Isabelle Gomez
June 10th, 2014
THTR 201
Kamarie Chapman
Final Exam – Vlog
Script
Hello Viewers!
My name is Isabelle Gomez.
In this vlog I will be talking about how vastly and
vitally important actors and acting are as components in films and I will talk
about the latest film we have watched in class, the 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Our textbook
makes a good point about how people associate a specific persona or a kind of
person with certain celebrities like Jack Nicholson. As described in the
textbook, the roles that Jack Nicholson usually play are characters that are
“normally crafty, strong, menacing” and charismatic. If people want to watch a
menacing, volatile character, it would be perfectly understandable if those
people chose to watch a film starring Jack Nicholson. From films like The Shining, Anger Management, and A Few
Good Men to name off a mere few, Nicholson has played an angry,
intimidating and oftentimes psychotic role.
Now in the
film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,
Jack Nicholson definitely exemplifies a character that parallels his reknown
persona in his protagonist role as McMurphy. McMurphy does feign insanity to be
admitted into the ward instead of being sent to prison, and his rambunctious
entrance to the ward, his numerous acts of rebellion and finally choking Nurse
Ratched all go along with Jack Nicholson’s volatile persona as an actor.
Nicholson’s charisma also comes into play when portrays McMurphy as genuinely
caring about and interacting with the other ward members with companionship and
compassion.
And with an
awfully wonderful protagonist there is also the awfully terrible antagonist
that is Nurse Ratched. This role has made so many impacts on society’s views. Her
heartless character has become the stereotype for the torturing nurse for what
is called the “battle axe” nurse. Nurse Ratched is also often associated with
the corrupting influence of power and authority in bureaucracies like the
mental institution that the film is set in. I don’t think it comes as a
surprise that Louise Fletcher won Best Actress in a Leading Role for Cuckoo’s Nest.
Acting makes
this film so dynamic also because many of the actors are portraying mentally
ill patients. From tantrums and ill habits to loud and aggressively unwilling apprehensions
by the guards to Billy Bibbit’s stuttering, all of these actors convince audience
members that they are genuinely unstable in mentality. The acting is great if
you can’t tell that it is all an act. Danny Devito, Brad Dourif, Will Sampson,
Christopher Lloyd and all of the other actors that played patients all convince
us viewers that they are their crazy characters.
Skilled
acting allows viewers to easily immerse themselves into the stories of the
films and to invest themselves and their hearts into the characters. Jack
Nicholson acted so skillfully and so well that you want his character McMurphy
to succeed and we love him for attempting to awaken the ward members and our
hearts are ripped out of chests and our blood boils with anger when we watch
McMurphy’s personality cut away by the lobotomy. Like McMurphy without his
boisterous and uplifting persona, films without actors would be lifeless.
Works
Cited
Barsam, Richard and Dave Monoham. Looking At Movies.
Fourth. W. W. Norton & Company, 2013.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Dir. Milos Forman. Perf.
Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher.
1975.
