4. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
I enjoyed One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. It is probably the film that people base their knowledge on mental illness the most. It won all 5 major Oscars and hardly anyone has a bad word to say about it. Jack Nicholson is perfect as Randle McMurphy, the petty criminal who opts for an 'easy' life in a mental hospital rather than serve out his time doing hard labour. He gets into battle with Nurse Ratched, the head of the ward who uses humiliation and boredom to control the inmates. Randle tries to shake the inmates out of their complacency. He rebels and rebels and rebels until he is lobotomised and his friend Chief Bromden smothers him with a pillow as he cannot bear to see the fight knocked out of his dear friend. The film is principally interesting due to its portrayal of the psychiatric hospital system and how the patient can never gain a victory over them. Every, and I mean every, psychiatric hospital has a nurse or psychiatrist like Nurse Ratched - power mad, vicious, uncaring of the patients. Rebellion against the system never works. They will chemically cosh you, move you to a locked ward, detain you indefinitely. The system is rigged so you never win. So it is important not to be a Randle McMurphy type - take the hard labour over the loony bin and don't question the system - Obey it and behave. Through doing this you paradoxically achieve greater freedom.