One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

Naturally, after reading the book, I had to watch the movie, directed by Milos Forman and starring Jack Nicholson. The movie won Academy Awards for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture in 1975. I was surprised to see many other familiar faces among the cast. I thought the movie played fairly true to the novel, particularly in showing how much some people disregard the human condition. There are many ways to live a life and it is very difficult to judge another's.

Nicholson does a fine job of portraying McMurphy, the rebellious mental patient. I especially enjoyed the scene in which, having been denied the privilege of watching the World Series on television, McMurphy sits down in front of a lifeless TV and begins giving a mock-broadcast to the delight of the other patients on the ward.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest – Ken Kesey

A story about a feisty, confrontational man, McMurphy, who is admitted to an mental institution after some violent disputes which occurred while he was serving time on work detail as a prisoner. Revelations of his questionable past suggest he is a little headstrong, but also, perhaps, simply the victim of human indiscretion. As a patient in a mental institution, it appears that McMurphy really doesn't belong in such a facility. His zeal for life is contagious and he tries to rally the patients to break out of their malaise, which ultimately brings him up against the authorities of the institution.

The book challenges notions about what determines a man's sanity and finally suggests that man must take control of his own life and not let other people control it. The story is told through one of the patients, Chief Broom, a Native American, who had fooled everyone in the institution into believing that he was dumb: that he could neither speak nor hear. These are his observations and, as he documents the story of McMurphy, Chief Broom began to reign in his personal fears and, eventually, took matters into his own hands for the book's surprise ending.

Soundings: (small circles the world makes – Guatam Verma

Released by BlazeVox, this small collection, totaling nineteen pages of poetry, left much to be desired. From something that must be described as experimental, I expected more resonance. Bearing a picture of crop circles on the cover, which suggested an extraterrestrial hoodwink, the contents didn't quite match the allusion, largely based in the world of objects. Objects, not images, which should be the primary stuff of poetry. Based on the title, I thought there would be more of an emphasis on an aural experience and, as a means to convey an image, that would be enough to satisfy me, but the text was unfortunately lacking in that regard as well.

Firstly, as an experiment in form, the methods of presentation weren't particularly exotic or inventive. The majority of the contents was left-aligned, even if it was moved away from he margin. Use of white space seemed excessive or inappropriate. A variation on a Sestina, in which all of the lines in a given stanza ended with the same word, disturbed me. One bright spot was a sonnet, History in 14 lines ... & then 1, which featured words that were blurred and, alongside the main body of the poem, replacement words were listed, all utilizing the same footnote. Modern text manipulation was not utilized in the poem entitled Robert Rauschenberg: Soundings, 1968, which displayed cut-outs of text-blocks pasted onto the paper at slanted angles. It gave the poem a cluttered, though box-y, feel and I wanted a more seamless appearance. I expected an overlapping effect.

Initially, I couldn't tell if I was reading one long poem or not. I am looking for unity in the collection and, after the opening sequence, the collection seemed to lose coherence as a whole. Footnotes appeared throughout the e-book, which weren't used effectively. As an experimental addition to the text, they didn't seem to add the right kind of mystery. As traditional footnotes, they didn't seem to be particularly relevant or informative. Take this footnote, for example:

¹listening: Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms

The footnote appears in a poetic fragment at the top of page eight. A block of white space separates the fragment from a block of text at the bottom of the page, which also mentions Stravinsky. When I reach the block of text which mentions Stravinsky, I am listening to him in my mind. Is it important to mention Stravinsky again in the footnote? Other footnotes seemed simply referential and, if that is the case, they should simply be added to the acknowledgements section at the end of the e-book.

Basically, there was just too much textual manipulation. It obviously distracted from a clearer reading of the actual text. When the reader must spend so much time analyzing the techniques, and writers should make their readers work, there is something lacking in meaning. Form should augment the language of the poems rather than detract from them.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)

Director Tim Burton's remake of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971), based on a book by Roald Dahl, which doesn't really improve upon the original. I like Tim Burton, and will gladly follow wherever he may lead his audience, as his movies are simply fun to watch and he chooses captivating stories to portray, but this one left me wanting more, aside from the wonderful squirrel scene. I'm also a huge Johnny Depp fan and go out of my way to catch his movies, so this was a must see for me.

The special effects in the first movie were outta sight, to use a term from that period, particularly the swirly graphics of text during the oompa loompa songs, which were largely non-existent in this newest version. The initial glimpse of the factory didn't seem very different from the original and the boat ride down the chocolate river was lackluster in comparison. Additionally, I wasn't enthralled by the new oompa loompa songs, which were a little too glamorous for my taste and a bit redundant as all of the oompa loompas were played by one actor.

I heard Tim Burton was trying to remain truer to the original story, although I never read it, but movies aren't books. It's hard to beat Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka in the original movie version, and Depp plays Wonka in a strangely weird and girlish way, which often left me questioning his portrayal of that character rather than just accepting it.