A character analysis and comparison of the roles demonstrated in the Best Actress category at the 1976 and 1991 Academy Awards
Background
The two films under the spotlight are One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and Misery (1990). Both films are film adaptations of the novels of the same titles. I decided to analyse the Best Actress Academy Award as this is in my opinion what Hollywood decides as the peak of female representation of that year and such deserves to be rewarded for its achievements. I chose too analyse these two films as they both feature a Woman as a Nurse and as the main antagonist of the films. 15 years was also a nice time gap that would create a more interesting and apparent difference in representation instead of a smaller time gap of only a few years.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Background information about the film
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) is a film adaptation of the 1962 novel of the same title by Ken Kesey. It follows Randle McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) a boxer who was been arrested for gambling, battery and statutory rape of a 15 year old girl and his plan to be deemed insane so he doesn't have to work at a prison farm and instead gets to spend his sentence at a mental asylum which he views will be a relaxing experience. The film is set in the Oregon State Hospital, Oregon, USA in 1962. The film was the second ever film to win all 5 major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay).
Best Actress
Louise Fletcher won the Best Actress Academy award for her portrayal of Nurse Mildred Ratched who is the head nurse at the Oregon State Hospital. She is feared by the prisoners and is shown to be very strict and runs the asylum on a tight schedule. Louise Fletcher has stated in recent years that she can no longer watch the film as she finds her portrayal too cruel and inhumane to even watch.
Nurse Ratched holding the microphone for the PA system
Film events
The film opens with wide shots of the Oregon countryside which establishes the location of the film. Then it cuts to white hallways and corridors before Nurse Ratched comes through the double doors of the asylum where she is cheerfully greeted by janitors and other doctors. She then enters a sectioned off room and prepares a plate of pills for the prisoners. She then says "Medicine Time" over the PA and the prisoners all line up to get their pills. We see a large Native American man getting his medicine in silence. These scenes of the hospital establish the routine nature of the facility and the sameness of everyday there as shown by the routine and the drab coloration of the walls and floor.
The film then shows a car pulling up outside the hospital from which a handcuffed McMurphy emerges from. He is then escorted into the facility by two police officers. When he is inside one of the officers releases McMurphy from his confinements and he does a dance and then gives the officer a kiss on the cheek for releasing him. Leaning against a wall McMurphy notices "Chief" the native american from the medicine scene before. McMurphy walks up to Chief and tells him that he is a very large man which seems like an obvious statement.
A Patient with a stutter calls out to McMurphy and tells him that Chief is just a "Dumb and Deaf Indian". McMurphy goes over to the man and introduces himself as "Mac" and learns that the young man with a stutters name is Billy. Mac then notices that Billy is playing cards with 3 other prisoners and decides to test the water with his new comrades. He flashes "Martini" a playing card with a naked woman on it which gets martini excited. Mac is excited that he could take control of the moment with such ease.
Mac then visits Dr. Spivey, the director of the hospital, and we then learn why Mac is at the hospital. Mac begins the conversation with small talk to Spivey by talking to him about a picture of the doctor with a 30 pound fish. Spivey is surprised by Mac's ability to make people feel comfortable and is slightly shocked by it. Mac has been sent to the hospital for being "belligerent" and "resentful to work in general" and as a result is being evaluated for mental illness. We learn that he previously has been arrested 5 times for assault and most recently for the statutory rape of a 15 year old girl, whom he says said she was eighteen years old. He then tries to reason with Spivey that "no man alive could resist the body of a 15 year old girl". This scene shows Mac's distaste for Authority in general. Spivey then tells him that he will be kept at the institution to evaluate his mental state.
The Characters in the film
The film then cuts to a scene of group therapy which features the patients in a semi circle around Nurse Ratched in the middle with one of her assistant nurses. They do a quick group stretch before Ratched persuades Harding to start the therapy session. All of the patients seem nervous to start the meeting but Ratched is shown to be largely in control of all of them. Mac is very intrigued with the power that Ratched wields at the asylum.
