The easy interpretation of Ken Kesey's popular 1962 counterculture novel, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," is to say that only crazies are able to see the world clearly; but the book's protagonist, Randall Patrick McMurphy, is not crazy. McMurphy is an emblem of determined individualism in a world of conformity, a symbol of people's capacity to overcome odds and accomplish whatever goals they set for themselves. McMurphy shows us how to stand up for ourselves and be ourselves, and the story in its various guises has been an inspiration for several generations of dedicated fans.

The main character in "Cuckoo's Nest" is R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), a boisterous, thick-headed criminal, initially self-absorbed, serving time for antisocial behavior, fighting, and statutory rape. But it occurs to McMurphy that he might be able to get out of doing hard labor by pretending to be crazy and being to sent to a relatively cushy mental institution for "observation and evaluation."

He arrives at a mental institution and he soon bonds with the inmates. Some are chronics who just lay there like vegetables, but there are men who are actually not that crazy. Maybe they just have trouble living in society, maybe they just can't put up with all the truly insane crap you have to accept and live by to be considered normal. Or maybe they're really wacked and can't control their emotions and thoughts.

The movie, set in 1963, begins with his admittance to the hospital and moves on through his experiences with the patients there, many of them voluntarily committed, and his eventual endeavors to get them to help themselves. If he's annoyed by the evasive minds of his fellow inmates, he still likes them . They're good-spirited, and if he gives them a hand, they can loosen up and have a good time.

McMurphy might have done some bad things in his life, but you realize that he's not that bad a guy. He just thinks that you don't always have to follow the rules, that the best therapy might be having fun. Yet the heads of the hospital don't see things the same way, and he courts a dangerous confrontation with the authoritarian head nurse of the ward

His nemesis at the hospital is the hard-nosed, self-assured Nurse Mildred Ratched. She's the authority there, more important than the head of the institution because she directly controls the conduct and activity of the patients on her floor. And that includes McMurphy, who finds her exacting regime demeaning, seemingly depriving the men on her ward of their very souls. The plot becomes a battle of wills between the tyrannical Big Nurse and the free-spirited McMurphy, with McMurphy betting the other patients he can eventually get under her skin and make her lose her cool.

For the sake of authenticity, the filmmakers chose to shoot the entire movie on location in a real mental institution. For an additional note of validity, Dr. Dean R. Brooks, the head of the real hospital, plays Dr. John Spivey, the head of the fictional one. Furthermore, the filmmakers insisted that all the actors spend as much time as possible with the real patients at the institution, and that they try to assume character even away from the camera. Obviously, the hard work and dedication paid off.

The book and the movie have been accused over the years of misogyny, a hatred of or disrespect for women, but this would seem a little unfair. The story focuses on a group of men living together under trying circumstances, so it might be expected for all practical purposes that they would often refer to women as sexual objects. And most films center on a male as the bad guy, anyway, so it seems only equitable that an occasional film like this one use a female, Nurse Ratched, as the antagonist. Besides, there are literally more female nurses in the world, and symbolically the female authority figure is a convenient representation of the matriarch against whom the boys rebel.

The story has also been criticized for portraying a drunken libertine, McMurphy, as a hero and a woman just doing her job, Nurse Ratched, as a villain. But McMurphy was never intended to be a hero; he's an antihero in the best possible sense, just as Nurse Ratched is no ordinary heavy. McMurphy can't help himself, whether acting selfishly or selflessly, because he's basically a good man with bad faults. Likewise, the cold-blooded Nurse Ratched is a good woman who believes firmly that what she's doing is in her patients' best interest, oblivious to their real needs, something like the totalitarian society she typifies. She would never admit to the evil lying within her icy self.

The film is based on Ken Kesey's novel of the same name, and it's magnificently brought up to the screen by director Milos Forman. His film is not really about insanity as much as it is about the triumph of the human spirit. The film gets quite intense and disturbing by moments, but it's still an uplifting, riveting picture. There's a lot of good humor in the midst of the various dramas. This is also a character study, of the rebellious McMurphy but also of the other inmates and employees. Practically the entire movie takes place in and around the mental hospital, and it revolves around a dozen or so people. Given their condition, they're not very eloquent and clear, but you still get the feel that they're real, complete people, not one-dimensional dummies. The cast does a great job, and even the littlest parts are memorable.  

Nicholson of course is amazing as the new guy, the outsider who comes in this closed little world and stir up things. He exudes energy, quick wit, and a flashy smile that signals a rebel's will not to be broken by the system. He's truly a gifted actor, and you can see how thought-up and precise his performance is. In one of the movie's most magical scenes, McMurphy sits in front of the open window after the all-night bash and stares into the camera. We know that he and the Chief have planned to escape that morning. But McMurphy realizes in one epiphanous moment that the other inmates have projected their hopes for independence onto him. Instead of leaving them, he remains to face up to his punishment for breaking the rules.

The Character of the Chief is especially moving. In the last analysis, it is this character who truly understands the meaning and value of McMurphy's liberation crusade. The Indian is given back to himself. His escape from the hospital in the movie's emotionally high-pitched finale strikes a note for freedom that is singularly rich in its imagery and impact.

Ken Kesey's 1962 novel has achieved cult status among high school and college youth. In a parabolic way, the book catches two very persistent and basic American fantasies: (1) the individual with personal freedom and complete independence, and (2) the rebel standing up to and subverting structures of oppression.

In the novel, the story was narrated by the Chief, but in the movie he is relegated to a lesser job, that of trusted friend to McMurphy, a change that infuriated the book's author, Ken Kesey.