"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" has become a classic film of the
             1970's, and it has aged quite well over time. It shows the mental heath
             care field in a very dark light, and illustrates a time when health care
             was more about rules and regulations than experimentation and cure. Nurse
             Ratched, played by Louise Fletcher, is a strict and unfeeling woman who
             should not be a nurse, and probably would not be in the health care field
             today. The hospital runs like clockwork, mostly because the mental
             patients are afraid of Nurse Ratched. It is clear she is serving her own
             needs, rather than the needs of the patients, and that she has to be in
             control all the time to feed her own ego. She makes sure every rule is
             followed, and she does not like anything that is not normal, like McMurphy
             and his questioning of the rules, regulations, and medications. This film
             really shows the underbelly of the healthcare field, and it is quite
             frightening in many ways. It does not really seem like anyone is really
             trying to help the mental patients get better. The only one who shakes
             things up is McMurphy, and he does that because he is new to the system,
             and can see its' flaws.
             There is quite little to recommend the health care facility in this
             film. It is clear the mental institution that finally claims McMurphy is a
             clean, respected, and well-run institution, especially from the outside.
             They mainly treat people who have committed themselves. However, they play
             "God" when the keep McMurphy back because they think he is "dangerous."
             The only danger he represents is danger to their well-ordered existence,
             and so, he must be silenced by a lobotomy. The film clearly illustrates
             health care on the wrong path, and what a zealous need for absolute control
             via rules and administrative control can do to a health care organization.
             It can turn it from a compassionate healing environment into a rigid,
             uncaring, and unfe...