Jack Nicholson's Best Performance

Rating: 8/10 (6 March 2012)

Jack Nicholson is at his best in this classic Oscar award winner from 1975. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST is one of only three movies in the history of the Academy awards to win the "big five" in it's year: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, and Best Actress. For the uninitiated who might not recognize the scope of such an achievement, just know that's incredibly rare and very impressive. The film is based on the novel of the same name, written by Ken Kesey (whose renowned in other circles for his band of Merry Pranksters and his electric Kool-Aid acid test in the sixties). The novel was originally based on Kesey's own experiences working as an overnight orderly in a sanitarium, the movie is said to very slightly (the book was written from the first-person perspective of the Chief, a supporting character in the movie) but otherwise remains accurate. Randle P. McMurphy (Nicholson) is transferred from a work farm penitentiary to a psych ward when his penchant for fighting arouses questions of his sanity. McMurphy sees his new home in the ward as a chance to cruise an easy life until he is released but fails to realize when it entails. The ward is overseen by the strict Nurse Ratched, a cold-hearted woman who takes her position unwaveringly seriously and shows little interest in seeing her patients as human beings. In his time at the ward, McMurphy makes it his goal to inject a little life into his new "feeble-minded" friends and light a fire under Nurse Ratched's miserable rule.
Nicholson rightfully won the Academy award for his role here as McMurphy. It's probably my favorite role he's done; one of his best, right up there with his insane performance in THE SHINING. He's an over-confident, free-spirited goofball and you immediately rally with him on his crusade against Ratched. He struts into the ward one day and immediately rattles the establishment. His explosive approach to life begins to work more effectively on the patients that anything Nurse Ratched has attempted. For the first time, the patients on the ward are speaking their minds and it isn't sitting well with the staff. Louise Fletcher is the iconic Nurse Ratched, a performance that has been paid homage to hundreds of times over the years. Ratched is considered one of the top cinematic "villains" of all time, but I have a hard time buying into that. Ratched is a horrible person, no doubt about that (and played to cold perfection by Fletcher). But she doesn't come across to me as someone who's inherently evil. She's just doing her job and happens to totally lack in compassion. Her perpetual restrained anger and steadfast desire to follow procedure, regardless of how miserable it leaves the residents of the ward, makes for a fun conflict between her and McMurphy. Still, as great as Nicholson and Fletcher are, the real scene-stealers in this film are the exceptional supporting cast.
Let's name some of the highlights: Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd (in his first major film role), character actor Vincent Schiavelli, and the debut of Brad Dourif. The patients on the ward are a great collection of eccentric performances and great personalities. DeVito is hilarious as Martini, a feeble-minded man who appears to find infantile joy in just about everything, and Lloyd is downright psychotic as Taber. He plays the character with just a hint of rage inside (you can see if in the end as he's staring on during the final McMurphy/Ratched confrontation), but enough that you kind of wonder how he's allowed with the general populace. As for Dourif, I didn't even recognize him the first time I saw the movie. He does an amazing job for his first major film and I'm a bit surprised he went on to more eccentric genre performances than valuable dramatic roles. And these are just the recognizable faces in the crew; everyone in the ward does an astounding job of earning the audiences affections, especially Sydney Lassick as Cheswick. It's impossible not to feel sorry for the poor guy as he begins to cling to McMurphy, practically idolizing him. The cast in this movie is superb and the best part of the experience. The movie itself is engaging and contains some of the most iconic moments in recent cinema history (the Chief's escape has been parodied just about everywhere). It can move a littler slower at times and it sort of gets off track for a moment when the patients take a field trip, courtesy of McMurphy. Otherwise, it's a totally engaging film and a memorable experience.