Its resigned yet hopeful portrayal of spirited non-conformity touched a nerve.

Rating: 10/10 (18 September 2010)

A charismatic rebel (Jack Nicholson) in a psychiatric hospital enlists the help of his fellow patients in stirring up trouble against the authorities, personified by a dictatorial nurse (Louise Fletcher).
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a wildly and unexpectedly commercial film of a project which had lain dormant for 14 years, this amusing and horrifying work captured the dissident spirit of its time, with a beguiling central performance from Nicholson that immediately marshals audience sympathy. Impeccably thought through in every department, it swept all the major Academy Awards, and understandably so: it's impossible to ignore. In 1993, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in their National Film Registry.