Urge for freedom

Rating: 10/10 (2 September 2009)

Randle Patrick Mcmurphy, who is serving a short sentence on a prison farm for statutory rape, is transferred to a mental institution.He doesn't get along with the tyrant-like nurse Ratchet.He knows he wants to get out of that place, to be free.He gets the other patients excited, as well.He befriends with a big Indian, who doesn't speak.Maybe he is his way to freedom.This is a great drama, that also has a lot of humor in it.DeVito's character is someone who brings a smile on your face.And when they go fishing on a boat after McMurphy (Nicholson) steals the bus.Many of the actors got actually seasick.The party scene, that brings a lot of trouble to Crother's character is a lot of laughs.And then the drama.The group session scenes are full of drama.Like when Bibbitt (Dourif) talks about his troubles.Or after the party, when he takes his own life because the nurse from hell threats to talk to his mother about him sleeping with that girl.One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) is directed by the Czech born director Milos Forman.The movie came from the novel (1962) by Ken Kesey, which I haven't read.Then there was a play version, and finally the movie came.The casting is perfect.Jack Nicholson does the role of the lifetime in the lead.Louise Fletcher, a perfect choice to play nurse Mildred "Big Nurse" Ratched.She represents the evil in the movie, but she doesn't see she's doing anything wrong.Will Sampson is huge and really great as Chief Bromden.We can thank Mel Lambert, who plays Harbor Master, for finding Will.His father happened to be an Indian agent.Dean R. Brooks, who plays Dr. John Spivey, was at the time the actual head of the Oregon State Hospital.Harding is playd by the amazing William Redfield.A tragic thing about this actor.He was diagnosed with leukemia during shooting by Dr. Brooks.He told he'd have about 18 months to live, and about 18 months later he died.Yet he stayed in the picture until the very end.The marvelous Scatman Crothers portrays Turkle the janitor.He got the part with the help from his friend, Jack Nicholson.The music done by Jack Nitzche is really beautiful and haunting.There was a musical saw and crystal glass involved.I've seen the movie a couple of times in the past.Now I saw it on DVD, where you could also listen to the commentary track by director Forman and producers Michael Douglas and Saul Zaentz.Michael's father Kirk Douglas, who was in the play actually possessed the movie rights for a long time before his son started the project.This is a true masterpiece that works on so many levels.In the movie we have this R.P. McMurphy, who plants the seed in these other patients, the seed of freedom.He is free, in the end, he has lobotomy done to him, but he's freed by the Chief, who suffocates him with the pillow and says: Let's go.