"I'm a goddamn marvel of modern science."

The film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Milos Forman, 1975) tells the story of Randle Patrick McMurphy, a man society has cast away as a hooligan. In order to avoid being sent to a workhouse, McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) claims insanity and is committed to a mental hospital. He enters a world the likes of which he has never experienced. The ward is commanded by the formidable Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) who rules with an iron fist and a heart of stone. As McMurphy gets to know the other patients in the ward, he begins to see the dark side of the perverted little society shielded from the public by the unrelenting walls of the mental institution. In the film, Forman abstains from nondiegetic sound and portrays the bizarre way of living at the mental hospital in order to critique the total power on which the ward thrives.

During the film, there is almost no sound or music that doesn’t take place in the actual scene. This technique is put in place from the very beginning of the movie. In the opening sequence, the mental hospital is shown deserted and silent. Shot after shot reveal white walls, fluorescent lights, and absolute silence. Already there is a tangible oppression on the ward. Enter Nurse Ratched. Whenever Nurse Ratched is shown in the film, she is an unflinching pillar of order and discipline. Upon arriving at the mental hospital, McMurphy soon realizes the supreme power Ratched has over the other men. They seem to tremble in silent fear of the woman who regulates each and every aspect of their lives. On the rare occasion that Ratched’s power is questioned during the film, it is always met with the same shot. Ratched is alone in the frame, stony-faced, cold, and calculating. The silence echoes her burning eyes and unspoken challenges. Near the beginning of the film, McMurphy believes that he can break the mountain that is Nurse Ratched. “In one week, I can put a bug so far up her ass, she won’t know whether to shit or wind her wristwatch,” he brags to the other patients. Unfortunately, McMurphy’s attempts are met with utter silence.

Life on the ward is something less than a cakewalk. She reigns tyrannically and lets nothing happen without her knowledge and approval. With time, Ratched and the hospital take away all of the men’s simple privileges and rights. After McMurphy organizes a bit of a gambling ring in the washroom, the men lose all of their money and cigarettes to him. In response, Ratched takes all of the cigarettes from the men and rations them. During a memorable scene where Martini (Danny DeVito) has a meltdown and demands his cigarettes, McMurphy takes the initiative that the other men won’t and punches through the glass window of the nurse’s station to retrieve them. Along with denying them of their belongings, Ratched slowly wears down the men’s dignity and self-worth with group therapy sessions. Sitting in a circle, they discuss each man’s inadequacies and the reasons that society has cast them out. She humiliates the men, forcing them to bring their problems before the group and analyze them until she reaches satisfaction. The most glaring example of the twisted hospital life occurred near the end of the film. After McMurphy brought in women and booze for an all-night party, he disappears from the ward for a few weeks. He is returned to his bed in the dead of night as to not wake the other patients. McMurphy’s best friend in the ward, Chief Bromden (Will Sampson), witnesses Mack’s return. Upon approaching the seemingly sleeping man, Bromden sees that McMurphy was given a lobotomy. They couldn’t control his personality so they took it away entirely. That is the true tragedy of the mental hospital.

Between an eerie and unrelenting silence and a horrifying portrayal of life at the mental hospital, the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest casts quite a critique on the society within mental institutions. It shows how personal liberties can be taken away until only the shell of a man remains. Randle Patrick McMurphy tried to bring change to the ward. He tried to teach the men to think for themselves, to get themselves out of the hell they knew as life. Unfortunately, he did not entirely succeed. McMurphy gave the men a taste of how life should be lived, gave them a taste of everything that they were missing. It just wasn’t quite enough.

"Left hand Hate K.O.ed by Love..."

Radio Raheem. Undoubtably my favorite character from the entire film. From the moment he was introduced, I was all about Radio Raheem. Maybe it was the Public Enemy that did it for me, maybe it was the way that Radio seemed to command the neighborhood without saying a single word, maybe it was the fact that he looks remarkably like a friend of mine who goes to Kennedy, but it was something.

When Klob first mentioned how people didn't feel affected by Radio Raheem's death, I was extremely confused. Apparently most people who watch the film don't feel the same way that I do about Radio. First off, I find him likable. I can understand how people would just write him off as a hoodlum, but I don't see it that way. He's just a kid who wants to do his own thing without anyone getting in the way. To me, he seems like a pretty decent guy. The part where I most bonded with Radio Raheem's character was during his Love/Hate monologue. It was an absolutely amazing speech. I never expected such eloquent speech from a character who said almost nothing. The way he described the fight between love and hate was nearly spellbinding.

So when Radio Raheem was murdered, I felt it. To me, it was as if Mookie or Da Mayor had been murdered. To watch my favorite character's murder was even physically impactful for me. In my naivete, I thought that everyone else must have felt the same as I did, felt the same sympathy for Radio Raheem and his untimely demise. But as we began to discuss the film, I saw that this was not the case. People didn't seem to be affected by the death hardly at all. People saw the murder as another loss of life. But it was so much more than just a loss of life. It was murder. It was a life that is no longer continuing. It was a best friend, a son just gone. Radio Raheem's murder cannot just be overlooked or brushed away.

