A rebellious convict is sent to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation in 1963 Oregon, and encourages his docile companions to take more control of their lives and defy the tyrannical head nurse.
Directed by Milos Forman, who won the Academy Award for Best Director and also years later for “Amadeus,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” serves as a milestone in American cinema. Based on the book by Ken Kesey, the narrative chronicles the adventures of Randall Patrick (R.P. McMurphy) played by Jack Nicholson who lands in a mental hospital through his efforts to escape hard labor on a work farm for statutory rape.
The hospital is run by Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher), an overbearing and sadistic administrator bent on controlling the inmates, most of whom have entered and stay in the facility voluntarily. Ratched’s mental cruelty manifests itself most conspicuously with Billy Bibbit (Brad Dourif in his first on-screen appearance). Bibbit is an impressionable and troubled young man whom McMurphy sort of takes under his wing. Ratched torments her victim with an antiseptically cold calculation that will leave viewers breathless. Her Academy Award for Best Actress is well-deserved.
McMurphy befriends an ostensibly deaf-mute Chief Bromden (Will Sampson), a stoic giant of a figure seemingly out of place in an asylum. When McMurphy learns that his original prison term does not apply to his term at the hospital and that he could be held indefinitely, he plots with Chief Bromden to escape. The supporting cast is superb and includes Scatman Crothers, Danny DeVito, and Christopher Lloyd, among several others.
Nicholson finally won Best Actor for this film after having lost out three previous times for “Five Easy Pieces,” “The Last Detail,” and perhaps most notably, “Chinatown.” Nicholson quite literally steals the show here as the extremely animated McMurphy, who eventually inspires the whiny yet frustratingly lethargic inmates. “Cuckoo’s Nest” is also notable as one of the few movies to receive the “big five” Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted (or original) Screenplay – the only others films to have achieved this distinction are “It Happened One Night” and “The Silence of the Lambs.”
Kirk Douglas purchased the film rights with the intention of playing the lead role. Development and production took thirteen years, however, and Michael Douglas ended up producing the film with a different cast than initially planned.
More detailed plotlines can easily be found on the internet. Perhaps more interesting are aspects of the production. Ken Kesey, for example, essentially sold his life’s masterwork for a paltry $20,000, with no residual or profit-sharing rights to Kirk Douglas. The lifelong friendship between Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito began on the set. And later to play the iconic Doc Emmett Brown in “Back to the Future,” Christopher Lloyd appeared for the first time in front of movie-going audiences.
The subtext of the narrative addresses institutional authority and its potential for abuse. Jack Nicholson’s character represents the rejection of conventional acceptance of that authority and an admonition against blind obedience, though such insurgence does not come without cost.
An unequivocal critical and commercial success, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” rightly takes its place among the true gems of American filmmaking. The newly released 4K Ultra HD™ format brings this classic into even sharper clarity – not to be missed.
Now available on 4K Ultra HD™
11k
19.8k
1.5k
1.8k