# One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 23, 2003, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest/150379 "2003-01-23T04:50:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![senor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f8ce5/32.png) [@senor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/senor)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2003, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest/150379/21 "2003-01-24T00:06:31Z")
Hola! SPOILER (whatever the fuck that means) Jack Nicholson’s character dies at the end. He is suffocated mercifully by Chief, the big Indian. Chief then runs away to go to Canada to drink whiskey and bang eskimo chicks. Nurse Ratchett got her neck strangled by Jack for being a heartless bitch. A notable but underrated performance was by the late Scatman Currothers as the night man. LASTLY\< WHO was Nurse Ratchett’s assistant? She had a few lines in the film. She looks latino and damn she is fine. Latino assistant made the movie for me. SENOR ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2003, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest/150379/22 "2003-01-24T00:08:46Z")
I like to show the group therapy scenes as a “don’t do this” for my students. Excruciating! ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2003, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest/150379/23 "2003-01-24T00:27:13Z")
> [@](#): > > LASTLY\< WHO was Nurse Ratchett’s assistant? She had a few lines in the film. She looks latino and damn she is fine. Latino assistant made the movie for me. You talkin’ about Nurse Flinn, the Catholic? Yeah, we had a little hottie playing her in our production, too. ---
**Author:** ![cichlidiot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f9b8f/32.png) [@cichlidiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cichlidiot)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2003, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest/150379/24 "2003-01-24T00:31:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Satchmo \* > \*\*cichlidiot- > > Actually, neither Devito nor Lloyd WERE stars yet. I think this was maybe their first feature film, (I haven’t checked the IMDB), but it was certainly very early in their careers. I know it was “introducing Brad Dourif”, so I think that means it was his first movie. Great film. \*\* We’re on the same page **Satchmo**.😉 The part I was surprised about was the choices made by whoever was responsible for casting the movie. Seemed precognitive with regard to the number of stars. ---
**Author:** ![Roadwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@Roadwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roadwalker)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2003, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest/150379/25 "2003-01-24T00:51:41Z")
I did the stage play on Maui. I played DeVito’s character, Martini. IIRC, DeVito was is the original stage cast. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2003, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest/150379/26 "2003-01-24T01:07:29Z")
There is a definite undercurrent of gender warfare between McMurphy and Ratched, which is also played out at the expense of poor Billy. It was almost as if they were warring for control of Billy’s soul, and when McMurphy seems to have won, the castrating, repressive Ratched bears on him with the Freudian whip until he cracks. I don’t find it misogynistic or sexist because it took on the tones of allegory for me by the end. McMurphy tops my list of Favorite Iconoclastic Heroes Who Get Jobbed. ---
**Author:** ![Kyomara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8edcca/32.png) [@Kyomara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyomara)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2003, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest/150379/27 "2003-01-24T01:09:58Z")
I just saw this movie for the first time recently as well. I loved it. The performances were toally hammed up, but it really makes you feel for the characters. My favorite was Cheswick. And Harding when he thinks everyone is accusing him of being gay. The hottie assistant nurse had me all hot and bothered too. Her name is/was Mimi Sarkisian (Nurse Pilbow in the film…don’t know why they changed the name since everyone here who’s seen the play calls her Nurse Flynn), and OFOTCN was her first and only film role. Also, according to the IMDB, Ken Kesey threatened to sue Milos Forman unless the story in the film was told from Chief’s POV too. Ever since the horrible steaming piece of crap that was “Man on the Moon,” I hate Milos Forman, but I loved this movie. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2003, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest/150379/28 "2003-01-24T01:41:13Z")
