One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) -vs- Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Fightin' the Law

The Smackdown.  With the passing of the great actor Paul Newman, let's pay tribute to the American anti-hero which he played so well, especially in the iconic "Cool Hand Luke."  We're talking about those leading men (or women, i.e. "Thelma & Louise") who often look heroic by doing out-sized or dangerous things, but use methods that aren't really all that laudable and, at their most interesting, are rebels who are doing battle with 'The System.'  The early versions in the 50s were generally just misunderstood stalwarts but then the strange brew of assassinations, drugs and war ushered in the 60s counter-culture. It took the position that 'The System' was bad so anybody who gave it the metaphorical finger was good. That gave us two classics: Paul Newman's Luke in "Cool Hand Luke" and Jack Nicholson's McMurphy in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Both films have a biblical quality to them, as if they are parables for a modern-day Second Coming. If Jesus returned, they argue, we'd probably kill him or  at least lobotomize him.

The Challenger.  Jack Nicholson brilliantly plays Randall Patrick McMurphy, a minor troublemaker at odds with the law, sent from jail to a psychiatric facility in order that his ‘anti-social tendencies’ be studied. This film won all five major Oscars (Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, and Screenplay) and gave its fledgling producer Michael Douglas his big break. Besides being a loud-mouthed braggart, Nicholson's McMurphy is overtly sexual and openly aggressive and manipulative. His confinement is the result of a pattern of behavior that includes assault and statutory rape and, truthfully, even if he doesn’t belong in a psych ward, he probably still deserves to be in jail. The psychiatric patients are slowly being ‘killed by the cure' at the hands of a quietly sadistic Head Nurse, Miss Ratched, underplayed to villainous perfection by Louise Fletcher, and her Henchmen, the brutal “Black Boys.”

The Defending Champion. Coming at the height of the counter-culture, director Stuart Rosenberg's "Cool Hand Luke" concerns a Southern ne’er-do-well sent to a 1930's prison work farm for cutting the heads off parking meters. The prison is run with aloof, almost casual brutality, by a deceptively homespun Warden (Strother Martin) and his Bosses, most notably a silent, sunglasses-wearing sharpshooter known to the men as “The Boss with No Eyes." The men enforce the rules and regulations with fists, whips, canes, blackjacks, rifles and isolation -- the cinematic embodiment of ‘The System.' Newman's Lucas Jackson simply refuses to conform or seemingly care what others think. Without an agenda, he often acts like prison is merely another of life’s experiences he was put on Earth to enjoy. Jesus metaphors include cheerful one-sided conversations with God, the road gang equivalent of ‘miracles,' and his betrayed by fellow inmates leading to his final destruction. "What we've got here is a failure to communicate," has become a phrase deeply imbedded in our culture.

The Scorecard. Both of our anti-heroes end up as anti-leaders of a group of men who are bereft, belittled and abused. They're all in need of a hero, but they get Luke and McMurphy. Both films have classic villains, too. Both Strother Martin's Warden and Louise Fletcher's Nurse Ratched play characters who think they're the heroes and that's also one of the reasons these films have such power and resonance. Every film school now teaches that lesson that villains never think they're bad, they think they're good. It's Screenwriting 101. Oddly, "Cool Hand Luke" feels like the more commercial of the two, despite "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" awards success. That may be the difference between the magnetic blue eyes of Paul Newman and the wild unpredictability that's part of the Jack Nicholson persona.

The Decision. The formula for Anti-Heroes like Luke Jackson and Randall Patrick McMurphy, loners with iconoclastic personalities, has now been copied endlessly, until our very definitions of both heroes and villains have been changed forever. Bless these two men who gave their lives and consciousness to enrich our own cinematic souls. Everyone should see "Cool Hand Luke" because it remains a cultural touchstone that delivers a powerful message, but the film that knocks you over, and stays with you forever remains "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." It's never easy to watch a spirit crushed but to see a life ended while the body is still alive is the most painful thing you'll ever see.