The film remains as fresh, shocking, depressing and exhilarating as when it was released.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:46
Fresh:44
Rotten:2
Average Rating:8.8/10
Consensus: The onscreen battle between Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher serves as a personal microcosm of the culture wars of the 1970s -- and testament to the director's vision that the film retains its power more than three decades later.
Runtime: 2 hrs 16 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Milos Foreman's ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, based on the novel by Ken Kesey and the play by Dale Wasserman, presents a biting and ultimately tragic satire about mental institutions and the... Milos Foreman's ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, based on the novel by Ken Kesey and the play by Dale Wasserman, presents a biting and ultimately tragic satire about mental institutions and the human spirit. A disturbing, witty, and electrifying drama, the film won the 1975 Academy Award for Best Picture. R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), a misbehaved con who shirks authority, finds himself in an asylum after faking insanity to get out of work detail in prison. The vivacious troublemaker soon finds himself in a worse kind of prison--one presided over by the repressed, terrifyingly quiet Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher), whose set of rules and regulations are meant to suppress patients' psychotic outbursts, and their spirits. It's not long before McMurphy is reaching out to his new inmates, trying desperately to bring life to an otherwise dead atmosphere. To Ratched, however, Nicholson's free spirit is as dangerous as a schizophrenic impulse. ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST is brilliantly acted by an ensemble that includes Brad Dourif, Christopher Lloyd, Vincent Schiavelli, and Danny DeVito. [More]
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, William Redfield, Danny DeVito
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, William Redfield, Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Will Sampson, Brad Dourif, Michael Berryman, Peter Brocco, William Duell, Nathan George, Paul Lambert, Sydney Lassick, Ted Markland, Louisa Moritz, Vincent Schiavelli, Mwako Cumbuka, Dean R. Brooks, Marya Small
Director: Milos Forman
Director: Milos Forman
Screenwriter: Lawrence Hauben, Bo Goldman
Story: Ken Kesey
Producer: Michael Douglas, Saul Zaentz
Composer: Jack Nitzsche
Reviews for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Set in an insane asylum, the film involves the oppression of the individual, a struggle spearheaded by an ebullient Nicholson, turning in a star performance if ever there was one.
As direct and simple as it is funny and moving, this is a masterpiece of dramatic naturalism.
Dealing with insanity, Cuckoo qualifies as an experience many will feel deeply and pass on to others.
Ken Kesey's grim satire of institutionalized authority, bracingly filmed by Milos Forman.
Jack Nicholson stars in an outstanding characterization of Ken Kesey's asylum anti-hero, McMurphy, and Milos Forman's direction of a superbly-cast film is equally meritorious.
One of a small number of Best Picture winners to deserve the statuette.
Along with It Happened One Night and The Silence of the Lambs, these are the only three films to win all four major Oscars (actor, actress, director, picture). It's still the only film to deserve it.
Without hesitation my No. 1 favorite of all time. At once a comedy and a tragedy, hilarious and heartbreaking, few films have ever achieved such a level of excellence.
The genius of the film is that you never feel you're being preached at, but rather being allowed a fly-on-the-wall view of a systematic crushing of humanity.
Jack Nicholson plays McMurphy as if he were born to it, and the supporting cast provides fine, detailed performances.
A terrific adaptation of Ken Kensey's 1962 novel (first done as play) that became timelier in the 1970s, positing a free-spirited anti-establishment hero (the excellent Jack Nicholson) against repressive authoritarianism, embodied by Fletcher's nurse.
Jack Nicholson is McMurphy in all his roguish and rebellious fullness. He exudes energy, quick wit, and the willpower not to be broken by the System.
Latest News for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
June 22, 2007:
AFI Announces Top 100 Movies of All Time ... Again
Ten years ago the AFI gave us a list of the Top 100 American Films Ever Made -- and when that was done they churned out 15 other lists every few years. And then last night they... More...
July 11, 2006:
Natalie Portman Will Do Naked in Next Film
This one's for all you Portman pervs out there -- the erstwhile Queen Amidala is set to go fully nude in her upcoming pic "Goya's Ghosts," in which she plays the... More...
January 03, 2006:
Vincent Schiavelli Passes at 57
Character actor Vincent Schiavelli, the long-faced veteran of over 150 film and television appearances, died of lung cancer December 26 at home in Sicily. He was 57 years old. More...
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