When Kirk Douglas owned the rights and was preparing for the lead in the B’way production (hard to imagine), this was the ending he wanted: McMurphy attacks Ratched, as in the book/movie, but rather than choking her he rapes her. She resists but ultimately grabs him and is overcome with ecstacy. He was talked out of it by his wife and other feminists, but when he gave the rights to his son Michael for the movie he tried his best to talk him into this ending. Michael wisely refused of course and thus the movie isn’t listed with BIRTH OF A NATION and TRIUMPH OF THE WILL as one of the most offensive ever made. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2003, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest/150379/29 "2003-01-24T01:42:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kyomara \* > \*\*Ever since the horrible steaming piece of crap that was “Man on the Moon,” I hate Milos Forman, but I loved this movie. \*\* I don’t know which I found less enjoyable: that movie or the real Andy Kaufman. Forman (who is about 142) became the father of twins while making that movie, incidentally (they were his second set). He named one Jim and one Andy after Carrey and Kaufman. ---
**Author:** ![Kyomara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8edcca/32.png) [@Kyomara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyomara)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest/150379/30 "2003-01-26T01:23:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sampiro \* > \*\*He named one Jim and one Andy after Carrey and Kaufman. \*\* Jee-zuss. Did he name the kid before them after Larry Flynt? ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest/150379/31 "2003-01-26T02:10:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sampiro \* > \*\* He named one Jim and one Andy after Carrey and Kaufman. \*\* Too bad he didn’t have twins during the filming of **Amadeus**. Then they could be named Antonio and Wolfgang after Salieri and Mozart. Those would have been cooler names. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest/150379/32 "2003-01-26T03:54:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Nurse Pilbow in the film…don’t know why they changed the name since everyone here who’s seen the play calls her Nurse Flynn Because, in my opinion, Nurse Flinn is a very interesting character… although her birthmark isn’t referenced at all in the play. For what it’s worth… our director decided to add Pilbow into our showing, despite the fact that she’s not listed in the play’s cast (although there is an attendant mentioned in the script, and Pilbow took those shoes). We had a hottie play Pilbow, too. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bdgr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a87d85/32.png) [@bdgr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bdgr)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest/150379/33 "2003-01-26T04:15:17Z")
When I used top work in psych hospitals, I used to get asked if it was really like that…Not in either of the ones I worked at, although one of them wasnt to great ---
**Author:** ![HelloKitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecccb3/32.png) [@HelloKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelloKitty)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest/150379/34 "2003-01-26T05:15:53Z")
All time favorite movie and in the top 10 of books. I can’t believe no one is listing some of the great lines from the movie: “Mmmmmm…Juicy Fruit…” “She was 15 goin’ on 30, know what I mean, doc??” “I want my cigarettes!!! I want my cigarettes!!” “Nice shirt, Chez-a-roo!!!” “We’re talking about rules, we’re talking about regulations, we’re talking about God, the Devil, Heaven, Hell…do you understand…FINALLY!!!” And my all time favorite: “It’s medication time…” Plus, do you guys realize this movie swept ALL the major Oscars in 1975…Best Picture, Director, Actor and Actress. Michael Douglas won his first Oscar as the producer for this film, he was not known at all as an actor at that time. First major motion picture for Danny Devito, Brad Dourif and Christopher Lloyd as well. All that…AND \*\*Scatman Crothers \*\*as the janitor that lets the hookers into the ward!!! Awesome, awesome movie by all accounts! ---
**Author:** ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest/150379/35 "2003-01-26T06:05:40Z")
Sorry, HelloKitty, but I recall lines from the play far more clearly than I do from the movie or book… “Doc, she was so willin’ I took to padlocking my pants!” “We are psychoceramics, the cracked pots of humanity. Would you like me to decipher a rorschach?” And my favorite… “Fuck 'em all!” ---
**Author:** ![Forbin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5e9695/32.png) [@Forbin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Forbin)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest/150379/36 "2003-01-26T07:26:41Z")
…big bull for Tablations. Ten for Billy, to match his wang… ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest/150379/37 "2003-01-26T14:41:21Z")
I got a kick out of the part when McMurphy referred to everyone as “Doctor” except “Mister” Harding. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest/150379.md?page=1)