R. P. McMurphy gets thrown into a mental institution for being purely lazy and rebelling against authority. He tries to lighten the spirits of the mental patients by playing cards, basketball, sneaking out of the asylum, etc. His attempt at creating a more enjoyable experience inside the place is constantly repressed by head nurse Ratched.
Entertainment Value - B
This was an alright show (if you like Cool Hand Luke, there's a chance you'll like this one). I don't know why this got all the acclaim it has received, I didn't think it was outstanding (I'm going to guess it has something to do with the cinematography like Citizen Kane). Jack Nicholson's character doesn't seem to change from one movie to another, maybe he just gets casted well. If you want to see this because it is highly acclaimed (like I did), you might be a little disappointed.
Moral Value - Failure to Communicate? - 2
[Spoiler Alert]
I thought some of the themes were very similar to Cool Hand Luke: A man gets imprisoned for not caring much, gains the affection of his inmates, gets broken, ends tragically.
Not sure why nurse Ratched is one of the most popular screen villains. She is extremely indifferent and cold, but you'd have to be in order to keep your sanity working in a mental institution. Her handling Billy at the end was awful; knowing his suicidal tendancies and then threatening to report him to his mother was a deathly mistake.
McMurphy and the other patient's pressure to get Billy to sleep with McMurphy's friend was completely childish and stupid. There are glimpses of McMurphy's "good" side throughout the film and you think that he might turn out to be a blessing to the place, but ends up just a curse.
Chief Bromden (not sure if Chief is his first name) should not have killed McMurphy at the end. I know it was supposedly a good act, maybe could be considered euthanasia of some sort (for those who think euthanasia can be good). Chief didn't want to leave seeing McMurphy in his broken condition. To Chief, McMurphy was a type of hero, and he imagined them escaping the place together. Since that was no longer possible in McMurphy's condition, this act of "liberation" was symbolic of the two of them leaving together - possibly meant to be poetic, but I thought it was kind of twisted.
The one good thing that came out of McMurphy ending up in the asylum was his attempt to get all the patients in the place to pretend like they weren't there. Anytime the nurses reminded them of their condition/location, McMurphy would rebel and end up lifting the spirits of those around him (a classic scene is the baseball game). McMurphy eventually ended up getting carried away and realized too late that he had gone too far. There are responsibilities that must be taken in our lives, especially when we interact with others and most importantly when they hold us in high regard. We are a light on a hill whether we want to be or not. Others look up to us, and most importantly God has high hopes that we will realize and fulfill our great potential as part of the human family.
This is the story of a man who fought against the system. Lucas Jackson gets thrown into a work camp for "destroying municipal property," and even while there continues to fight against anything that gives him rules to follow. The men in the camp admire him; and even Dragline, the assumed leader of the prisoners, gives Luke his respect. Luke gets tired of being the only one who seems to care about breaking free, even God seems to have abandoned him. Read on to find out why this is one of my favorite movies.
Entertainment Value - A
For the longest time this was my absolute favorite movie and it still ranks among the top ten. Paul Newman's and George Kennedy's performances are awesome. The multiple attempts at escape from the prison never get boring. You never get tired of the constant change and rebellion Luke introduces to the prison. Some people can't seem to make it through the first part of the movie, and I can't understand why! Mostly people who have a hard time watching anything that isn't newer than the 1980's (though that's even pushing it for some!).
Moral Value - Failure to Communicate? - 5
Why is this movie the theme for our blog? For one, it was one of my favorite movies and "Cool Hand Critics" had a nice ring to it. From there, we were able to introduce other elements of the movie into our reviews (World Shakers, Nights In The Box, etc.). Here are some of the reasons why it is among my favorite movies:
Unwritten Rules
At the beginning of the film, when Luke first comes to the camp and the other prisoners are playing cards, he makes pretty clear his disdain for rule makers. Dragline and the other prisoners are explaining all the "unwritten" rules of the prison and that Dragline is basically the king of the coop. Luke just laughs and when confronted, he responds that there just seem to be "a lot of guys laying down rules and regulations."
Unwritten societal rules (e.g., might makes right, herd mentality, etc.) sometimes keep us from progressing, whereas true rules (i.e., commandments, covenants, etc.) should help us in our progression as human beings and children of God. This isn't the case for all unwritten rules (e.g., etiquette, chivalrous manners, etc.), but we need to do more than just follow someone blindly like most of the prisoners ended up doing with Dragline and later with Luke. We need to live/know for ourselves and understand what impact our decisions and actions have on our spiritual and physical well being.
"Nothing Can Be a Real Cool Hand"
Luke and Dragline had a boxing match and even though Luke was very badly beat-up, he never gave up; in fact he told Dragline, "you're gonna have to kill me." Luke later ends up winning a poker game with a hand of nothing and states that, "Sometimes nothin' can be a real cool hand." Dragline admits that he was beat in the fight with nothing just as Koko was in the poker game (meaning even though Luke didn't beat Dragline physically, Luke sure didn't lose).
Sometimes by just standing your ground, no matter what the odds are against you, you can come out on top. This constancy exhibited in one's faith and conviction of principles or standards can define a person's being.
"Get Out There Yourself!"
After one of the many times Luke escapes the prison and is brought back (bloody and beaten) all the men can do nothing but comment on what a grand ol' time he must have had while he was out (particularly because Luke had sent them a picture of himself between two attractive ladies, revealed at this time to be a phony). Exasperated he yells, "Stop feedin' off me! Get out there yourself! I can't breathe!"
