Not without flaws

Rating: 8/10 (17 February 2014)

This is a very fine movie in many ways, most of which were rightly recognised on its release. It is marred, though, by a script (possibly accurately reproducing the tone of the source novel, which I've not read) which has an overly simplistic approach to its characters, in particular to its protagonist McMurphy and his nemesis Nurse Ratched. McMurphy is our typical anti-hero, held up for our approval in spite of being an unrepentant apologist for grim offences; whilst Nurse Ratched is shown no mercy (and therefore given no depth) by the authors. This could have made for a two-dimensional movie. Fortunately the actors reached way beyond the binary world they were presented with and infused their characters with, in Nicholson's case, roguish charm and, in Louise Fletcher's case, inner complexity. They are both magnificent and richly deserved every award they won for their performances.
They are superbly supported by a remarkable crew of scene-stealers - Danny Devito, Sydney Lassick, Scatman Carruthers, Christopher Lloyd, William Redfield, Will Sampson - and by a quietly effective, apparently one-off performance by Lan Fendors as Ratched's assistant nurse.
The polarities of the film - conformism/individualism, control/freedom - are eternally important themes in our lives. In Milos Forman the film had a director who completely understood the significance of the material, crafting a film of real power with his DOP Haskell Wexler. But to me its message is weakened by the way its women - with the exception of Ms Fendors' taciturn nurse - are polarised as either dragons or whores. I've read that before Ms Fletcher was offered the role of Nurse Ratched, a number of actresses had turned it down because of the script was so misogynistic. This demonstrates why Ms Fletcher's achievement is so great: she carefully sidestepped the dragon the script offered up, instead creating someone altogether more difficult to write off in such simple terms. It is an outstanding performance, and remains the best reason to revisit this film.