|
|
|
The Methods of Madness: Representations of Inmates, Authorities and the Asylum in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Awakenings Tina Butler, mongabay.com May 6, 2005
Mental illness or instability has been a traditionally mis-conceived and demonized phenomenon. Stereotypes of 'madness' are powerful and deeply rooted within Western culture. The mass audience has tended to view such individuals and institutions in a particularly negative manner because of representations proffered by the foremost purveyor of mass culture, Hollywood film. Due to the powerful position of film and its ability to affect audience perception and the narrow range of diversity in terms of representations of the mentally ill and the space of the asylum itself presented to audiences, widely held stereotypes abound in the public sphere. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and to a lesser, but still significant degree in Awakenings. The film adaptation of Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is looked to as one of the primary documents representing the asylum. The film launched hundreds of imitations and every film about a hospital seemingly contains a reference to it. In fact, since its release in 1975, there have been over thirty films that have made allusions to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (imdb.com). Every film involving mental illness or institutions has their own Nurse Ratched and Randle Patrick McMurphy. The film lay the foundation for representing all facets of the asylum. The nurse was overtly professional, so serious about her job that any semblance of compassion was replaced with mild sadism. The inmate was sexualized, rebellious, yet eventually fallible and broken by the system. The asylum was a menacing, monolithic place governed by unfeeling drones and concerned with confinement instead of rehabilitation. With films of the late 80s and early 90s, attempts to reform perceptions and representations of the key players in the asylum gained popularity. One of the major films to do this was Penny Marshall's Awakenings. Here, the doctor is presented as benevolent and good, sincerely concerned with the task of healing his patients. The inmates have been somewhat neutralized and emasculated. The institution has not necessarily been reformed, but the new figure of the alternative method style doctor helps the asylum begin to function as a loving, albeit sometimes misguided caretaker. In spite of these changes, the institution has remained an elusive, sinister and inaccessible place. The asylum in both representation and reality, is a space that is always, to some degree, isolated and distanced from the 'real' outside world. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest emphasizes this separation in its opening sequence.
Both the opening and closing scenes of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest use naturalistic settings to contrast with the sterile, hindering nature of the institution. The audience is presented with open spaces-fields and mountains that have nothing to do with restriction and everything to do with freedom. The opening scene is unmarred by signs of a human, industrialized world until a pair of car headlights cut through the landscape. The next shot shows Jack Nicholson's character arriving at the asylum, being escorted up the stairs by two law enforcement officers. The end of the film depicts the Chief's figurative and literal release from the asylum. This is emphasized visually by the exaggerated space around him as he runs off into the night. He is finally free from confinement and his own demons and returns to nature and the land. The Chief forcibly breaks out of the suffocating and damaging environment of the institution. Awakenings follow in a similar suit in terms of physical representation of the institutional hospital. Images of chain link-blocked doorways and windows and cage-like interiors abound in the film. This sense of confinement is further emphasized and conveyed by the characters' resistance against it. There are several scenes in which Dr. Sayer literally tears open the window in what seems like a frantic attempt to just breathe and escape the overpowering feeling of restriction, if only for a moment. Leonard, as a patient, is significantly more confined and this is made clear as his desire for freedom increases and the establishment only tightens its grip on his mobility. Leonard's simple request to go on a walk unsupervised escalates into the film's largest battle sequence. There are other typical asylum elements in the two films including the communal sleeping quarters, the problematic group therapy sessions and the fixed existence and non-reality of the 'day room,' the element of enclosed space being highlighted. The majority of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest takes place in the 'Day Room' of the hospital. The setting is generally static and adds to the feeling of confinement (Seger 39). The space of the mental institution is characterized by,
