History YMMV / OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest

* TheWoobie: Every character that's not Nurse Ratched or [=McMurphy=] [[spoiler:at least until the end]]. Charlie Cheswick and Billy Bibbit come to mind especially, however.

* {{Anvilicious}}: This is one of the first films to criticize the way people with mental illness are mistreated by mental hospitals, especially in this time period it takes place in. Nurse Natched using electroshock-therapy (without anesthesia) was a common practice in mental wards as a way to punish “difficult” patients, or to just make them easier to handle. This was often the same reason for lobotomies, which is what happens to [=McMurphy=] at the end. [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_torture Indeed, these procedures would later be classified as medical torture by international healthcare laws]].

** Because the movie takes out some of the more overtly monstrous acts by Ratched described in the book (such as helping the orderlies sexually abuse the patients), it makes it easier for some viewers to take her side.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Billy is the most popular of the inmates thanks to being a [[{{Moe}} cute]], {{Adorkable}} NiceGuy who is also the film’s biggest [[TheWoobie Woobie]]
* EstrogenBrigade: Billy Bibbit has quite the female fandom, probably due to his {{Moe}} status, though being played by a young, cute Brad Dourif doesn't hurt.

** Both Nicholson and [=DeVito=] would find themselves up against the Creator/MichaelKeaton version of [[Franchise/{{Batman}} the world's greatest detective]], Nicholson as [[Film/Batman1989 the Joker]] and then [=DeVito=] as [[Film/BatmanReturns the Penguin]].

** Chief believes that Nurse Ratched and those in charge of the hospital are part of "The Combine", an oppressive [[NebulousEvilOrganization evil organization]] reminiscent of The Party from ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''. Now [[VideoGame/HalfLife2 there's actually a race of aliens called the Combine that lead an army that operates like the Party.]]

** Chief believes that Nurse Ratched and those in charge of the hospital are part of "The Combine", an oppressive [[NebulousEvilOrganization evil organization]] reminiscent of The Party from ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''. Now [[VideoGame/HalfLife2 there's actually a race of aliens that lead an army called the Combine that operates like the Party.]]

* {{Anvilicious}}: This is one of the first films to criticize the way people with mental illness are mistreated by mental hospitals, especially in this time period it takes place in. Nurse Natched using electroshock-therapy (without anesthesia) was a common practice in mental wards as a way to punish “difficult” patients, or to just make them easier to handle. This was often the same reason for lobotomies, which is what happens to [=McMurphy=] at the end. [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_torture Indeed, these procedures would later be classified at medical torture by international healthcare laws]].

* {{Anvilicious}}: This is one of the first films to criticize the way people with mental illness are mistreated by mental hospitals, especially in this time period it takes place in. Nurse Natched using electroshock-therapy (without anesthesia) was a common practice in mental wards as a way to punish “difficult” patients, or to just make them easier to handle. This was often the same reason for lobotomies, which is what happens to McMurphy at the end. [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_torture Indeed, these procedures would later be classified at medical torture by international healthcare laws]].

* {{Anvilicious}}: This is one of the first films to criticize the way people with mental illness are mistreated by mental hospitals, especially in this time period it takes place in. Nurse Natched using electroshock-therapy (without anesthesia) was a common practice in mental wards as a way to punish “difficult” patients, or to just make them easier to handle. This was often the same reason for lobotomies, which is what happens to McMurphy at the end. Indeed, these procedures would later be classified at medical torture by international healthcare laws.

* DracoInLeatherPants: Many viewers see Nurse Ratched as just a somewhat mean nurse who is just doing her job the only way she knows how. This negates the fact that Ratched is not trying to help her patients, but control them, and that she represents a widespread problem within mental wards at the time of the story: that dangerous and invasive medical procedures were often used to punish patients instead of help them. A lot of this may be due to McMurphy being UnintentionallyUnsympathetic due to ValuesDissonance, but this doesn’t make Ratched’s actions any less reprehensible. Viewers also seem to miss the subtle ways she humiliates her patients, and how she often starts conflicts between them for no reason.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: The whole reason this book ''exists''.

* AwardCategoryFraud: Louise Fletcher won an Oscar for her work in the leading category when many believe Nurse Ratched, while by far the largest female role, is more of a supporting character, as [=McMurphy=] is clearly the much bigger part.
* AwardSnub: While the film swept the major Oscar categories, many still believe Creator/BradDourif was robbed for not winning Best Supporting Actor for his role as Billy Bibbit.

