Wow, do you sell Luke short.
1. The main characters are in prison for different reasons: Luke because he was simply dumb, destroying public property (which means that he actually wanted to get in trouble), McMurphy because he had consensual sex with a girl. There is a world of difference there: one gets punished for being destructive, the other for being natural - making love to a person who was not coerced, or in any way forced. Physical age should never be more important than person's maturity and free will. Following the law blindly goes against protecting those who cannot care for themselves, and punishes those who did no wrong. In that sense, McMurphy was only guilty of not knowing laws that make very little sense. Even he says to the doctor at the mental institution something like "oh, if you only saw her, you would never believe she was only 16 (or whatever her age was)".
So you give McMurphy a complete pass for statutory rape when he was 38 and the girl was 15 or 16, while Luke was "dumb" and "wanted to get in trouble"? To draw such a starkly different picture of Luke and McMurphy is unjustified. They have differences, but their predominate characteristic, which they both share, is their nonconformist nature.
The main difference I see between the two is that McMurphy is still in an active rebel stage, while Luke, with his war experience, is past that and is more of "lost soul" at the point he gets arrested. As Luke says to Dragline, he'll leave the world-shakin' to someone else; the weariness in his voice says he's had his fill of trying to change the world and just wants to go his way in peace. Luke isn't dumb and he wasn't purposefully trying to get put in prison; he just got drunk and did something stupid. At this point in his life, he hasn't found a way to fit in, and so he's wandering aimlessly because he doesn't know what else to do.
In both stories, Luke and McMurphy find themselves institutionalized because that's what society does with free spirits who don't toe the line.
2. Luke was sentenced to be in prison for a short time. All he had to do was play it cool for two years, possibly less if there was an option of getting out early for good behavior. Even prison officials were impressed that he was a sergeant in war and not a dumb criminal...
McMurphy, OTOH, learns quite quickly that what he thought would be a walk in the park, is turning into an never ending nightmare: he may NEVER be released, and he has no rights nor anything to look forward to due to sadistic motivation of those in charge. In Cool Hand Luke, authorities in prison show no such inclination nor do they have the power to keep someone indefinitely.
I wouldn't call two years on a chain gang "a short time." For someone who has resistance to authority encoded in his DNA, two years provides a seemingly endless number of instances for him to chafe at attempts to subvert his nature, whether that be from the Captain and the bosses or the other inmates. Just like a greyhound or husky is bred to run and is unfulfilled unless it can do just that, Luke's free-spirited nature is innate and there's no way he can subvert that for two years. That's why it turns into a death sentence for him, just like it did for McMurphy.
3. McMurphy is an anti-conformist because he desires good things for himself and others. Luke is just ego-centric, angry looser on a path to self-destruction. Polar opposites.
Both are genial and enjoy the company of the other inmates. Both create activities out of boredom that ultimately bring enjoyment into the otherwise dreary lives of their fellow inmates. They are very much alike. As with your previous points, this seems predicated on the notion that Luke is intentionally seeking punishment and is therefore essentially committing suicide, but I don't see it that way at all. He's not brooding angrily in his bunk; instead, what they remember, like Dragline says at the end, is "that Luke smile." An angry loser? No, he's a splash of color in an otherwise monochrome world for his fellow inmates.
4. McMurphy is all about freedom, Luke is all about mental prison which manifests as physical prison as well.
I don't see how you could be more wrong about Luke. He's as much about freedom as any character I can think of. He wants the freedom to be the way God made him, just like he says in the church at the end. He wants desperately to somehow fit in, but he won't do it at the expense of destroying his nature.
Society is the one imposing a mental prison, not Luke. Society will only accept him if he constructs a prison around his free spirit.
In the end they both get destroyed, but for different reasons: McMurphy because forces of evil cannot stand truth and light in their midst, while Luke gets destroyed because he wanted it that way. McMurphy could not help but let his light shine; Luke had no light to let shine; he only did not heed repeated warnings from prison authorities.
Luke had no light to let shine? What movie were you watching? In One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, you portray the institution requiring conformity as the forces of evil, but in Cool Hand Luke, you portray the institution requiring conformity as only providing reasonable warnings that Luke refuses to heed? I don't know what to say other than that's a selective analysis that couldn't be more off base.
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Nobody-27
11 years ago
"So you give McMurphy a complete pass for statutory rape when he was 38 and the girl was 15 or 16..."
Yes, me and the supreme court of Ireland for instance:
"In May 2006, the Irish Supreme Court found the existing statutory rape laws to have been unconstitutional since they prevented the defendant from entering a defense (e.g., that he had reasonably believed that the other party was over the age of consent)"
I think that was not only clear in my original post, but also explained as to - why. Consensual sex is perfectly OK. We can find 1000 reasons how or why that law can be broken without it hurting anyone. There is nothing natural, or poetic about a drunk idiot destroying public property. There is a lot of natural, and even inspirational about love, sexual relationships and so on. I find it hard to believe that you cannot see the difference in importance and above all - value of those two activities.
When it comes to public property, drinking and so on, there is ZERO excuse to do it. It can seem "heroic" or interesting only to a very shallow mind which cannot understand that cutting parking meters, no matter how drunk one is, IS a call to be arrested. That is why we put drunk drivers in jails and punish those who are senselessly destructive.
Considering that the original story was written by an ex-con, I am not surprised that the overall story is so shallow anyway. But I am surprised that anyone can find it least bit interesting or comparable to One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.
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ck1-5
11 years ago
It's been a while since I last viewed this film, but doesn't Luke make a comment about the parking meter incident along the lines of "settling old scores"? Not that it was the brightest thing to do, but it alludes to the fact that he considered it retaliation for something from his past.
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Nobody-27
11 years ago
Nothing poetic about retaliation - only low motives.
And McMurphy did say that the girl he was with did not look like she was a teenager but much older. (don't remember the exact quote right now, it's been a while since I saw it last time)
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ck1-5
11 years ago
What would you expect him to say....that he knew she was 15, but did it anyway?
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