In the movie “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, the protagonist Randle McMurphy demonstrates the example of leader who is doomed to failure because he is unable to successfully balance the needs of his group, and the requirements of the authority to maintain the functional order of an establishment of power. This type of leader is usually doomed to follow some kind of internal path. He passes through the lives of others, and whether this is manifested externally or not, this character produces profound and lasting changes within them that they had, often times unknowingly, and more sadly, not known that they had wanted until this character passed through their lives.
In the Oregon of the 1960’s, the protagonist of the movie, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, is Randle Patrick McMurphy, played in the film by Jack Nicholson. He is an incorrigible criminal serving a prison sentence for the rape of an underage girl who he says misrepresented her age to him. While in prison he has himself transferred to a mental hospital for evaluation to avoid the hardships of state prison, and to enjoy a less hostile environment. Upon his arrival he shows no signs of severe mental illness, only an attitude of anti-establishment. McMurphy is an antihero, only able to play by his own internal rules, rather than adjusting himself to the needs of both the group and the establishment.
They ward of the hospital that McMurphy is sent to is overseen by a stern and unyielding Nurse Mildred Ratched played in the movie by Louise Fletcher. She becomes the story’s villain and main antagonist to McMurphy, yet she is a hero in her own way for trying to maintain order the only way she knows how. She embodies the establishment and uses her power to strictly control every action of the men. As much as the men may be uncomfortable with her form of authority, they still obey her despite their discomfort. The leadership tactics that nurse Ratched uses to maintain control over the patients are: forms of humiliation, painful medical procedures, medication, and a daily routine that reduces outside stimulus as much as possible.
McMurphy soon realizes that the patients are more intimidated by Nurse Ratched than becoming rehabilitated enough to return to society. McMurphy in his incorrigible boldness takes it upon himself to become the leader of the group of patients. It is his compulsive need to raise himself to a position of power and advantage, no matter where he goes, or what authority he faces. The pattern that McMurphy demonstrates in his leadership role is one of rebelliousness and a tendency toward anarchism no matter the cost to himself or to those who he tries to enlist to follow him.
The other patients of the ward include Billy Bibbit played by Brad Dourif. He is a young man with a nervous stutter, easily intimidated by the authority of Nurse Ratched. Another character Charlie Cheswick, played by Sydney Lassick, is an emotionally immature man who throws temper tantrums like a child. Martini played by Danny DeVito, suffers from delusions. Dale Harding played by William Redfield, suffers from paranoia, and is also overly sensitive, and is highly intelligent. Taber played by Christopher Lloyd, is hostile and irreverent. These characters never become true allies of McMurphy, they only serve to follow him as much as their fears allow.
"Chief" Bromden, played by Will Sampson, is the narrator of the film and the only person in the story that completely changes within the story. Chief is a large American Indian who pretends to be a deaf mute to avoid attention. This last character becomes McMurphy’s only true ally, choosing to follow him unlike the others who never truly overcome their fear of the establishment despite their feeble attempts to rail against it.
McMurphy is initially disgusted by Chief’s seeming lack of ability to communicate normally. He uses Chief for his height advantage during a game of basketball between the patients and the orderlies. McMurphy is able to get the other patients to work as group, rather than the confused and timid individuals they have become during their stay in the institution.
McMurphy's and Nurse Ratched recognize the threat that each one poses to the other and begin a competition to gain control of the group. In one battle of power McMurphy successfully manipulates card games to win the cigarettes of the other players. Nurse Ratched upon seeing this takes them away and gives the cigarettes back to the men. McMurphy uses the opportunity to challenge her authority by calling for a democratic vote, hoping to take some of Nurse Ratched’s power away from her, and transfer some of this power back to the group. When this tactic fails him, McMurphy decides that escaping the institution would be the only solution to getting out from under Nurse Ratched’s authority.
He tries to get the group excited with the idea of escape by trying to lift and remove a hydrotherapy fixture to throw it through the window. It proves to be too large and too heavy for him to lift and he gives up after several tries. He tells the group, “I tried goddammit. At least I did that”. The messages that he is trying to get across to them is, if you are not happy with your circumstances you are in, then you have to make attempts to escape them using whatever methods you can employ where you are at.
In later scene McMurphy hijacks a hospital bus and coerces the other passive patients to board the bus. He goes to pick up a girlfriend of his, Candy played by Marya Small. They arrive at a dock and he steals a boat to take the group out to sea. He says to them, "You're not nuts, you're fishermen!" to awaken within them feelings of empowerment and power they didn’t know they had.
