One of the Greatest Ever Made

Rating: Null/10 (13 November 2014)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
**** (out of 4)
What can one say about this masterpiece that hasn't already been said? Winner of five Academy Awards, director Milos Foreman's ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST is without question one of the greatest movies ever made and I think it also contains some of the greatest assembled acting that you're ever going to witness.
Randle McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) is put into a hospital where he's going to be evaluated and right from the start this rebel butts heads with the main nurse (Louise Fletcher). That's pretty much all you need to know about the story because the great characters and the remarkable story just captures you and doesn't let you go until the end credits.
There's a lot of credit that deserves to be shared in why this film is so special but you really have to start with Nicholson. If you look at his filmography during this period, it's really remarkable to see the type of roles he was doing. It's also easy to see how these type of films certainly wouldn't be made in today's age and time. Today rebels are shown to be tough guys with no weak spots but films like FIVE EASY PIECES, CARNAL KNOWLEDGE and this one show that the tough rebel can also be highly flawed and not always win.
Nicholson's performance here is simply flawless and there's not one false move throughout. It doesn't matter if he's just laughing at what's going on around him or connecting with one of the other characters. It's really hard to think of anyone in the history of cinema doing more with the role than what Nicholson did. Fletcher is also extremely good but for other reasons. It's not so much her "performance" but the simple ways she looks at the other characters. She expresses so much with her eyes that you can see why she's able to get the Nicholson character to bring out so much anger and rage. The supporting cast members are all flawless in their own right and really make this one of the most memorable assemble pieces ever put together. Brad Dourif certainly deserves special attention as the troubled Billy.
Everything from the music score to the editing to the way the story is build is done with such perfection that I really have no problem in calling this one of the greatest films ever made. The film is full of emotional highs and lo's but this is yet another reason it's so memorable.