ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST (1975) dir: Milos Forman
based on the novel by Ken Kesey
Producers: Michael Douglas, Saul Zaentz
Script: Bo Goldman, Lawrence Hauben
Cinematographer: Haskell Wexler
Score: Jack Nitzchke
Cast:
Jack Nicholson
Louise Fletcher
Danny Devito
Scatman Crothers
Will Sampson
Christopher Lloyd
Brad Dourif
McMurphy
Nurse Ratched
Martini
Orderly Turkle
Chief Bromden
Taber
Billy Bibbit
McMurphy thinks he can get out of doing work while in prison by pretending to be mad. His plan backfires
when he is sent to a mental asylum. He tries to liven the place up a bit by playing card games and
basketball with his fellow inmates, but the head nurse is after him at every turn.
McMurphy has been dating a fifteen year old (fifteen going on thirty-five) and is sentenced for a short term
for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Rather than spend his time in jail, he convinces the guards
that he's crazy enough to need psychiatric care and is sent to a hospital. He fits in frighteningly well, and
his different point of view actually begins to cause some of the patients to progress. Nurse Ratched
becomes his personal cross to bear as his resistence to the hospital routine gets on her nerves.
This film based on the novel by Ken Kesey is the one of the greatest dramatic films of all time. The story is
clever with a nice twist in the tale. Jack Nicholson delivers one of his greatest performances and at least his
most memorable (although he has come close since this one). Louise Fletcher and the rest of the cast do a
pretty good job keeping up with Nicholson. . This funny and sentimental motion picture is so fascinating
and entertaining at the very same time, you just have to like it. It is never boring or too sentimental, never
dull or unbelievable. In one word this movie, directed by Milos Forman, is superb.
Source: imdb.com
Winner of 5 Oscars including:Best Picture, Best Actor (Nicholson), Best Actress (Fletcher)
Best Supporting Actor (Brad Dourif), Best Editing and Best Cinematography, Best Score (Jack Nitzchke)
Considered an “Independent Film” as it was financed outside the Hollywood studio system, it still
had its roots in mainstream film as it starred Jack Nicholson who’s popularity was cemented by
this film and actor, Michael Douglas, who went on to produce a string of hugely successful
movies: China Syndrome, Romancing the Stone, Face/Off, The Rainmaker.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) is one of the greatest American films of all time - a
$4.4 million dollar effort directed by Czech Milos Forman. Its allegorical theme is set in
the world of an authentic mental hospital (Oregon State Hospital in Salem, Oregon), a
place of rebellion exhibited by a energetic, flamboyant, wise-guy anti-hero against the
Establishment, institutional authority and status-quo attitudes (personified by the
patients' supervisory nurse). [Forman himself noted that the asylum was a metaphor for
the Soviet Union (embodied as Nurse Ratched) and the desire to escape.] Expressing his
basic human rights and impulses, the protagonist protests against heavy-handed rules
about watching the World Series, and illegally stages both a fishing trip and a drinking
party in the ward - leading to his own paralyzing lobotomy.
Jack Nicholson's acting persona as the heroic rebel McMurphy, who lives free or dies
(through an act of mercy killing), had earlier been set with his performances in Easy Rider
(1969) and Five Easy Pieces (1970)The mid-70s baby-boomers' counter-culture was ripe for
a film dramatizing rebellion and insubordination against oppressive bureaucracy and an
insistence upon rights, self-expression, and freedom.
The role of the sexually-repressed, domineering Nurse Ratched was turned down by five
actresses - Anne Bancroft, Colleen Dewhurst, Geraldine Page, Ellen Burstyn, and Angela
Lansbury - until Louise Fletcher accepted casting (in her debut film) only a week before
filming began. And actor James Caan was also originally offered the lead role of
McMurphy, and Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman were considered as well.
It surprised everyone by becoming enormously profitable - the seventh-highest-grossing
film ever (at its time), bringing in almost $300 million worldwide.
source: Filmsite.org
Milos Forman Hollywood Filmography:
Taking Off (1971) Hair (1979) Ragtime (1981) Amadeus (1984)
Valmont (1989) The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)