DGA Monthly

N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 5 I 7 "It's a beautiful introduction to a dialogue scene, reverse angles on Jack and on the doctor. Two talking heads, one representing authority and the clever smartass challenging it. Nicholson's got star quality on his face. I'm hooked. It looks like Forman shot the scene with one camera, because otherwise you'd see the second one in the over-the- shoulders. I like the simplicity of it and the fact that Spivey's a non- actor. He is so believable. The challenge as a filmmaker is to create a credible universe, and Forman was walking a thin line between doing a slapstick comedy or a drama. But he made a beautiful drama with humor that isn't over the top. There's a lot of humor here between McMurphy and Spivey; the two of them obviously don't belong to the same world. The contrast is nice." When McMurphy joins the patients for group therapy, led by Nurse Ratched, her large key ring jangles on her arm during the opening calisthenics. "Such a nice detail to link a sound to a character," says Vallée. "He did it when he introduces her, too. Not only did we hear the keys, but we see her opening and latching the door with them: authority." As the therapy session continues and McMurphy twice prods Nurse Ratched by shuffling his pornographic playing cards, Vallée continues on Forman's subtle use of sound. "I like what he did with the sound of the cards. You don't see McMurphy shuffling; we're on Billy [Brad Dourif], who turns his head very quickly toward the noise. Then Nurse Ratched does the same. Forman uses the sound to cut quickly between people's reactions to each other. McMurphy is in Ratched's point of view a lot here, but I think Miloš did coverage and put it together in the editing room, feeling the thing, getting the right reaction from the right person. That's looking at your material, at each and every character, and giving more importance to Nicholson, who hasn't spoken a word; he's just observing Ratched with looks that say, Are you doing the right thing, Nurse? Forman allows for silence, trusting, and following his characters." Later, after another therapy session, McMurphy leads the ward in a vote to watch the World Series on television. Overruled by Ratched, McMurphy does a mock play-by-play commentary on the action, with only his reflection showing in the darkened TV screen. The other patients get raucous, with Ratched trying to shut it down. As the scene reaches a cacophony, Forman cuts abruptly to the silence of Dr. Spivey's office. — continued on page 8 WHO'S IN CHARGE?: Nurse Ratched (left) makes life miserable for the inmates. "These quick edits that he does with a violent sound change are a great way to establish a time cut," Vallée points out. "I like to do that too—smash cut from one world to another. It creates rhythm. Loud, then whoops! Quiet. Pay attention. The contrast gets the audience asking questions." Tensions escalate in the ward until McMurphy, coming to the aid of another patient, gets into a fight with an orderly. The physically imposing Chief steps in to defend McMurphy and, after another abrupt cut to silence, they find themselves on a bench beside each other, awaiting electroshock treatment in a wide frontal two-shot. McMurphy hands Chief a stick of gum in an insert shot, after which Forman goes to a tighter two. Chief, who everyone had assumed could neither hear nor speak, now reveals that he actually can. "Again, the Director is using a lot of coverage," observes Vallée, as Forman employs reverse angle single shots because McMurphy and Chief have pivoted to speak to each other. "He's cutting for performance and was absolutely right to go angle, reverse angle at the end. At the top of the scene they're not looking at each other. Then Chief says, 'Thank you.' Forman stays frontal, McMurphy starts to laugh at the fact that Chief fooled everybody. Cut to an angled shot of McMurphy speaking quietly to Chief about escaping. We need to see the emotion on his face, and if Forman had stayed on the frontal shot, we would have only seen McMurphy's profile, which isn't as emotional. Miloš lets the story be character- and emotion-driven rather than style- driven, letting performance lead." Committed to an escape plan, McMurphy throws a clandestine, boozy going-away party for the ward. The patients trash the place and, before taking his leave through the window with Chief, McMurphy arranges a "date" between his girlfriend, who's there to meet him, and the innocent Billy. After things in the ward settle down and the patients have all passed out, Forman holds McMurphy in a quiet, extended close-up as he observes his comrades strewn about. "That's a lot of things going on in this one close-up," says Vallée, excited by the shot. "McMurphy sits and laughs about Billy, then becomes serious. [He's thinking] What the hell am I doing? We haven't sat this long on him before and now we have the time to analyze this guy. We hear a train and he looks out the window toward freedom. He smiles again, looks inside, and then the scene cuts to the next

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