One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

I just read this book last year thanks be both to Amy's bookshelf and her prompting. I have always loved this movie, New American Cinema on its last legs, aging and reflective (along with 5 Easy Pieces). I read this book and created an entirely new world (naturally). This book has the colorful and imaginary depth of Tom Robbins and the politicosocioallegorico satire of Vonnegut. This movie is geared more toward the social spectrum, and is a resounding success, as apart from the book as it is.

Kubrick believed it was a mistake to convert great literature onto film (Lolita), and I agree with him. It's like covering a great song... either do it better or different, otherwise don't bother. One Flew as a book is ESSENTIALLY flawless: unique, important, funny, and sad. The film is almost as good , but for entirely different reasons. The film captures the motives of R.P,. his rebellion, and makes the sad ending of his life very fun to watch. He makes dear and unprecedented friendships, I think. Perhaps he actually relates more to the "inmates" than he thinks, more than he has to anybody outside. The movie adds the statutory rape thing, and I don't like that. And it portrays Harding as a pitiable snob, whereas in the book he was one of R.P.'s better friends since he had more of a complete and aware mind than the others. He was the bigshot in the book until R.P. showed up, and he gave up his throne pretty willingly, as ready to follow as the next man... I liked that much more than the formulaic 'enemy' in the movie.

It would be a mistake for a movie to attempt and fully convey the themes of a great book. It is much more justifiable to make something original, albeit less of a creature. Forman, Douglas, etc. did that. The Wexler imagery is enough to make this film an memorial success for many generations, and Jack's typical yet characteristically engaging hero is one of his best (if not his very best). I know that Kesey never saw this film, at least that is the press line, and I respect that of course, but I feel that this movie is a success in its own right. It shortens the ending but does not change it. It portrays a more humorous ensemble of characters, but it doesn't stray so far from the original that it's unrecognizable. It misses some of the most hearty and tear-jerking elements of the book, but it adds its own via imagery and cinema at large. The Big Nurse terminology of the book is one of its most outstandingly memorable aspects, and it's lost in the film. The doctor's close relationship with the patients and weakness in the face of Big Nurse Ratched is overlooked and deleted, but I respect giving up on some elements in order to create a new entity. Dances With Wolves as a film is better than the book, I feel, and this is largely because of what it left out. One Flew as a film could never live up to the book, and I think the producers & co. knew that, and I admire them for that. Their product may be a bastard and a lie of some kind, but it is a movie, after all...