Harding talks about how his wife makes him feel unwell as she draws stares from men on the street. He is shown to be paranoid of her seeking sexual relations outside their marriage he wanted to seek professional help about his jealousy. Ratched then asks if anyone would like to comment on what Harding said while Mac stares at Ratched and shuffles his cards in his hands. This builds up the difference in philosophy in the pair and shows their dislike of each other. As Ratched struggles to find someone to comment she instead decides to press deeper on Harding of why he thinks his wife is cheating on him. He says he can only speculate as to why and becomes disturbed when he is questioned about her insisting he is talking about life in general. Other patients now begin to tease Harding as Cheswick comes to defend him. The men say that his wife strays from him because he is a homosexual, Taber in particular is responsible for the homophobic messages being flung at Harding. Mac is amused by the whole argument but not for long as he soon locks eyes with Ratched making him feel uncomfortable.
Mac is then shown to be out in recreation time playing basketball by himself. He proceeds to try and teach Chief how to play basketball as he is so tall but it is to no avail. Mac starts to clash with the environment even more as he begins to long for the freedom he used to have. He tries to teach the other patients how to play cards but their apparent inability to learn the rules just makes him angrier. Then over the PA one of the assistant nurses tells the ward that it's Medicine Time. Mac refuses to take the pill as he doesn't know what is in it. Ratched then tells him if he doesn't want to take his medicine orally they can arrange another way. Mac ends up taking the pill and goes an sits down at a table were Harding sits with him and asks "Tell me lover boy, Why didn't you tell her to go F**k herself?". Mac just spits the pill out which he had been pretending to have eaten. Mac bets to some of the prisoners that he can undermine her authority within a week.
The next scene is a second group therapy. This time Mac decides to open and proposes to the group that they should change the work time so that they can all watch the world series. Ratched decides that a vote is best as then all the men in the ward can decide on if they should change the time of work. Not many end up voting to watch the game as it seems like they are all fearful of Ratched and what she will do if they change the schedule. Mac then urges them to be "Good Americans" and to put their hands up. However this is not enough to change ward policy.
The prisoners continue to play more games to pass the time but Mac introduces gambling into the mix. Now most of the prisoners use cigarettes for gambling in their card games. Mac is then seen to spray them all with water from a fountain and tells them he is going down to a pub to watch the world series. He says that he can lift up the drink fountain and throw it out the window and escape to watch the game but it is a failure.
Billy then recounts of a time when he told a girl that he liked her and asked her to marry him. Ratched then asks "Your mother told me that you never told her about it. Billy, why didn't you tell her about it?". Billy doesn't answer but Ratched presses onward by saying "Billy, wasn't that when you first tried to commit suicide?". Cheswick comes to Billy's defence and says stop pressuring him when he clearly doesn't want to talk about it and asks for another vote on the world series. This vote gets all 9 of the men at the therapy to raise their hand but it does not reach a majority as the ward has 18 people. Ratched ends the meeting just before Mac convinces Chief to raise his hand. She Insists the meeting has ended and such does not change ward policy. Mac then narrates a fake baseball game for them all to listen to. Ratched then yells at them to stop over the loudspeaker but is unsuccessful.
Mac gets a boost from Chief the next day and makes his way over the courtyards fence and then invites the patients onto the bus for the field trip. Mac then steals the bus with the patients on it and goes to pick up his girlfriend Candy. He then drives them all to a harbour to steal a fishing boat. Mac then teaches the men how to fish in open water on the boat. As Mac teaches Billy flirts with Candy before Candy and Mac sleep together in the cabin. While they are away Cheswick loses control of the boat. Billy catches a big fish.
Billy Flirting with Candy on the boat
Now returned to the hospital the patients learn how to play basketball. Chief blocks a basket and then scores a slam dunk for his team. Chief is praised and rewarded and no longer seen as an outsider by the majority of the men and is shown happy and smiling for what he accomplished. Mac is helpful for the men's spirit as well as being disruptive for the hospital. However Ratched, Spivey and some other doctors are discussing the state of Mac and what they should do with him. There is an agreement that he is not insane but he is dangerous for the asylum. Spivey recommends that they just send him back to the work farm but Ratched objects as that would just pass off the problem instead of dealing with it. They decide the will stay at the asylum and trust Ratched to correct Mac's ways.