How often do we live our lives through other people's experiences instead of getting up/out and doing things for ourselves?
Later on, after Luke has been "broken" by the bosses (forced to labor to the point of physical exhaustion and beaten brutally in the process) and enters the sleeping quarters where all the prisoners (who sat and watched the breaking process) are gathered, he collapses. Not a single person went to him to help him out. They were disillusioned by the breaking of the high and mighty man they once esteemed as their hero. Luke was never a real person in their eyes; they invented a person who was invulnerable, a superhero that could never break. When he broke they became the selfish, brutal, despicable creatures men tend to be when they see good men fall. They were too weak (too smart?) to try to break out of prison themselves, to push the rule makers to the limit, to discover who they really could be, making them all the more happy to see strong people fall. It makes them feel good about themselves, even if they aren't truly happy (still locked up, never having attempted to get out in the open).
Failure to Communicate
During Luke's last escape attempt, Dragline can't help but come along with him. Dragline's as giddy as a school boy to see that Luke was "never" broken. But Luke corrects him and tells him he was as broke as anybody could have been. After Dragline starts planning all the world shaking he, Luke, and Koko are gonna do when they're all out Luke says that he's "done enough world shaking for a while." At this news Dragline doesn't know how to react, he begins to regret ever leaving the camp realizing that he only had a few years left if he would have stayed put. (The disillusionment sets in again.)
Luke approaches a church and decides to enter it and that it's time he has a talk with God. He wants to blame God (not angrily but questioningly) for his situation. Luke feels that God has things "fixed" against him and at the same time made him like he was, so how was he supposed to fit in? When does it all end? What does God have in store for him? What should he do now? Luke then gets on his knees to ask and concedes that he's a hard case and ends up supposing that he'll have to find his own way (not having received any communication from God).
This failure to communicate comes up a couple of times in the film, and is up there with some of the best known lines in cinematic history. There seems to be a lot of failed communication, a lot of "unwritten rules" that seem to catch people off guard left and right. You could argue that it wasn't God that was messing up the communication, but Luke. He never wanted to submit to any kind of authority, and he was constantly running away from it or flat out pushing back. Even Luke says "there ain't a whole lot worth listening to" (specifically referring to all the rules and regulation being put out). How many times do we say we want an answer but do nothing to make sure we are prepared to hear what we need to be told?
With regards to this movie review site, I hope we can communicate some of the insights we receive on the quality and moral value of films that we see. We in no way assume our ideas and interpretations are the only way to view the content of the films, but invite others to comment and help us mold our philosophy in a non-threatening way.
A recently divorced mother takes her family to live with her father in California. Her two sons discover a gang of vampires in the town. One son, Michael, inadvertently gets involved with the gang because of a pretty face and becomes a half-vampire (once he drinks his first human blood he will become a full vampire). The other son, Sam, fortunately gets acquainted with some vampire detectives. Sam must try to help Michael become human again by killing the leader of the vampire gang.
Entertainment Value - 3
I saw this movie a while back, but thought it would be appropriate to post a review after hearing the news of Corey Haim's unfortunate death yesterday. I don't know why, but I've come across this film (never seen it) quite a few times in my life and for some reason thought it was more highly acclaimed than it actually was. It was a special on whatever channel does "Movies for Guys who like Movies," so they obviously thought it was good. Even edited for TV the film was rather violent. I'm perplexed at whatever the rationale is of creating an R-rated film targeted to young teenagers, when they normally can't watch the film without an adult. Granted I'm an adult and I saw it of my own accord, but I didn't really enjoy it. At first I thought it was rather a waste of my time having sat and watched it, but reflecting on it more I came to some pretty neat realizations.
Moral Value - Failure to Communicate? - 3
[Spoiler Alert]
Even though the movie portrayed some pretty serious evil, it did so in a way to not glamorize it, but to show us the destroying effects of evil. Michael, the son who became half-vampire, at first wanted acceptance into this "cool" new group of friends and realized he had gotten in too deep, too late. With his constant desire to attack humans, he struggled to control himself, and this restraint is what ultimately allowed him to not become utterly consumed by this evil curse.
Restraints (obedience/adherence to laws, commandments, standards, etc.) do not exist to keep us from happiness, they are there to protect us from becoming enslaved by evil. The ideal situation would have been for Michael to not get mixed up with the gang in the first place, but that would have defeated the purpose of the movie.
Another specific incident in the show really made me think. The mother ends up falling for (inadvertently) the head vampire (whom Sam and his vampire hunters already suspect) and invites him over for dinner. When he arrives at the house, he waits to be invited in (normal behavior, right?). Once invited in, dinner is served and all attempts to expose him as a vampire (by Sam and et al.) are oddly ineffective (e.g., passing him garlic instead of Parmesan cheese, which should have burned him). During the battle at the end of the movie, we see that the mother's love interest actually is the head vampire, and the reason he couldn't be exposed earlier (at the dinner table) was that he was invited into the house.
Once we invite evil things into our lives, we become powerless to see it for what it is. We become enslaved to evil thinking and doing the longer we entertain it, and it can ultimately destroy us and our families. On a more positive note, however difficult evil is to discern in our daily lives, God has promised us He "will not leave [us] comfortless: [He] will come to [us]." We are all blessed with the Spirit of Christ when we are born and have the power to discern between good and evil.
