Simply Extraordinary

Rating: 10/10 (7 February 2010)

Absolutely inspired motion picture. This masterpiece courtesy of Milos Forman, who would later go on to sweep the Oscars with his powerful biopic Amadeus (Mozart), came a year after Jack Nicholsen impressed critics and fans alike in Roman Polanski's Chinatown. For me, Chinatown was heavy, compelling but still lacking in something I can't quite figure out. Maybe it's the fact that I don't particularly respect Polanski as a person nor admire him as a skilled director (I though that The Pianist was probably the most excruciatingly depressing 2 hours of my life). On the contrary, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest is an extraordinary feat by Forman, Nicholsen and the whole production team.
The film centres on Randle McMurphy, played so well by Nicholsen that it's almost outrageous, who is sentenced to a mental institution with the powerfully ironic fact that he quite simply isn't insane at all. McMurphy is brash, revolutionary and ill-attentive towards the power-hungry and autocratically-driven Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) who appears to shake the patients, who voluntarily admit themselves into the ward with the exception of few, into spineless freaks. However, McMurphy teaches the group of inmates how to rebel and eventually grows quite close to The Chief, who is believed to be unable to speak.
Flawlessly provoking the debate whether or not McMurphy is insane or not, Forman engages the audience into observing all of the seemingly insane activities and adventures that he embarks in including escaping from the institution, stealing a bus full of patients and stealing a boat which certainly captured my imagination.
Fletcher is excellent in her role of Nurse Ratched (interesting name) where she employs a somewhat dictatorship that crumbles the souls of the patients into a cowardly and pathetic group of men. Her conflict with McMurphy, which bubbles exquisitely throughout the show, is very compelling and equally frustrating as due to the fact that McMurphy suffers a lobotomy, leaving him vegetable-like, therefore leaving the idea that Ratched has emerged victorious in her battle for power with McMurphy. Meh, I don't believe that to be the case, McMurphy still leads an unchangeable impact on the patients and inspires his good friend Chief to escape at the end of the film.
A mouthwatering blend of supreme acting ability, a script that flowed effortlessly and admirable efforts in editing and cinematography help one not be at all surprised that this masterpiece swept the Grand Slam at the Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay original or adapted.
This for me is also Nicholsen's finest hour as although he has impressed me in pretty much everything I have seen him in, this trumps all of his other efforts. Such presence, charisma and energy on screen is dynamite and helps one understand why he is one of the most influential and popular personalities in cinema history.
10/10. One of those films that you simply must see before you die!