Zachary Laranang

For the summer reading assignment, I chose option A because I wanted to read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. The reason I chose this book was because I thought that the film adaptation was probably the best out of all of the choices (when compared to the other adaptations). I really like Jack Nicholson as an actor, and I couldn't wait to see the movie. However, after both reading the book and seeing the movie, and comparing the two, I was very surprised that, in my opinion, the book was a thousand times better than the movie. The movie, which makes the fatal mistake of reducing Chief Bromden to a supporting character and taking away his point of view (although admittedly filming the movie from his perspective while portraying his mental problems would have been difficult) omits and edits many aspects that gave the novel its appeal. The book was able to communicate the patients' sense of paranoia, their insanity, their savior-like view of Randal P. Mcmurphy, and the tyrannical rule of Nurse Ratched, as well as many other things all much better than the book. The only thing I really liked about the movie was Jack Nicholson's performance. I firmly believe that in order to successfully adapt a book to film, you must take one of that book's major characters and bring him to life on film through great acting, casting, screenwriting, and directing (Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden and Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh come to mind). Although Nicholson was physically different from the Randal Mcmurphy in the book, he perfectly portrayed the character's confidence, determination, and rebelliousness, and his Best Actor win was well-deserved.
After reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and seeing the film adaptation, I can say with complete confidence that the book is much better, and that it has become one of my favorite novels of all time.