Great film of its time

Rating: 7/10 (17 July 2005)

I just watched "One Flew" for the first time in 30 years, having seen it in the theater as a kid way back in 1975, when I was ten years old. It definitely holds up well, although there's no doubt that Nicholson's performance makes the film. Without him, you can easily see how many scenes would drag and be downright boring.
One thing I noticed upon viewing, is that Nurse Ratched isn't nearly the mean nurse she is made out to be whenever this film is discussed. Sure, she seems to have a "fakeness" many times when she caters to the mental patients, but she really isn't that bad at all. It isn't until the end, when she threatens Billy with telling his mother he slept with the girl, knowing he has suicidal tendencies, that she seems wicked. But until then, she really isn't so bad.
And nothing against Louise Fletcher, who does a decent job at playing Nurse Ratched, but winning best actress? For what? She pretty much never really does anything more here than give icy stares, and while she certainly played the part well, it really had to be a very weak year in the "Best Actress" category. She's a very decent actress as we've seen in her other films, but she just doesn't have to do much here at all.
Ratched even looks kind of hot sometimes, and her fellow nurse, whatever her name is, is very hot indeed. She is definitely something nice to look at whenever the film tends to drag a bit. It is also fun picking out the 70's cars in the outdoors scenes, when the film is set in '63. The Pinto and Duster are great! The appearance of Scatman Crothers was a surprise as I completely forgot he was in the film, and his scenes led to some (probably unintentionally) funny sequences with The Scatman doing his thing.
But this is definitely better than most films of the time, mainly because Jack Nicholson is just so darn good. This isn't something I'd be in a rush to see again, but one viewing is good, and the deleted scenes on the DVD were interesting.