Maybe I'm a little crazy about this, but that's fine by me. In Spike Lee's commentary, he mentioned how often Radio Raheem's death was written off or not mentioned at all. I felt like he was coming from the same place that I am. But even in class, we talked about what exactly Lee did that made us feel less sympathy for Radio Raheem. I'm beginning to babble because I'm tired and I can't make my words express my thoughts well enough to be eloquent anymore. My point is that, even though some people say that the film-viewers were set up to not feel much compassion for Radio Raheem, I didn't see it that way. He was my favorite character and his death (not just his death, his murder) will stick unpleasantly in my mind for quite some time.

Acts of Violence Don't Win Wars

In response to the article from the Washington Post:

A lot of what was mentioned in the review from the Washington Post were things that we talked about in class. They focused on the balance between the warring sides, how Pontecorvo managed to tell the story of the battle of Algiers without (as Klob would say) "beating you over the head" with one side of the confrontation. This was a really important part of the film The Battle of Algiers. While I was watching it, I was thinking about the villain of the film (as I so often do). Although the French are the bad guys in this film, I found it hard to despise their villain-ness, something that is usually very easy to do. The fact is that these people were doing their job. They were using war tactics to accomplish what they needed to accomplish. While I could feel a general disdain for the French in the film, I couldn't manage to loathe them.

The article also commended Pontecorvo's style and ideas when it came to making the film. Although the film wasn't meant to be a documentary, it had the feel of one with hand-held cameras and newsreel film. Even in the documentary snippets we watched in class, it showed how realistic Pontecorvo made the film. Scenes in the movie almost doubled scenes that took place in real life. Part of this effectiveness was the fact that he shot on scene. The film really does take place in the Casbah and the characters really are Algerians. Like we've mentioned time and time again, the only professional actor was the one portraying Colonel Mathieu. Everyone else was either picked up off the street for their memorable faces or had actually been a part of the revolutionary movement.

Overall, this article gave deserved praise to the film The Battle of Algiers. To this day it is a timely piece of film literature. I enjoyed this film immensely, it made people talk. It brought up controversy and issues, often a mark of quality. Unfortunately, it also subjected me to watching torture at 8:30 in the morning....not my cup of tea.

I wish I had minions.

Usually, I am all about the villain. If I was ever in a movie, I would definitely be the villain. When I'm watching movies, I tend to pay really close attention to the villain. If I know who it is, I study their every move. If I don't have any idea, I try to figure it out. Sometimes I'm surprised, sometimes I'm not. Unfortunately, the villain in Chinatown was kind of disappointing.

Noah Cross. Rich, power-hungry, incest, overall jerk. Just not the best villain. Now, I cannot deny that he gets the job done. He starts strong by indirectly getting Gittes to investigate Mr. Mulwray (I'm still not entirely sure why). He continues his positive streak with murder. So far, even though it's unbeknownst to everyone else, Noah Cross is doing a pretty good job at villainy. After Mulwray's murder, Cross begins to slip a little. Enter the minions on cue. Normally, I have no problem with the use of minions for shady deals and dirty deeds. In the context of the film, however, it was not ideal. Considering that the identity of the villain wasn't revealed until the end of the film, nobody knew who the minions were working for. It seemed as though they were acting of their own accord, although this is rare for minions and such. I don't think that the minion-Noah Cross relationship should have been shown explicitly, but it would have been nice to have a clue or two as to who they answer to. Although the presence of the minions wasn't perfect, it wasn't a disaster. They added style to the villainy. Nobody really expected the midget minion (Polanski) to actually cut Gittes, but he followed through (which of course resulted in a horrified gasp from the audience). That is the mark of good villainy. Unfortunately, Cross' minions have hardly any screen time and the audience is forced back into guessing the villain's identity. When Noah Cross is finally revealed as the bad guy, it's a bit of a disappointment. Clearly he's bad. He raped his daughter, killed her husband, and seriously messed up Jack Nicholson's face. But there isn't anything really memorable about him. He didn't have any weird little quirks or trademarks, he didn't do anything so paramount that the entire world was in danger, there just wasn't anything that set him apart from all of the other villains in the world. A bit of a let down.

And has anybody else noticed that Jack Nicholson is a total creeper in most of his films? Yeah. Think about it...

Remember Me.

If you read my last blog post, you know that I was embarrassingly shocked by the end of Out of the Past and Jeff's death. So as not to make a fool of myself once again, I hardened my outlook on the film, prepared myself for the imminent death of Mike Hammer. It didn't come. Of course. Well, I suppose I have learned my lesson when it comes to films noir. Granted, I thought I learned it after the last film we viewed, but clearly I was mistaken. I know not to expect anything specific when it comes to this genre. Who knows what will happen to the characters? Clearly not me.



