On March 29, 1976, at the 48th Academy Awards, Czech director Milo Forman won five Oscar heavyweight awards with a feature film, Toad Palace, defeating Stanley Kubrick, Sidney Lumet and Steven Spielberg in one fell swoop.
What kind of movie did the three directors return home? The answer is a feature film about the mentally ill. This movie is the classic of the famous film history, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".
Movie "Flying Over the Madhouse"
Adapted from the novel of the same name by American writer Ken Kesey, Flying Over the Insane Asylum is a work about rebellious spirit and freedom. Whether it is a novel or a movie, it is extremely tense and full of stamina.
The film was released in 1975, 46 years ago, and currently ranks 71st in the "Douban Movie Top 250" with a score of 9.1 points scored by 491,000 people on Douban, better than 98% of the feature films, and is a good film with a large audience base and withstood the test of time, it is worth watching.
Douban scored 9.1 points, better than 98% of drama films
"Flying Over the Madhouse" won 5 heavyweight awards at the 48th Academy Awards, including "Best Picture", "Best Director" and "Best Screenplay", and made Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher the queen of the film at the same time.
The story takes place in a lifeless asylum, but with the arrival of Jack Nicholson's middle-aged man, Mike Murphy, everything is about to change.
The new "patient" in the lunatic asylum – Mike Murphy
Mike is an unfinished prisoner, unlike everyone else here—Mike isn't crazy or stupid, but pretends to be crazy and goes into an insane asylum to escape forced labor in prison.
His arrival also made this depressed and dull madhouse come alive. The patient is curious about this new outsider, because he can always bring different "surprises".
An active member in a dull population
Head Nurse Ratchet controls the absolute voice here. She was a woman of good manners, with a knife in her smile and a strong desire for control, and would not allow her authority to be challenged in the slightest.
To control this group of mentally disturbed patients, she developed a series of high-pressure policies, including intimidation, verbal abuse and beatings. Ratchet's name makes patients smell different.
The dignified head nurse, Ratchet
The "chief" is an alternative being in this old, weak, sick and disabled group, he is eight feet tall, kong wu is powerful, and under his strong body hides a soul waiting to be awakened.
Mike's arrival shook the silent Indian man like a mountain. In later stories, he will be a key element in turning the plot.
The "Indian Chief" in the hospital
Ratchet's "authority" in front of Mike is nothing more than some hegemonic clause that suppresses human rights. Patients do not have the right to choose, and even what music to listen to and how much volume to turn on need to be decided by the manager, which is simply incomprehensible.
Mike, who was born against the bone, could be bound by this, so he took the lead in "rebellion" and fought for the legitimate rights and interests of himself and the patients around him. His coming forward is also subtly influencing this group of patients who are accustomed to resignation.
Go against the manager
Ratchet hated Mike to the bone, and had long regarded him as a thorn in his eye and a thorn in his flesh, and used his position to oppress him all the time.
However, Mike is like an empty gourd floating on the surface of the water, and the more he tries to suppress him, the more he uses the reaction force to bounce up, which makes Ratchet feel bad.
Mike was embraced by his patients
One night, Mike tells his patient that he is going to escape from here. When asked how he was going to escape, Mike leaned over a washstand and said that if he pulled it off and slammed it against the window, he would be able to fly away.
This ridiculous answer was obviously not satisfactory to everyone, but the chief, who was silent on the sidelines, thoughtfully took Mike's fantasy for granted.
Absurd escape scenarios
A few days later, Mike stepped on the chief's shoulder and did indeed flip out of the iron fence of the hospital wall. But he did not run away on his own, but took his patients on a "day trip out of the hospital" and let them spend an unforgettable day.
This behavior completely angered the top of the court, and Ratchet took the opportunity to push the boat along the water and punish Mike with a cruel electric shock in an attempt to completely break his will.
Electric shock punishment
Instead of ending there, Mike intensified his choice to confront Ratchet. Late one night, he bribed the security guards to let his girlfriend go to the lunatic asylum with alcohol, and made a big fuss with the patients.
Ratchet, who heard the news, threatened and intimidated a young patient who participated in the carnival, and finally cut his wrists and committed suicide. The intolerable Mike and Ratchet mingled together, and his doom began to fall from this moment on.
Contradictions erupt
After the storm, Mike was forced to undergo a frontal lobectomy and transformed from a lively and aggressive hot-blooded boy into a wood-carved clay-like walking corpse.
Mike had discussed with the Chiefs to escape from the insane asylum and go to the land of unfettered freedom. In the heart of this silent man, Mike has always been his spiritual totem and a beacon to illuminate his confused life.
Mike was performed with a frontal lobectomy
Today, the totem is gone, and the lighthouse is eclipsed. Mike liked the feeling of freedom, and his numb body was already imprisoning his freedom. Only by breaking the shell of the imprisoned body can the soul that chases freedom be released.
Late at night, the chief covered Mike's nose and mouth with a pillow, ending his pain. Following the escape method mentioned earlier by Mike, the chief did pull out the washstand from the ground, smashed it against the window, and flew with Mike's soul over the madhouse, heading for the free land...
Fly over the insane asylum
Flying Over the Madhouse is arguably one of the most important, successful, and iconic films of the 1970s. No one ever thought that a group of "crazy people" would become the biggest winners of the 48th Oscars and influence the film industry for 46 years.
The original author, Ken Kersey, with the help of a rebellious character like Mike, is staged in a lunatic asylum full of human nature, good and evil, reason and chaos, metaphorically for the lack of freedom, truth and faith in the context of the times.
If I could sum up Foreman's "Flying Over the Madhouse" in one sentence, it would be — "If you are not free, you would rather die." ”