July 22 Louise Fletcher

To celebrate Louise Fletcher’s birthday I watched One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The beginning of the film the patients of the mental institution are given their medication. There is classical/elevator music playing and each person is handed their medication and water. They have to take the medication in front the nurse. It reminded me of Catholic ceremony. Louise plays the head nurse, Ratched. Jack Nicholson is the new patient. He is the timeline of the story. Ratched leads the group sessions soft spoken and stone faced, very little phases her. At Christmas the patients are left alone (which doesn’t seem right in the first place) and Jack Nicholson smuggles in girls and they bring alcohol. All have a good time. The next day when the staff comes back the place is in a shambles. One man is found with a woman. Ratched humiliates him by telling him she will tell his mother. He becomes very upset and is dragged away hitting himself. He commits suicide. This pushes Jack over the edge and he attacks and strangles Ratched. He is taken away and is forever changed. The next day everything is back to normal with Ratched wearing a neck brace.

In the special features the character is described as frigid and cold. I don’t see the character that way. I see the character as professional. The character is the villain because she represents authority, the man. Everyone acted really well in the story, it was almost too real. That is why I avoided the film for many years, thinking I could not handle the realness of the story. Also in the special features it was mentioned that the Jack Nicholson character was us, the audience. That is a very good statement and it makes sense. Nicholson can’t believe that the men are voluntarily committed and that the man wants his cigarettes and the nurse won’t give them to him, so he gets them for him. One person helping another to end suffering.