After they are returned to the ward McMurphy finds out that because of his actions he could become committed for as long as the institution deems necessary. After the fishing incident Nurse Ratched decide that she must quell any other attempts at insurrection. In one of the group sessions Cheswick can not control himself and this leads to a brawl with the orderlies. For punishment Cheswick, McMurphy, and Chief are taken to be given electroconvulsive therapy. While McMurphy and Chief wait while Cheswick is taken first, McMurphy offers Chief some gum. Chief mumbles "Thank you" to a startled McMurphy. McMurphy is astonished to realize that Chief faking his status as a deaf mute to avoid attention. After his electroshock treatment, McMurphy stumbles into the ward trying to feign a stupor. When he believes he has the other patients believing his performance, he then changes back to his old self to make a mockery of the intended punishment. He tries to get the other patients to believe the electroshock treatment only filled him with energy and that the next woman he meets will "light up like a pinball machine and pay off in silver dollars." McMurphy tries to inspire the group by showing them that the electroshock therapy is not a potent punishment, and that they do not have to fear it.
As the test of wills with Ratched is losing its enjoyability, and his date of release no longer certain, McMurphy plans another attempt at escaping. McMurphy calls Candy to bring along a friend by the name of Rose played by Louisa Moritz. Candy is instructed to bring her friend and some alcohol to the hospital late one evening. The women enter through a window after McMurphy successfully bribes one of the orderlies, a Mr. Turkle played in the film by Scatman Crothers. McMurphy and Candy wake the patients to initiate a party. During the party the inebriated and stimulated group break into the drug cabinet, play loud music, and go on a spree of destruction. A few hours later, the Chief and McMurphy intend to go escape through the window with the women. As McMurphy is saying goodbye to the patients, he offers to Billy the opportunity to go with them. Billy refuses, unable to accept a world beyond the ward he has become accustomed to, despite his interest in dating Candy. Trying to get Billy over his fear of women, McMurphy persuades Candy to offer Billy the chance to have sex. Billy and Candy go into a private room where they can be alone, while McMurphy continues to entertain the other patients. The effects of the drugs and the alcohol take a toll on the men and despite their plan to escape, everyone falls into a medicated sleep.
When Nurse Ratched arrives the following morning she comes upon a scene of destruction and unconscious patients. She directs the open window to be relocked, the ward cleaned up and put back into order, and to make sure that none of the patients escaped. During a search of the ward, Billy and Candy are discovered in one of the rooms, naked and asleep. Having lost his virginity Billy can now speak without a stutter. Nurse Ratched warns Billy that she will tell his mother about his behavior. When Billy tries to get Nurse Ratched to avoid telling his mother about the incident, she calmly tells him that she and his mother are good friends and cannot avoid telling her due to their relationship. Billy panics and tells Nurse Ratched that McMurphy forced him to have sex in a desperate attempt to get Nurse Ratched not to notify his mother. Realizing that his ploy didn’t work, Billy panics and regresses to his stuttering state. Alone in a doctor’s office with the unbearable fear of his mother’s discovery of his behavior, he slits his throat with a piece of broken glass. McMurphy attacks Nurse Ratched in a fit of rage, nearly choking her to death until an orderly comes to her rescue.
With McMurphy removed from the ward, the other patients resume their daily activities with Harding assuming McMurphy’s leadership role, but much more sedately. Nurse Ratched, now wearing a neck brace from McMurphy’s attack, still oversees the group despite being almost unable to talk. The rumor in the ward is that McMurphy was successfully able to escape rather than suffering some terrible punishment.
Later that evening, the Chief witnesses McMurphy being put into his bed by two orderlies. When the orderlies leave, the Chief goes over to McMurphy believing he was still his former self, and they can now reinitiate their plan to escape. The Chief is now emboldened and believes himself to no longer be small, but "as big as a mountain". The Chief quickly realizes that McMurphy has been lobotomized, and will never be anything more than a vegetable. Unable to see McMurphy in this way, and knowing the he is no longer truly alive, the Chief smothers McMurphy to death with a pillow. The Chief then goes to the hydrotherapy room to remove the plumbing fixture that McMurphy was unable to do himself. Bromden then carries it across the ward to throw it out the window of his prison, climbs through the hole that he made in its facade, and escapes into a life of renewed possibilities.
The character of Randle McMurphy demonstrates a leader who is unable to change. He is unable to modify himself to the group and the establishment. He does not understand how others cannot be as bold and as daring as he is. Because of this fact he is a doomed character. The only thing that he was successful at was awakening the idea of possibilities in others, and inspiring Chief Bromden to escape his prison of fear and insecurity. His example gives the Chief the chance to live a new life of boldness and new strength fed by an awakened sense of self confidence. Chief Bromden is the true hero of the film, finally awakening from his fog of fear and delusions at the end, now ready to answer the call to adventure that life demands from every single one of us.
Works Cited:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Dir. Milos Forman. Screenplay by Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman. By Ken Kesey. Perf. Jack Nicholson. 1975.
Vogler, Christopher. The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. Studio City, CA:
Michael Wiese Productions, 2007. Print.
McLellan, Hilary. Story Structures: The Hero's Journey.
