WARNING! The following text may contain plot spoilers.One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, (1975) directed by Milos Forman, is One of the Greatest Films of all times. Here at PVP, we tip our hats to Forman's ability to depict incredibly charged themes of Americana; artistically achieving broad popular appeal without diluting the cultural poigniency of the issues.
Every Friday in February, PVP Headquarters is playing host to a series of films, all of which exhibit at least one Buffalo Plaid cameo tucked somewhere into the costume detail. This week, in honor of the Milos Forman Retrospective at the MoMA, our featured feature was One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and we were lucky enough to have Mr. Forman join us for the evening to introduce the film. In his introductory words, Forman noted that the Asylum was a metaphor for the Soviet Union and lobotomy of enforced Communist Dictatorship embodied by Nurse Rached. He also reminded us that, as is the case with all of the films that include plaid garments in their wardrobe trunks, the plaid in Cuckoo's Nest, appearing as the coat worn by Scanlon during the patients' fishing boat adventure, was not an arbitrary costume choice.
In the circle discussion following the screening, (Unfortunately, no amount groveling nor baked goods could to persuade MIlos to stick around for the chitter chatter...) It was argued by the staunch symbolism enthusiasts of the group, that besides the obvious connotations of the color of RED, the equal distribution of both the RED and BLACK squares of the Buffalo's weave, could quite possibly be seen as a metaphor for the classless, anti-capitalist ideology of the Communist socioeconomic system. The argument grew rather heated and the nature of the beast being unanimously stubborn, it came down to a show of hands. The vote ended in a 9 to 9 split, though half of us had gotten so mad that we had already left by the time the voting happened, and by default were counted "NAY."
(After dedicated hours of rummaging through hundreds of dusty banker's boxes at the storage locker, the PVP, IRT (Image Reconnaissance Team) was still unable to unearth a still photo of Scanlon's plaid coat from the movie. So instead, we are featuring an image form the dress rehearsal (NOTE: the bathrobe) of a stage version of Ken Kesey's novel of the same name put on by the Artist's Repertory Theatre (ART) in Fresno, California.)
