For ultra-condensed plot summaries, I always go to the hilarious Book-A-Minute Web site:
http://rinkworks.com/bookaminute/b/kesey.oneflew.shtml
Spoiler alert. (Duh!)
I’ve been a mental patient on a locked ward where I had to cope with real-life “Nurse Ratched” types. As you can imagine (as I can imagine you’d be able to imagine at any rate), it’s a bit of a hot-button topic for me. How would you expect me to react if someone posts “Yes she wanted to assert her authority over the patients but then they are mentally deficient so I am not sure why that is so evil”??
So some of y’all think my reaction was a bit over the top?
AHunter3, you beat me to it. There is nothing “polite” in seeing people as virtual throw-a-ways. I also have a mental illness.
When you are “mentally deficient,” you need nurturing; that’s what nurses are supposed to do. Rachett didn’t do any of that. It wasn’t just the necessity of enforcing rules and exerting control. She sucked the life out of these patients! They may have trashed the ward, but she trashed human beings.
I have a slightly different take on her than some of you. I think that she knew that she was unnecessarily restricting the patients and crushing their spirits. And she did it anyway. That is what makes her evil in my eyes. Her vileness is pervasive and yet subtle. I’ve never known a colder character – not even Hannibal. Because it is pervasive and subtle, it is impossible to capture and describe her darkness by describing the plot line.
I would never judge a work of art that is in bits and pieces. And this movie, like the book, is masterful! Some people could see it ten times and never “get it.” Others can see it ten times and bring something new away every time. The one thing that can’t be done is to see just part of it and “know” the movie. That isn’t true with all films.
BTW, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest was the first film since the 1930’s to walk away with the “big five” Oscars: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Take it from a nurse she was evil. Watch her body language. Nurses, like doctors, are bound by the same ethic “Above all else, do no harm” She does harm. And likes it.
Never read the book or saw the movie so I am well qualified to comment. CyberPundit wants evidence but if the actor( I’m PC)
was worth warm spit and the writing was any good there
would be no evidence. As stated above, body language and
looks, subtle stuff. That is what would not ony make her maybe evil but very scary and dangerous because it would always be
be reasonable to explain her actions as keeping order for patients benefit and trying to do right thing. If she beleived it , even better. Someone mentioned 101 dalmations. Now Cruella was my kind of villian, big sign saying Evil Person. But then I came from Les Mis thinking Javert was kinda a heroic guy.