How Evil Nurse Ratched Became Little Miss Perfect

American Thinker.com ^ | July 23, 2021 | Bruce Deitrick Price

[Kaslin]

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,both as book (1962) and movie (1975), was a huge commercial and cultural success. The central dramatic conflict pitted Randall McMurphy, heroic rebel played in the movie by Jack Nicholson, against his nemesis, the cold-hearted bureaucrat Nurse Ratched, played by Louise Fletcher.

Not even the most marijuana-marinated hippie could miss the simple-minded duality presented in Ken Kesey's work. Randall McMurphy is a charming, near-perfect free spirit who deserves our love and support. On the other hand, Nurse Ratched is a mean, vicious, horrible person who should be hated by the entire human race.

Clearly, Nurse Ratched was intended to be the ultimate bad guy. Sparknotes concluded, "If McMurphy serves as a Christ figure, Nurse Ratched is the Antichrist. She represents authority, conformity, bureaucracy, repression, evil, and death. ... Hoping to turn the men against McMurphy, she blames him for taking away the patients' privileges and cigarettes." What a witch!

This kind of certainty does not permit subtleties. Netflix in 1975 wants to know: "Is Nurse Ratched a sociopath? The Netflix show perpetuates the original assumptions as it brings back one of cinema's most hated villains to our screens."

Nurse Ratched is a psychopath because she allows her aides to do anything they please but shows no remorse when patients are damaged by this indulgence. Mainly, she torments McMurphy, everyone's favorite hero.

[BipolarBob]

Liberals now agree :Randall McMurphy was a deplorable who voted for Trump and therefore got what he deserved. Training and re-education camps for all of his friends and double vaccinations to boot.

[Beagle8U]

“the cold-hearted bureaucrat Nurse Ratched, played by... Gretchen Whitmer.”

[Reeses]

Why so many socialist clock punchers love bureaucracy: they can hide in it and avoid work, for years, if not decades.

India clock punchers are huge on bureaucracy. If one doesn't exist, they will always create one, and it will expand until it implodes. There is rarely any pushback or aversion to the inefficiencies introduced by bureaucracies.

[heartwood]

Nancy Pelosi has always reminded me of Louise Fletcher’s Nurse Ratched. So sweet, unflappable, always on message and usually off the question.

Hillary would like to be that sweet and unflappable.

Delores Umbridge is another specimen of the genus.

McMurphy is no hero and no Christ figure. Any society that idolizes him gets San Francisco and Chesa Boudin.

[T Ruth]

“Probably the Democrats have gotten sloppy-drunk. They got away with so much corruption, dishonesty, and malfeasance.”

[BBB333]

“... and movie (1975), was a huge commercial and cultural success.”

Ken Kesey refused to see the movie even thought the premier was in his small town of Pleasant Hill, Oregon.

[july4thfreedomfoundation]

Whitmer reminds me of Diana, the head reptilian invader from the 1980’s TV mini-series “V.”

[OKSooner]

Maybe there’s a good reason for that.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I believe One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Titicut Follies are two movies that influenced liberals to shut down the mental institutions, dumping the mentally ill on the streets.

[Colinsky]

Not even the most marijuana-marinated hippie could miss the simple-minded duality presented in Ken Kesey's work.

Kesey wrote the book while working at a mental hospital on the night shift. He took a tab of acid each night after the inmates were asleep and typed CUCKOO all night.

Not marijuana.

[shotgun]

McMurphy: “She was 15 going on 30 Doc, if you know what I mean...”

Doctor: “Tells us what you think of Nurse Ratched”

McMurphy: “She’s kind of a bitch...”