Mac is treated as a threat to the order of the hospital by the admin. Mac then talks to one of the orderlies who tells him that he is being held at the hospital until the admin deems it fit for him to leave. This news encourages Mac to cause more chaos at the hospital and makes him even more agitated.
At the next group therapy session Ratched asks if anyone would like to start them off today and immediately Mac puts up his hand. He complains about his permanent holding in the asylum. Harding then admits that him and a lot of other men can leave whenever they want. Mac is shocked that they would choose to stay and starts yelling which causes a disturbance in the meeting. Scanlan then asks why the dorms are locked during the days and on weekends. Cheswick asks why all his cigarettes have been confiscated. Taber then finds a burning cigarette in the cuff of his pants Harding put there during the chaos he has a complete breakdown. Cheswick then starts yelling "I ain't no little kid". Mac then gets up and punches in the nurse's glass to grab the cigarettes from behind getting him into a fight with an orderly named Washington. Chief comes to Mac's rescue and holds back the guard.
Mac, Chief and Cheswick are brought upstairs into the ward for chronically ill patients. Cheswick is then taken away from Mac and Chief for electroshock punishment. As he is dragged away he screams he has done nothing wrong. Mac then gives Chief some chewy fruit gum and Chief says to Mac "thank you". Chief then reveals to Mac that everyone thinks he is deaf and dumb but can actually hear them and just pretending not to. Mac suggests to Chief that they should break out and run away together as Chief risked himself fighting off Washington who grabbed Mac previously.
Nurses then lay Mac and apply two electrodes to his temples with him then jolting and withering in pain from the electroshock therapy. Mac then returns to the ward appearing immobile and limping around. He then winks at Chief and returns to his normal state. Ratched is not amused by Mac's stunt.
Mac with the Electrodes on his temples.
The hospital then closes down for Christmas and Ratched says goodnight to the patients over the PA. Mac then watches Turkle, a night orderly, help a nurse put on her coat before he sneaks in and calls up Candy on the phone. Mac tells Candy "Tonight's the Night" and tells her to bring Booze.
Turkle then tells Mac to go to bed but Mac brings Turkle to the gate to meet Candy and her friend Rose. Mac then promises Turkle some time with Rose and lets the women enter the asylum. Rose stays with Turkle to distract him from what Mac wants to do. The prisoners awaken to Mac flickering all the lights and Candy singing over the PA. Whilst confused the men all enter the nurses office to celebrate Christmas and drink. Turkle then finds the men partying in the nurses office and starts to yell to them about losing his job.
Turkle's anger is interrupted by the footsteps of a night supervisor walking down the hallway. The men all hide in the office so that they won't get found. Turkle tells the supervisor he was just listening to a record but he is interrupted by a loud crash. Candy then peeks her head out of the door giggling and then closes it. Turkle tells the supervisor that he was lonely which is enough to make the supervisor look the other way if he sends the woman home immediately.
Turkle tries to send the men off to bed but they do not listen to him as they want to keep partying all night. The ward then has Christmas music on the record player and has streamers and decorations everywhere. As Mac prepares to escape for good he helps Billy for a final time. Billy and Candy dance with each other for a while before Billy tells Mac that he is going to miss him. Mac offers to take Billy with him but he says that he is not ready to leave the ward yet. Billy then asks Mac if Candy is going with him. Mac offers Candy to Billy for the night to give Billy the sexual experience he wants so much.
The next scene is the ward the morning after the Christmas Party. Nurse Ratched returns to the Asylum with a look of distress on her face as there is rubbish everywhere, Taber is asleep on the ground and Mac lying on the ground in front of an open window. She then orders the orderlies to start cleaning up the mess and to check that nobody is missing. Ratched then finds Turkle asleep on the floor in the nurses office.
