A Cinema Classic

Rating: 10/10 (11 January 2012)

With an insane asylum standing in for everyday society, Milos Forman's 1975 film adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a comically sharp indictment of the Establishment urge to conform. It features Jack Nicholson,Louise Fletcher,William Redfield,Brad Dourif,Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd.The film was the second to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Actor in Lead Role, Actress in Lead Role, Director, and Screenplay) following It Happened One Night in 1934, an accomplishment not repeated until 1991 by The Silence of the Lambs.
Playing crazy to avoid prison work detail, manic free spirit Randle P. McMurphy is sent to the state mental hospital for evaluation. There he encounters a motley crew of mostly voluntary inmates, including cowed mama's boy Billy and silent Native American Chief Bromden, presided over by the icy Nurse Ratched. Ratched and McMurphy recognize that each is the other's worst enemy: an authority figure who equates sanity with correct behavior, and a misfit who is charismatic enough to dismantle the system simply by living as he pleases. McMurphy proceeds to instigate group insurrections large and small, ranging from a restorative basketball game to an unfettered afternoon boat trip and a tragic after-hours party with hookers and booze. Nurse Ratched, however, has the machinery of power on her side to ensure that McMurphy will not defeat her. Still, McMurphy's message to live free or die is ultimately not lost on one inmate, revealing that escape is still possible even from the most oppressive conditions.
Viewed more than 30 years after its release, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest remains a very good motion picture compared to present movies.Jack Nicholson stars in an outstanding characterization of Ken Kesey's asylum anti-hero, McMurphy, and Milos Forman's direction of a superbly-cast film is equally meritorious and a cinema masterpiece.The on screen battle between Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher serves as a personal microcosm of the culture wars of the 1970s -- and testament to the director's vision that the film retains its power more than three decades later.What makes it memorable after so many years is that it remains a marvel of contemporary filmmaking due to its intelligence, entertainment value, and themes such as pondering on life, manhood, and how society can be much scarier than nurses in white coats.A classic indeed.