Structure of a film review

  

Paragraph 1: Overall impression

• Make your general reaction to the film clear

I liked this film a lot as it was very unexpected as I didn’t know what was going to happen so it surprised me, specially the end. I would have never guessed that McMurphy was going to die and that he would cause all that scandal at the mental hospital. I also found it funny as it had a sense of humour which makes the movie more entertaining.

• Identify the following information:
• Title: One flew over the cukoos nest
• Genre: Dramatic comedy
• Director: Milos Forman
• Lead actors: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, William Redfield
• Year of release: 1975

Paragraph 2: Plot summary

• Don’t explain every little detail
• Identify the premise (the scenario that drives the action). Is this convincing and engaging?

This movie is about a man that tries to escape from jail so he acts like he has mental problems so he would be send to the mental institution, thinking it would be easy to escape from the mental hospital but it’s not as easy as he thought it would be. In the mental institution he makes the other patients rebel and make it more entertaining and less boring than what it was, as they go out of the same routine and do things they would have never imagined doing like escaping from the clinic or making a party there and getting drunk. He becomes the leader of all the other patients of the clinic as they followed him in everything he did. At the end the nurses caught him, and because he was seen like a danger to the hospital they do a lobotomy. There is a rumour that he has escaped, but one of the patients discovers the truth and kills him so he wouldn’t loose his respect as all patients sow him like a hero.  I think this is convincing and engaging as it is a good story which is original and you don’t know what is going to happen. 

Paragraph 3: Acting

• How did the actors portray the key roles? How did they convey the lives of the characters?
• Did they fulfil your expectations? Were they believable characters?
• Refer to other films made by the main actors, and assess their performance in this one

The actors acted very well in this movie as they really got into their roll. The patients of the institution made me believe that they really had mental problems. The main character, jack Nicholson, did very well his roll of a criminal person who wanted things to be made his way, and that was to be free. The nurse Ratched also did very well her roll in the movie, she made me believe that she was a strong dominant nurse.

Paragraph 4: Film techniques

• Describe and assess the mise-en-shot and mise en scene (camera angles, editing, lighting, set production, costumes, etc.)
• Identify other notable successes/failures of the film – for example, the soundtrack, special effects, etc.
• Place this in the context of other films (ie compare and contrast to other films from the same genre/director/period)

This is a realism movie as it doesn’t have much editing and it looks real. The scenery looks real, as if it was filmed in a real hospital, as almost the entire movie is in the mental hospital. The scene when the patients escape to a boat, it is also filmed in a real boat in the sea. Costumes are depending on the characters roll but as most of them are patients they all wear the same uniform which is the hospitals clothe, and the nurses use a nurse uniform. The colours are bright as they are in a hospital and there is artificial light, and it is mostly white, which represents hospitals.

Paragraph 5: Themes

• Identify the message (s) of the film and how it is/they are conveyed
• Is this done effectively?
• Place this in the context of other films (ie compare and contrast to other films from the same genre/director/period)

This movie give us a message that woman are bad as they are put in the movie as terrifying figures that control men and don’t give them liberty, and are the reason of there problems and why they are in the mental hospital. The nurses are portrayed as the villains of the movie that don’t let these men have liberty, but capture them in a hospital. Also Bromden mother, although she doesn’t appear, is portrayed as if she had caused Bromden to have mental problems and be in that hospital, as he says that she put him down as well as his father so she would grow up emotionally. And that happens with many of the other patients mothers; they are described as the reason of their problems. At the end of the movie McMurphy is done a lobotomy by the nurses, taking out his complete freedom. The fact that woman are in charge of a hospital which only receives men, also portrays woman as bad influence who control men by taking their liberty.

Paragraph 6: Conclusion

• Justify your opinion of the film by ranking it alongside others that you may or may not have already mentioned
• Suggest to the reader that this may be a film to see/avoid

I really liked the movie, although the theme is not one of my favourites I thought it was well done and as it had some comedy it was more entertaining to watch. As it is an uncommon theme it is not predictable so you have no idea of what is going to happen, and the end is very unusual, because although McMurphy didn’t escape from the mental hospital as we expected he would do, he still escaped from a much unexpected way, by dying. As I enjoyed the movie I would recommend other people to watch it, specially adults, as I don’t think children would enjoy it.