Posted on 11/19/2025 12:56:27 PM PST by Kid Shelleen
---SNIP---
“Cuckoo’s Nest” was first released in the U.S. on Nov. 19, 1975, and won all five major Academy Awards the following year. Based on the 1962 novel by Oregon writer Ken Kesey, it tells the story of a struggle against authoritarian control, embodied in the clash between free-spirited patient Randle McMurphy and Nurse Ratched, the tyrannical head nurse of an Oregon psychiatric hospital.
(Excerpt) Read more at opb.org ...
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
.
It was still a pretty good movie.
Unfortunately, it lent support to a disastrous policy of de-institutionalizing lots of people incapable of coping with the real world, creating many homeless, many drug addicts, many victims of their violence.
Sometimes a Great Notion is one of my favorite novels ever. I think I’ll reread it again soon.
As for the movie, it was OK but nowhere near as good as the book. (IMO, Steve McQueen would have been better as Hank and Strother Martin as Henry.)
BTW, the movie was titled “Sometimes a Great Notion” in theaters, but retitled “Never Give a Inch” when it aired on commercial television.
Ever wonder why there were so few mass killings before the 1970s? I remember three mass murderers between 1949 and 1970. all crazies.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/story-first-mass-murder-us-history-180956927/
Howard Unruh, 1949. Considered the first mass murderer, So dangerous he died in a mental hospital in 2009.
Richard Speck, 1966. Murdered eight student nurses with a knife. Died in prison.
Charles Whitman, 1966. killed many from the Texas Tower. Had a tumor on the brain, killed on site.
Then in the 1970s, the mental hospitals were closed down, the crazies declared “sane” enough to walk the streets and murder rates took off like a rocket.
Here is partial list of people who would have been in a MENTAL WARD before many of the ASYLUMS were shut down, crazies declared “sane” and dumped on the streets.
ALL CRAZIES allowed to roam the streets...
Mark David Chapman who murdered John Lennon
John Hinckley Jr. who shot President Reagan
Robert John Bardo who shot Rebecca Schaeffer
David Berkowitz, the .44 Cailber Killer.
Jared Laugher who shot Gabby Giffords.
Pat Purdy, released from a mental hospital, allowed to buy guns, then shot up the Stockton School Yard.
Patrick Sherrill who shot up the Edmond Post office.
James Oliver Huberty who shot so many at MacDonalds
This is just a SHORT LIST t of people who were crazy enough who would have been in a mental hospital before they were closed down in the 1970s.
When you add the MASS MURDERERS and CHURCH and SCHOOL SHOOTERS who would have been shown to be insane but allowed to roam freely you will begin to understand why it is...
LONG PAST TIME TO REOPEN THE MENTAL WARDS AGAIN!
Now we can add another name, Decarlos Brown Jr. who knifed Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska.
Here is an early crazy one.
Richard Lawrence attempted to shoot President Andrew Jackson outside the United States Capitol on January 30, 1835, however both of his pistols misfired and he was taken into custody. At trial, Lawrence was found not guilty by reason of insanity and spent the remainder of his life in insane asylums.
Great movie and Jack Nicholson is great in whatever role he plays.
An anecdote, since you mentioned the Cuckoo’s Nest?
Kesey taught English and Writing classes at University of Oregon for many, many, years. His classes were notoriously difficult to get into unless you were a graduate student. But he loved teaching underclassmen/freshman and did an English class about a semester each year. Most of his teaching was done by his Graduate Teaching Assistants, but he appeared in class several times during the semester for a Freshman English class of about 200.
He was a very likable fellow, very mellow, very passionate. After his son died, he withdrew from teaching considerably after ‘84. Only teaching a couple graduate seminars a year. A couple years later he invited his old friend Tim Leary to speak at a ‘night on campus’ kind of event. Whew.
This was in the late 80s after Leary had come back from his self-imposed ‘exile’ running from the law in California. He would have been in his late 60s then. By that time, Leary had barely any cogent thought, and could barely string two sentences together. (reminds me of Pedo Joe). His brain was so burned, no sober person could understand what point he was trying to make. Backstage, he was lively and just as incoherent. I shook his hand and thanked him for his time. I was stone-cold sober and never did drugs but I just wanted to meet Ken’s friend.
Conclusions?
1. Kesey was ‘pushed into the pool’ but was wearing swim trunks and willing to swim. Not averse, but not knowing what the CIA/MKUltra was doing at the time. He backed out eventually and settled down. I think Kesey remained, as many writers do, wanting to watch and be part of the action, but not ‘cause’ the action.
2. Leary jumped in the drug pool from the high-dive, willingly. Head first. He wanted to be the action. He was already 40 years old in the hippie era of the 70s. Just to get laid. (Kesey was in his 30s, prime of life). Later, Leary was a knowing participant in all the MKUltra and CIA stuff and evidently decided to share it with the masses.
3. Tim Leary has decades of interesting and close connections to all the left-wing people and organizations from the era. Weathermen, Black Panthers, Harvard, Berkeley, West Point, Ohio State, U of Alabama, US Army, Pullman U in Washington state. I cannot imagine that he was not a willing tool for certain intelligence agencies. Despite what Wiki says, he was shielded for years on the run in California by all the hippie groups. And then somehow got overseas. Do the math. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Leary#
Thanks, Kid, for bringing up old memories.
~Kit
She was 15 going on 30, if you know what I mean...
And they vote
I saw the movie version
The movie also inspired Boston Celtic center Robert Parish’s nickname: “Chief”
Not nearly the same level of quality, but Girl, Interrupted is a good movie with the same setting, from a women’s perspective, and it’s based on a true story.
It’s really interesting to compare the two movies and see the stark difference between male and female mentally ill. Though Cuckoo’s Nest is a complete fiction, so I’m not sure it’s a great comparison.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.