Washington reports back to Ratched that he can't find Billy which makes Ratched question the other patients if Billy left the hospital during the night. After some time has passed an assistant calls out to Ratched that she has found Billy. When Ratched arrives she sees Billy naked and in bed with Candy. He comes out into the hallway with a sheet wrapped around his waist, as the other patients applaud Billy. Nurse Ratched asks Billy to explain what happened an if he is ashamed of what he did. For the first time in the movie Billy has no stutter and he insists that he is not ashamed. Ratched then presses Billy further telling him that she is worried about what his mother will think of his behaviour. When Billy's Mother is brought up his stutter returns and he tells Ratched that it was the other patients who encouraged him to have sex with Candy. When Ratched asks if it was anyone specific Billy tells her that it was Mac.
Mac then frantically tries to break out of the hospital with a stolen key for a window. An orderly asks Mac what he is doing which makes him turn around and punch him. Chief then helps Mac open the window as another orderly threatens the pair before they are interrupted by the screams of a Nurse. The 3 of them leave the room to see what the commotion is and discover the Corpse of Billy who had slit his own throat and is in a pool of his own blood.
Billy's Body
Enraged at the sight of Billy's body Mac jumps at Ratched and begins to strangle her. Mac had decided that Ratched's taunting of Billy was the cause of his death and decided to take justice into his own hands. Just before Mac chokes Ratched to death an orderly punches Mac and knocks him out.
Order is very quickly restored to the asylum as in the next scene the men sit around playing cards again like the beginning of the film but Nurse Ratched just has a slightly scratchy voice and a neck brace. Mac could do nothing to change how the ward was being managed and only was able to leave a slight scar on Ratched. One of the patients tells the other that Mac escaped with some believing it and others not. Mac essentially is forgotten as the ward returns to life before he showed up as seen at the beginning of the film.
Mac isn't totally forgotten as he still lives on in spirit in Chief. On that night Chief is awoken too orderlies returning Mac back to his bed. As Chief goes over to Mac he notices that he has become visibly catatonic. Chief still tries to talk to Mac and tell him that they can escape now but it is to no avail. Chief looks at Mac's Head further and notices lobotomy scars around Mac's hairline. Chief then decides that it is right to put Mac out of his vegetative state of sadness he smothers Mac with a pillow until he lives no more. Chief then motivated by Mac goes back to the drink fountain that Mac tried to lift earlier and rips it out of the ground slowly carrying it to the window. With one final heave Chief throws the fountain through the window and escapes into the night, as Taber cheers him on and the other wake up.
Analysis of Nurse Ratched
Nurse Ratched is shown to not really be evil but to be very controlling, manipulative and totalitarian. She is essentially the opposite of Mac's character as demonstrated through their many stare downs and fights throughout the movie. As shown in the first therapy session the prisoners essentially fear her and her ruthless nature and such are forced to cooperate as they know no other way to deal with her. She is also shown to Bully people to get her own way such as pressing deeper on Harding to get information about his wife out and with Billy who she threatens to tell his mother ruining his self confidence and causing him to commit suicide.
Ratched is also shown to enforce her will through corporate punishment and is essentially ruler of the ward. She has electroshock therapy used on Mac, Chief and Cheswick when they misbehave at the group therapy and then essentially kills Mac by having important parts of his brain chopped out by lobotomy.
Ratched probably cares about all the patients and such is why she is so strict and harsh with her rules. She never seems to really step out of reason and always calls for the fair approach to problems such as shown with the baseball. Her practises while some would say extreme work in keeping the ward in order and safe with nobody falling out of line until Mac interferes.
Personally I don't see her as so much of an evil totalitarian overlord that rules over the ward with an iron fist but rather as a person who just has a different management style to someone of the likes of Mac. Her way is shown to be effective in keeping the prisoners in line and safe.
She does step in the wrong with how far she goes with Billy as she makes him commit suicide because of ridicule and embarrassment.
Misery (1990)
Background Information about the film
Misery (1990) is a Film adaptation of the 1987 Stephen King novel of the same title. It stars James Caan and Kathy Bates. It follows a Paul Sheldon the Author of a series of Romance Novels (Played by James Caan) and Annie Wilkes a Psychotic Fan of the Misery (Played by Kathy Bates) series who kidnaps Paul Sheldon and forces him to write novels for her.
