Critical Discourse Analysis on the Movie "Flying Over the Cuckoo's Nest"

This study examines the critical discourse of the film “Flying over a Cuckoo's Nest”. The present study is a descriptive and analytical study and the Fairclough critical discourse analysis approach has been used for analysis. The theories of Fairclough, Foucault, and Goffman have also been used in this research. Research findings show that there are four discourses in the movie “Flying Over the Cuckoo's Nest”. The first discourse is discipline. Discipline is applied to the mentally ill through members of the mental hospital. The second discourse is the deconstructive discourse in which mental patients within the hospital oppose the structures that exist in the mental hospital. The third discourse is motivational discourse. The film also shows that the mentally ill are stigmatized by the mental hospital, the family, and ultimately members of society, and finally, the discourse of power is seen in the film, power being imposed on the mentally ill by hospital members. Among the most prominent characters in this film are Nurse Rachd, who is a symbol of power, and Murphy who is a symbol of freedom and liberation, and in fact the main protagonist of the film, who intends to free the mentally ill and, according to Foucault, insane people from disciplinary institutions.