Anyway, I enjoyed myself while watching Kiss Me Deadly. It was an intriguing tale that successfully held my attention. The only problem that I had with the film was the villain. Now, I'm not trying to say that Dr. Soberin was a bad villain. Quite the opposite, in fact. I thought he was an exceptionally devious villain, clearly skilled in his field. He was also intelligent to boot (at least in the area of Greek mythology). My only complain is that the audience did not get the chance to get to know Dr. Soberin very well. Almost the entire film passed without showing his face, which only added to his mystery. But once he was finally exposed, there wasn't much more development of his character. We see him in his last moments, warning Gabrielle of the dangers of the box. Other than that, we don't get to find out much about him. Now, this was by no means the most disappointing villain I've ever encountered (that would have to be from the movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen where the bad guy turned out to be M, their mentor of sorts....stupid), but I was sad at the lack of exploration his character was given. Dr. Soberin clearly had depth along with a devious mind, so it's a shame that the audience wasn't able to see more of that. Anyway, at this point I feel like I'm running in circles. In short, Dr. Soberin = awesome villain who just didn't get enough explanation or screen time.

"He got careless and fell in the river."

In knew I would enjoy studying film noir. Out of the Past was an excellent place to start, considering how full it is of classic noir elements. What I didn't expect was that I would get so wrapped up in the characters and the story that I would forget the aforementioned film noir elements and grab onto a tiny bit of hope. I cannot deny it: I completely expected Jeff to somehow turn in Kathie, save the day, and survive to leave his dark life behind and run off with Ann to live happily ever after. For anyone who has seen the film, this is not how it ends by any means. In short, everyone dies. It was not only surprising to me that Jeff was unable to worm his way out of death, but also that the film wrapped itself up so successfully without any main characters. Every character of note except for "The Kid" met an untimely demise. Jeff's partner was shot by Kathie. Joe was hooked off the cliff by the Kid. Whit was shot (a second time) and killed by Kathie. Jeff was shot by Kathie. And finally, Kathie was shot by some creeper in a hood hiding behind a tree. This is a ridiculous amount of main character death to experience in one film. But I guess I should expect it, considering we're dealing with film noir. Logically, seeing as I've been fooled once, I should expect a bleak outcome from Kiss Me Deadly (which we are currently watching). We'll see which wins: my logical reasoning, or my ever optimistic hope.

"Where's the self-help section?"

"It's going to be gone soon."

"I know."

"What do we do?"

"Enjoy it."

The film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is far deeper than a simple plot summary would suggest. It is more than just a romantic comedy about an absurdly impulsive woman and a more shy, reserved man. It is an adventure into the psyche of two people who love each other. It is an exposure of their deepest passions and hatreds. It is a vision of personalities clashing, resulting in brawling emotions and sometimes harmony.


This film can even be viewed as a social commentary of sorts. In it's examination of the good and the bad of relationships, Eternal Sunshine brings to light much of what generally gets brushed under the rug in romantic movies. The relationship between Joel and Clementine is nowhere near perfect. She is impulsive to the point of recklessness and he is timid to the point of apathy. This film dares to delve into these sort of nuances. The film goes on to pass judgement, in a way, on relationships and humankind. Confused? I'll try to explain.


As the relationship between Clem and Joel deteriorates, Clem chooses the track of the chronic impulsive and has her memory erased of all evidence that Joel ever existed for her. Joel, hurt and infuriated beyond words by her actions, has the same procedure done. Both Clementine and Joel use the memory erasure as a form of revenge (here is where the judgement comes in). Instead of working out their problems like mature adults (and maybe severing ties, if that's what needed to happen), they avenge their scorned dignities by stooping to the lowest of lows and taking the easy way out. By erasing their memories, Joel and Clem didn't have to deal with their problems at hand. Clearly, neither character had learned in their life thus far the old cliche: "it is better to have love and lost than never loved at all." Although it is absolutely a cliche, it's a relatively poignant one. In the story, Joel decides to go through the same erasure procedure as Clementine did. He seems confident in his decision until the procedure actually starts to occur and he is being chased through his own memories. Looking back on his various memories of Clementine, he sees how much he loves her, how much she has impacted him. He begs the omniscient presence to let him keep just one memory, just one. Unfortunately, that is not an option. However, somehow (magically, divine intervention, fate, it doesn't really matter) Joel and Clem are able to hold onto one thought of each other. In doing so, they meet again and begin to fall into the spiral of love, having no conscious knowledge of the other person.


Now, hopefully (I realize that hopefully isn't actually a word in this context...I don't care) it is easier to understand my "social commentary" mindset. The one thing that could carry this even further is the alternate ending we fleetingly discussed in class. It wasn't included in the final cut of the film (which was probably a good call on Gondry's part), but it continued the story of Joel and Clementine. They fall in love again, only to fight again, only to have their memories erased again, only to meet again, only to fall in love again.....the cycle is endless. This proves the point of the futility of relationships, the absence of some people's ability to handle situations, to cope with what comes their way. Overall, I venerate this film. To some people, it is simply a romantic comedy. But to me, it is more than that. It is the tragic story of two people who cannot appreciate the love that they have for one another until it is being forcibly ripped from them. But maybe I'm just looking too far into this.


P.S. Undoubtedly, my favorite part of the film was when Joel was wearing his awesome sweater - the one that was covered in galaxies. I seriously want that sweater.