I believe that the reason why Ken Kesey didn’t like the film based off of his novel, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is because of some choices that the film director made for the film.
One reason why I believe that Ken Kesey wouldn’t have liked the film is because the entire movie concentrated on the character of MacMurphy. Because of this Chief is not the films main focus, even though he was a very important part of the book. In the film MacMurphy did continue to show the men that they could rebel against the strict confines that Mrs. Ratched had them under; always saying things to provoke them like, “Which one of you nuts has got any guts?” (Foreman) but the film missed out on the perspective of the main character, Chief.
In Kesey’s book, everything is seen through the eyes of Chief. But in the film it is seen from third person point of view. Because of this the film misses out on some of the most important parts of the book, including the extended metaphor of fog and machines that Kesey uses throughout the book. For example, in one scene Chief doesn’t take his medicine and wakes up in the middle of the night hallucinating. “...But there’s no blood or innards falling out like I was looking to see- just a shower of rust and ashes, and now and again a piece or wire or glass.” (Kesey 81). Personally I believe that the entire purpose of the book was to show you inside of Chief’s mind, including the way he thinks and how he sees things that happen around him.
When the film was made the directors “offered Kesey $10,000 to do the screenplay. Kesey wrote it—as he had the book—from the viewpoint of the schizophrenic Indian chief Bromden. The moviemakers wanted to tell the story, however, through another inmate, Randle McMurphy. Kesey returned to the typewriter but says he was not paid for subsequent rewrites.” (Riley)
Outside Source: http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20066279,00.html