Best Actress
Bates won best actress for her portrayal of Annie Wilkes the Nurse who finds Paul Sheldon crashed on the side of the road and takes him back to her house where she holds him captive. Bates was praised for her acting and ability to encapsulate the viewer in the story of the movie and how well she brought Annie Wilkes to life from the Novel.
A Picture of Annie holding a Sledgehammer
Film events
Paul is finishing off his latest novel in the misery series at a mountain lodge in Silver Creek, Colorado. He checks out and hops into his car to begin the journey back home to New York. Out of nowhere a blizzard whips up and Paul gets caught in it. As Paul tries to retain control of his vehicle the entire car is flip and tumbles down the side of the road. Paul breaks both of his legs and breaks his right arm. Annie Wilkes who had noticed that Paul was about to drive in the blizzard follows Paul and discovers his car crashed at the bottom of the hill. She then breaks the door of his car so she can drag Paul out of the car to return him to her nearby farm.
When Paul awakes he finds Annie standing over him and notices that his arm has been put in a splint and his legs have been crudely held together to stop them from bending. He asks Annie how long he had been out and she replies with two days. She makes Paul eat some red pills that he has no clue of the content. Then Annie asks Paul if she can read his newly finished novel as payback for saving his life and because she is his "number one fan". Paul agrees and asks when she will take him to the hospital which Annie responds to with a lie that the road to the hospital is closed because of the blizzard a few days ago.
Annie loves the start of the new misery novel as it is everything she hoped for while reading through the whole thing. However once she gets near the end of the story she quickly becomes very angry with Paul as he kills off misery during a childbirth scene near the end of the movie. This changes Annie's outlook on Paul as she now believes that he is a murderer and that he killed the greatest character ever created in a story. This drives Annie into an almost psychotic state of rage and anger. As a punishment for Paul she makes him burn the only copy of the story he has spent weeks creating in a barbecue as she believes it to be wrong and not what was intended for the story.
Then Annie goes to the shops to purchase supplies so that Paul can create the proper new book in the Misery series just as she wants it. She buys Paul a wheelchair, typewriter and typing paper so he can get to work on the new novel. When Annie first reads the version of Misery that Paul creates that keeps misery alive she tells him that is awful and that he must start again because it doesn't make perfect sense to what was established in the previous books. The Second time though when Paul makes the Story exactly the way Annie wants it she praises him and calls it the greatest story ever and how it is a masterpiece and perfect in every way possible.
Paul at his new typewriter
Annie keeps Paul prisoner for longer and Paul continues to write the new Misery book in exactly the way Annie wants for a few weeks. The one night we see Annie enter Paul's room and she looks very glum and down. Paul asks what the problem is and she explains it's the fact that she now loves not only the author side of Paul but also everything else about him. She also states that Paul will never understand what it is like to have someone that they love want to leave them and not even care about them at all. Annie then pulls out a revolver and cocks it talking about how often she wishes to use this on herself and on Paul. Annie then leaves the room and drives off into the night and the rain.
Paul breaks out of his room and finds a scrapbook on the bench titled "Memory Lane". Inside are newspaper clippings of various people involving articles about people and then their sudden often suspicious deaths a short while later. There is also articles about Annie becoming the head maternity nurse in Boulder Colorado, the individual deaths of 11 infants under her care as the maternity nurse classified as suspicious and her being trialed over there deaths but being released for a lack of evidence. Another clipping talks about Annie's ex husband who was a therapist who divorced her because of "mental cruelty". Shockingly to Paul the last few clippings are about himself and his disappearance leading him to believe that he will be her next victim.
Annie drugs Paul and then when he wakes up she reveals that she knew he had been leaving his room because she had noticed things in the wrong places that she didn't leave them. She decides that the only fitting punishment is that of slave workers in diamond mines who thought of themselves thieves. Paul then notices that he is tied down to the bed he is in with multiple belts and lengths of rope. Annie then reveals that this punishment was known as "hobbling" and refers to destroying the feet of the individual so they can still work but they can never walk again. She then places a wooden block between Paul's bound feet and leaves the room for a little while. When She returns she is holding a sledgehammer and then proceeds to smash both of Paul's ankles and completely destroy them in a graphic scene.
