| Overall Grade: |
C+ |
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| Story: |
D |
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| Acting: |
B |
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| Direction: |
C |
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| Visuals: |
N/A |
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dated and over-rated
by Rebecca P (movies profile)
May 3, 2008
3
of
5 people found this review helpful
conformity = bad; rebellion = good
That's the message of the movie. It took over two hours to make that incredibly simple point. The plot drags. A lot. The dialogue, when there is any, mostly states the obvious. I was actually predicting what people would say next although I only saw this movie once and knew no quotes.
I know I'm in the minority here but I did not think the acting makes up for the lack of a plot. The characters are mostly one-sided, especially the two leads. Jack Nicholson just plays himself. Louise Fletcher plays a woman so cold she is practically dead. Most of the other people are forgettable mental institution cliches, except for Will Sampson's Cheif as the only character who experiences any development. He and the tragic Billy are the only characters I remotely cared about. Also, the depiction of women is this film is deplorable. They're all bitches and/or airheads.
Although the characters are intentionally exaggerated to make the allegory clear that does not excuse the bad characterizations. The use of a mental institution to represent American society is ridiculous. The message that this movie sends is terrible. Rules are not arbitrary; they are funtional. The alternative to rules is chaos. It's one thing to promote questioning and individualism; it's another thing to promote hedonism and anarchy. To even suggest that people would be happier if they went around getting into fights, drinking themselves stupid and having casual sex all the time is absurd. Sure it feels good initially, especially is it's been forbidden to you before, but after awhile, either one suffers negative consequences or it just gets old. Suddenly being an irresponsible dick isn't so much fun anymore and the person begins to realize that the rules exist for a reason.
I understand that this movie was made in a very different time period and that's probably what my problem with it is: it doesn't hold up today. I don't know what mental institutions were like in the 1970s but today they are nothing like this movie depicts. That ruined the allegory for me. It's also hard for me to believe that in an age of international terrorism and AIDS we'd all be better off with fewer rules. |
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