In this space of strict control, order and regulation, archetypal figures begin to emerge. Most prominent in Forman's film is the rebellious and over-sexed alpha male McMurphy, played with rabid enthusiasm by Jack Nicholson and the unfeeling and diabolical medical worker Mildred Ratched, played convincingly by Louise Fletcher. In Marshall's film, the audience is presented with the other end of the spectrum with the good doctor, Robin Williams and the docile and childlike patient, Robert DeNiro. In any case, these characters are all removed to some extent from the outside world by way of the isolationist character of the asylum. The institution operates as an exclusionary bubble, keeping out the widely accepted version of a healthy social reality. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest offers a very dated representation of the mental institution. Despite fine performances by the actors, the film seems to function mainly as a pop-style referent for later films, the primary source for mildly clever inside jokes rather than standing on its own as a model of the system. Forman's film, now, appears cliched at best, but perhaps this is because it came first and its subsequent imitations vulgarize and degrade the novelty of the original. Nurse Ratched has become an iconic figure, as instantly recognizable in parody as the character of McMurphy. She is the dangerously frigid medical professional and he, the rebellious alpha male everyman. "McMurphy is as uncontrolled as the Big Nurse is controlled" (Safer 133). Nurse Ratched is as insidious and sterile as McMurphy is overtly sexual and tempestuous. McMurphy is an interesting character as the audience identifies with him as a man
Conversely, in Awakenings, the patient protagonist, Leonard, is initially reluctant, a relative polar opposite to McMurphy. However, as Leonard becomes a sexualized being, his rebellious and delinquent tendencies begin to materialize. His burgeoning relationship with Mary Louise Parker's character, Paula, coincides with his increasing hostility towards his confinement, the institution and authority. As an 'awakened' sexual being, Leonard's quiet and docile nature is transformed and he becomes a revolutionary in the spirit of McMurphy. Granted, Leonard's frustration and subsequent anger are understandable, yet it is significant to note that the origins of these changes link back to his sexual realization. Leonard, in the beginning, can be viewed as a foil to McMurphy-the innocent contrasted with the sexual predator-yet, in time, he begins to appear rather like his little, somewhat slower brother. Representations of the other patients in both films are reduced to stereotypes. In Awakenings, Dr. Sayer is clearly overwhelmed by his new charges that are presented as excitable, aggressive and screaming. Playing on the comic figure stereotype, the audience encounters Juanita, who is terrified of pens. She appears calm and amiable all of the time, except upon seeing a pen, which prompts bouts of hysterical mania. Even the catatonic patients, once their medicine kicks in, begin to embody the typical characterizations. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, viewers meet similar individuals. In both films, there is the weird old guy who dances around the rec. room by himself, the shy guy who experiences some kind of sexual awakening and the quiet, loner type. Comedy is employed at the expense of the patients, their often glazed and dazed expressions drawing awkward peals of laughter from the audience. Despite these similarities, the films' representations of the asylum staff could not be more divergent. In the case of Nurse Ratched and her counterparts and Dr. Sayer and his nursing staff, the two groups stand in stark opposition. Nurse Ratched is professional and by-the-book to a fault. She is so blinded by her sense of the doing the 'right' thing that she loses all ability to see the appropriateness of doing the 'human' thing. Her unflinching stubbornness in adherence to the edicts and routines of the establishment make her a formidable and dangerous individual, ultimately incapable of mercy or compassion. Forman says of her character, "Nurse Ratched believes deeply that she is doing right and that's where the real drama begins for me. That's much more frightening than if you have an evil person who knows he's doing wrong" (McCreadle 130). She manages,
In contrast, Dr. Sayer, from the very first, draws ridicule from his colleagues and superiors with his utilization of unconventional techniques of treatment. The only institutional support he receives comes from those subjugated by it, the nurses and orderlies. Dr. Sayer acts on instinct and with tremendous empathy. He attempts to understand the lives of his patients when the other doctors merely ignore them. "What is it like to be them; what are they thinking," he asks at one point? "They're not," a colleague answers dismissively. Dr. Sayer's dogged commitment and absence of by-the-book professionalism warrants results in his patients. Nurse Ratched's dogged commitment has the opposite effect. While Nurse Ratched denies the experience and reality of the outside world to the inmates, Dr. Sayer introduces and shares it with his patients. He wants so much to return the lives of the patients to them, give them back some part of the existence they once had by promoting and nurturing their relationships with the individuals from their previous lives outside of the hospital. Whereas in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest the music was a weapon of domination, Dr. Sayer, in Awakenings, utilizes music not as a repressive force, but a link to the outside world. He plays current rock songs to bring something vital and vibrant into the lives of his patients who have been denied for so long. Dr. Sayer becomes a caring father figure that opposes the character assumed by Nurse Ratched. The theme of the 'bad mother' pervades One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in the character of Nurse Ratched. Billy Bibbit becomes the victim in this scheme as Ratched takes on the mother role. She reduces him to a child with her threats to inform his real mother of his activities involving Candy. At the same time, McMurphy in a very strong sense acts like an attention-seeking child with his antics throughout the course of the film. Many of the other patients seem childlike with their neediness and tantrums. The staff members assume the position of substitute parents, Nurse Ratched, the cruel mother, and Dr. Spivey, the impotent father (Sodowsky and Sodowsky 37).
