Nicholson's best

Rating: 10/10 (9 February 2012)

R.P.Mcmurphy(Nicholson), a petty criminal cons his way out of prison by acting crazy and being sent to a psychiatric hospital. What begins as a comedic performance gradually transforms into a tragic and brilliant one by Nicholson; he owns the screen. This is as good as it gets.
His counterpart is nurse Ratched(Louise Fletcher), the personification of evil. She runs the ward at the hospital and the power struggle between the two is gripping and in the end heartbreaking. The third great performance is that of Will Sampson as an apparently mute Native American with troubles of his own.
Milos Forman's direction is minimal, allowing the great cast to appear to be ad libbing the story. The characters are so believable and natural that this has the look of a documentary. This remains on my 10 best films of all time list.