I can’t remember the first time I saw it but it was a while back, and I loved it then– a helluva movie.

I just caught it on tv by accident, I was late to it but hadn’t missed too much. I ended up watching the whole thing, grinning and foot tapping till the credits rolled. At the first commercial break I grabbed an orange from the fridge with a frown on my face thinking of something Ken Kesey once said, he wouldn’t go see it, said ‘if your daughter was getting raped by the Hells Angels, you wouldn’t go out and watch’. But this time around I found out how much I really loved it.

I don’t wanna play the victim, but I was caught up with Nicholson’s character up at bat, the mud he’s dragged through by Nurse Ratchet reminded me of all the ugly dragons in long skirts and nylons that I went through in school, “Nurse ratchet, she likes a rigged game” McMurphy says after being ripped to desolation. And then there were all those sonsabitches that never got caught because they never cheated, yellow fingered brats, with mom’s sandwich in their lunch sack. It’s like, is this really the side i’m on? these brats don’t have my back. So my foot was tapping, I watched Nicholson steam on the tv screen, he was a grenade bout to explode and maybe that’s what caused my dream that i just had; it was scenes all over again but Toshirō Mifune was in Nicholson’s shoes. He boiled in the meetings and even wore the leather jacket out on the basketball court– it was the same rowdy show, only the hero had been replaced. He sparked and hollered, scowled and glared, even spat out American curses. I really get a kick out of watching those actors that explode like Mifune or De Niro.(Kubrick wanted De Niro for the drill sergeant in ‘Full Metal Jacket’ but thought the audience would feel cheated that he dies half way through) So now if I ever get the chance to read the book, I’ll cast Toshirō Mifune as the blazing and bruised McMurphy with a fitting soundtrack,

1. “Big Rock Candy Mountain” by Harry McClintock
2. “Drifting Too Far From The Shore” by Bill Monroe
3. “The Magic Flute, K. 620: Aria of the Queen of Night” by W.A. Mozart – Capella Istropolitana, Miki Sahashi & Klaus-Peter Modest
4. “The Magic Flute, K. 620: Papageno’s Aria [Instrumental]” by W.A. Mozart – Emil Tabakov & Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra
5. “Mumblin Guitar(live 1959)” by Bo Diddley
6. “When I Got Troubles [Home-Recording]” by Bob Dylan