** There's some between Chief and [=McMurphy=]
--->'''Chief''': That's a lie. I know he’s still alive. That ain’t the reason I want to touch him.I want to touch him because he’s a man.That’s a lie too. There’s other men around. I could touch them. I want to touch him because I’m one of these queers! But that’s a lie too. That’s one fear hiding behind another. If I was one of these queers I’d want to do other things with him. I just want to touch him because he’s who he is.
** And then there are the orderlies. According to Bromden, they love to give patients showers. They always check the patient's temperature at the same time they shower the patient, and they go down to Miss Ratched beforehand to get a rectal thermometer and a bottle of Vaseline. She admonishes them to use the minimum amount of Vaseline necessary, but they take the whole bottle inside with them, and they turn up the water pressure till the noise [[RapeAsDrama makes it impossible to hear anything that's going on inside]]...

* HilariousInHindsight: Big Nurse Ratched's name has taken on a funny quality now that "ratchet" has become teen slang used to describe anything with the quality of the ghetto about it.

* CompleteMonster: [[BigBad Ratched]], the "[[BattleaxeNurse Big Nurse]]", is the cruel head of the [[BedlamHouse state hospital]] the story takes place in, using her connections to her superiors to allow herself free reign over the hospital. Ratched subjects her dozens of patients to horrific conditions and abuse, employing brutal lackeys and methods to keep patients in line and under her thumb, uncaring of the countless patients who commit suicide or self-mutilation due to her rule. Believing that her patients have to be perfectly-functioning before allowing them to leave, Ratched often resorts to electroshock treatments and even lobotomies to destroy her patients' minds. When her rule is challenged over and over again by Randle [=McMurphy=], Ratched increases her abuse of the patients to the point that one of [=McMurphy's=] friends [[DrivenToSuicide kills himself]]. Though Ratched's control over the patients is broken, she spitefully has [=McMurphy=] lobotomized in a last-ditch effort to terrorize the patients into falling back in line.

** His offscreen victim. While she's still a victim of rape and while [=McMurphy=] is ultimately responsible for what happened since an underage person legally cannot consent, she still lied about her age (she said that she was 18 when she was actually ''15'') and was willing (according to [=McMurphy=]). While [=McMurphy=] deserved to be on trial for statutory rape, she also should've been on trial for lying about her age.

* PresentDayPast: The only way you would know the movie takes place in 1963 instead of the 70’s is the radio announcer talking about the 1963 World Series. While things inside are pretty frozen in time the hairstyles are very 70’s. The lone exception is Nurse Ratched whose iconic hairstyle was all the rage……[[TwoDecadesBehind in the 1940’s.]]

** McMurphy. We're suppose to see him as an admirable anti-authority figure even though he's loud, obnoxious, casually racist and sexist and he had no qualms about conning his fellow patients (who he also mocks and berates) out of their money. Not only that but the entire reason he's at the asylum in the first place is so that he can avoid going to prison on ''statutory rape charges''.
** His offscreen victim. While she's still a victim of rape and while McMurphy is ultimately responsible for what happened since an underage person legally cannot consent, she still lied about her age (she said that she was 18 when she was actually ''15'') and was willing (according to McMurphy). While McMurphy deserved to be on trial for statutory rape, she also should've been on trial for lying about her age.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: McMurphy. We're suppose tp see him as an admirable anti-authority figure even though he's loud, obnoxious, casually racist and sexist and he had no qualms about conning his fellow patients out of their money. Not only that but the entire reason he's at the asylum in the first place is so that he can avoid going to prison on statutory rape charges.

* MoralEventHorizon: Nurse Ratched might just be a mean and misguided nurse trying to do her job, right up until the point where she [[spoiler:threatens to tell Billy's mother about his "bad behavior", knowing full well the trauma that would cause him, which leads to his suicide.]]

** Many people find the book to be misogynist, what with and the idea that matriarchy is akin to castration, and the implication that no woman could/should dominate a "real man." Prostitution and [=McMurphy=]'s statutory rape charge are treated pretty casually. Ratched's [[spoiler: violent comeuppance]] is, in the book, very sexualized and supposed to be seen as a moment of dishing out truly justified retibution.

** Nurse Ratched may not be a very nice person, but she's just trying to do her job as well as she knows how.

* AwardCategoryFraud: Louise Fletcher won an Oscar for her work in the leading category when many believe Nurse Ratched, while by far the largest female role, is more of a supporting character, as McMurphy is clearly the much bigger part.
* AwardSnub: Not that it went home empty-handed. But many still believe Creator/BradDourif was robbed for his role as Billy Bibbit.

* EstrogenBrigade: Billy Bibbit has quite the female fandom, probably due to his {{Moe}} status but being played by a young, cute Brad Dourif doesn't hurt.