, No. 3 (1981), pp. 159-162. Published by: IRSA s.c. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1483109>
Comolli, Jean-Luc and Jean Narboni. “Cinema/Ideology/Criticim.” Film Theory and Criticism. ed. Leo Braudy, Marshall Cohen. (2009), pp. 686-693. Oxford University Press: New York.
Turner, Graeme. Film as a Social Practice (Fourth Edition). Routledge: New York.
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