(Graphic)
Annie drugs and hides Paul in her basement to avoid suspicion when the local sheriff comes to investigate the disappearance of Paul. The sheriff is just about to leave when he hears something smashing to the ground inside the house. When he rushes back inside he hears calling from the basement and opens the door and starts to walk down the stairs to investigate. But before he can get much further Annie blasts a whole through the sheriff's chest with a shotgun and kills him instantly.
Annie then tells Paul that she has two bullets in her revolver so that the two of them can die together and be happy forever. Paul wittingly responds and tells Annie that he should first finish his Misery Novel so that Misery will live on even though they won't. Annie enticed by Paul's idea helps Paul up and sets him at his typewriter one last time. Paul then manages too overpower Annie that night after he finishes writing the story and ends up killing her by bashing her head on the very typewriter she forced him to slave away at for multiple weeks. Months later we see Paul walking again and talking to his agent in New York after his first non Misery book being big hit with audiences and Critics alike. He is still clearly traumatised by the event as he sees Annie in a waitress serving him who proceeds to say "Wow are you Paul Sheldon? I just wanted too say I am your number one fan" after which the credits roll.
Analysis of Annie Wilkes
Annie is shown as psychopathic and possibly even a serial killer as hinted to be her newspaper clippings in her "Memory Lane" scrapbook. It also seems quite likely that Annie is Bi-polar or has multiple personality disorder as she seems to switch from absolutely hating you after she finds out than Paul kills of Misery in his new novel to completely loving him after he writes the new story to her liking and guidance. She also is shown to have little care for other people as shown by her torture and total lack of dignity towards Paul. She holds him captive because she thinks only she deserves to have him and then smashes his ankles in so he can never walk again when he tries to resist. This just shows how self centred Annie really is. Her ex husband also broke up with her because of the "mental cruelty" she demonstrates likely meaning that she is mentally ill in some way.
Annie is likely a sociopath as throughout the movie she demonstrates a lot of qualities of one including but not limited too; Pathological lying: Annie repeatedly tells Paul that roads are blocked, that she well let him out soon and that the phone lines are broken, Lack of remorse or guilt; Annie smashes in Paul's ankles and doesn't even care at all, She murders the sheriff investigating Paul's disappearance and keeps Paul hostage for weeks, Lack of Empathy; Annie doesn't care about anyone else in the film other than herself, Poor behavioural controls; Annie repeatedly looses her temper, gets mad extremely quickly and acts hastily, Juvenile and early childhood delinquency; In the clippings in her "memory lane" book it hints towards her murders going into her teens and early years of life, Impulsiveness; she gets tempted repeatedly by Paul and gets frustrated quickly, Fails to accept responsibility; she kills at least 11 babies as the head maternity nurse and simply states man can't judge me, and Criminality; Annie commits multiple crimes throughout the story.
In my opinion Annie is a psychopath effected by mood swings or bi polar disorder and preys on those weaker than herself to boost her self confidence. This would explain her killing babies as a nurse and murdering those who she deems weak or vulnerable. This would also account for her preying on Paul when his legs are broken and he can't resist her whatsoever.
Comparison between Nurse Ratched and Annie Wilkes
Annie and Ratched are quite different characters even though they are both female nurses that serve as the primary antagonist of their films. While Annie is more of a Villain in the traditional sense of a sociopath maniac who only wants there own way, Ratched is more of a Villain just because she differs from the protagonist significantly. Annie is also likely mentally ill and loves killing people. Ratched while does dish out corporate punishment and essentially murders Mac at the end of the film does so to enforce safety and not because she enjoys murder.
The two are essentially two different takes on the nurse stereotype of a Battle Axe Nurse brought to film Annie being the psychotic murderous version with Ratched being the Authoritarian controlling and strict version.
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