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Director Miloš Forman (Amadeus, The People vs Larry Flynt) adapts Ken Kesey’s novel about R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), a trouble-making convict who enters psychiatric care to avoid hard labor. While there, he befriends the patients — a motley bunch with assorted disorders or neuroses — and encourages them to defy their stern overseer, Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher). But when McMurphy pushes Ratched to her limits, she reveals that she alone wields the power to release him from her care, leading to a dramatic battle of wills with tragic consequences.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a powerfully engrossing drama elevated by Nicholson’s charismatic, darkly comedic performance. Forman takes a ‘fly on the wall’ approach to directing that makes us feel like voyeurs in the psychiatric hospital setting. The story gets surprisingly tense as McMurphy and Ratched’s power struggle heads toward its climax. But the film is also rich with discussion-worthy subtext about men and masculinity, including the healing power of male camaraderie and the sinister effects of imposing shame on men’s lives. Even though this film is fifty years old, it takes on provocative new meanings in the age of so-called ‘toxic masculinity’.
This may be Nicholson’s most quintessential performance, but his is just one of many stellar performances in this film. Louise Fletcher is calculatedly chilling as one of filmdom’s most celebrated villains. The supporting cast is an embarrassment of riches, featuring Danny DeVito (Romancing the Stone) and Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future) as two of McMurphy’s more colorful fellow patients. Brad Dourif (Child’s Play, Wise Blood) was Oscar-nominated for his supporting performance as the youngest under Ratched’s care, and Will Sampson (Poltergeist II: The Other Side) is memorable as the mute, towering Native American who becomes McMurphy’s closest confidant.
The film won the ‘top 5’ Academy Awards (Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay), a fete achieved by only two other films in history (The Silence of the Lambs and It Happened One Night).
With Vincent Schiavelli, Scatman Crothers, Sydney Lassick, and William Redfield.
Academy Awards: Best Picture, Director, Actor (Jack Nicholson), Actress (Louise Fletcher), Adapted Screenplay
Oscar Nominations: Supporting Actor (Brad Dourif), Cinematography (Haskell Wexler, Bill Butler), Film Editing, Score (Jack Nitzsche)