One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Themes of Laughter and Humor in Movies

After watching Goodfellas it got me thinking about other Scorsese movies, the most recent of which I saw is Shutter Island. And thinking about Shutter Island got me thinking about one of my favorite books/movies One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. At first I thought Shutter Island was going to be kind of a modernized OFOTCN in which a mental institution is shown as corrupt and the patients within it are victimized. But then obviously after the twist in Shutter Island, I realized it wasn't that at all, but leading up to the twist definitely reminded me of OFOTCN. I think that would be a great movie to add to the list of films we watch. I wrote a very in depth analysis of the book in highschool and discovered a ton of universal themes. The theme I focused on the most was the power of laughter. How just the addition of a bit of humor in the patients lives, brought to them by McMurphy, can completely change not just their attitudes, but also their actions. There's also part of the book that is so powerful I still remember it, when one of the characters is talking about why he felt he needed to come to the mental institution, and it was because he couldn't take people laughing at him over his disability. These two examples show that laughter can be very powerful in so many ways, it can either make or break up. And in turn thinking about this made me think back to Sullivan's Travels, which was my favorite movie we watch in class for the very reason that it emphasized that theme of humor and laughter. Like I said in my earlier blog, my favorite line from that movie is right at the end when Sully says "There's something to be said about making someone laugh." I think that this is so true, so I was really excited when I drew the connection between the two movies. It's definitely the reason I like both of those movies so much, becuase I really believe that humor is one of the most powerful things in life, and I appreciate when that is acknowledged in books and movies.