Both films are adaptations in their own right. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest originates from Kesey's 1962 novel by the same name and Awakenings is based on a true story, memoir written by Dr. Oliver Sacks. The process and tradition of adapting literary works to film has been the topic of much writing and debate, similar to the representation of the mentally ill in film. Adaptations often draw hostile criticism from audiences, especially those that are remakes of highly regarded or loved works. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by critic and audience reception alike, proved to be an exception to this tradition. This film does numerous things that distinguish it from its textual model. In addition to narrative alterations, stylistically rendered, the film is far less psychedelic and hallucinatory and far more straightforward and organized than the novel. There is a marked shift from the surreal to the 'real.' Certain inclusions help to increase the realist sensibilities of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. For example, a real psychiatrist, Dr. Brooks from the Oregon State Mental Hospital, was cast as Dr. Spivey, the hospital director in the film (Fleming and Manvell 20, 170). In the case of Awakenings, I cannot claim or identify deviations from the book to the film due to a lack of familiarity with Dr. Sacks' work. However, I imagine that relationships were made more close and profound and that characters were presented as more likable and highly romanticized for the film version. Marshall did preserve the film's honor to some degree by retaining an ending that does not contain a particular sense of hope or happiness. The experience and impression of the viewer surrounding the institution of the mental hospital as well as the mental patient has been largely inflected by cinematic representation. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Awakenings are two such films that have played a substantial role in shaping such perceptions. While the films attempt and sometimes achieve portrayals that diverge from more negative past characterizations, for the most part they rely on old stereotypes that are self-perpetuating towards discrimination against these figures. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the audience is presented with "the horrors of the mental institution [translated] into a microcosm of the complex suppression exercised by society upon its dissident members" (Safer 132). In Awakenings, the viewer encounters an asylum with significant shortcomings in regard to patient treatment and care, yet the promise of something better when the right people are allowed to act. In the end however, both films fail to either emancipate their patients or the stigma attached to the institution itself in their representations. Works Cited Awakenings. Dir. Penny Marshall. Perf. Robert DeNiro, Julie Kavner, Penelope Ann Miller, Robin Williams. Columbia Pictures. 1990. Fleming, Michael and Roger Manvell. Images of Madness: The Portrayal of Insanity in Feature Film. Associated University Presses: London, 1985. http//:www.imdb.com Levers, Lisa Lopez. "Representations of Psychiatric Disability in Fifty Years of Hollywood Film: An Ethnographic Analysis." Theory and Science. 2001. 20 Apr. 2002. McCreadle, Marsha. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Some Reasons for One Happy Adaptation." Literature/Film Quarterly. 5: 2 (Spring 1977). 125-131. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Dir. Milos Forman. Perf. Danny DeVito, Louise Fletcher, Jack Nicholson. Fantasy Films. 1975. Safer, Elaine B. "It's the Truth Even if it Didn't Happen: Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Literature/Film Quarterly. 5:2 (Spring 1977). 132-141. Schwartz, Morris S. and Emmy Lanning Schockley. The Nurse and the Mental Patient: A Study in Interpersonal Relationships. Russell Sage: New York, 1956. Seger, Linda. The Art of Adaptation: Turning Fact and Fiction into Film. Henry Holt: New York, 1992. Sodowsky, Gargi Raysircar and Roland E. Sodowsky. "Different Approaches to Psychopathology and Symbolism in the Novel and Film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Literature and Psychology. 37 (1 & 2): 1991. 34-42. News index | RSS | Add to MyYahoo! Advertisements: Organic Apparel from Patagonia | Insect-repelling clothing
|
|
|
MONGABAY.COM
T-SHIRTS 
CALENDARS 
CANVAS BAGS 
| |
|
|
