One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Milos Forman’s Academy Award® winning story of a rebel named R.P McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), who instead of going to jail on a statutory rape charge, convinces the guards he’s crazy and gets himself transferred to a mental hospital, doesn’t seem especially inspiring on the surface. But when you a delve little deeper and get to know the movie better, it becomes clear that R.P. McMurhpy does more than just cause trouble, he gives the other residents of the hospital a new outlook on life - which for many of them is priceless.

The mentally ill are a group society tends to forget about.  They make people uncomfortable and nobody knows what to do when they see a mentally person, so people do nothing and ignore them.  The places they live are often without very basic things like air conditioning during the hot summer and healthy food choices.  The people who live in homes for the mentally ill have very few options of how to spend their time and have very few programs designed to help them get better.  What makes One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest so inspiring is that it puts a face on the mentally ill and it demonstrates how all they need (and anyone really) is some respect, hope, love and a chance to grow.  If they do, they can echo the thoughts of my favorite Cuckoo’s Nest character, The Chief:

Chief Bromden: Mac… they said you escaped. I knew you wouldn’t leave without me. I was waiting for you. Now we can make it, Mac; I feel big as a damn mountain.

Watch this film to see how it pushed the envelope and then takepart with a group that inspires healing, growth and learning through engagement in the arts for the culturally underserved, HAI.

Oscar(s)® and Academy Award(s)® are registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.