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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a 1975 film directed by Miloš Forman. The film is an adaptation of the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. The movie was the first to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Actor in Lead Role, Actress in Lead Role, Director, Screenplay) since It Happened One Night in 1934. This accomplishment was not repeated until 1991, with The Silence of the Lambs.
The movie was filmed at Oregon State Hospital in Salem, Oregon.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (film)
Plot
Casting
Cast
Reception
In popular culture
| | Name | One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest | | image |  | | Writer | Ken Kesey | | Starring | Jack Nicholson
Louise Fletcher
Brad Dou... | | Director | Miloš Forman | | Producer | Michael Douglas | | Music | Jack Nitzsche | | Cinematography | Haskell Wexler | | Editing | Sheldon Kahn
Lynzee Klingman | | Distributor | United Artists | | Released | 19 November, 1975 | | Runtime | 133 min. | | Language | English | | Budget | $4.4 million |
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Plot
Randle Patrick McMurphy, a serial petty criminal who has been sentenced to a fairly short prison term, decides to have himself declared insane so he'll be transferred to a mental institution, where he expects to serve the rest of his time in (comparative) comfort and luxury.
McMurphy's ward in the mental institution is run by an unyielding tyrant, Nurse Ratched, who has cowed the patients—who are mostly there by choice—into dejected institutionalised submission.
McMurphy becomes ensnared in a number of power-games with Nurse Ratched for the hearts and minds of the patients. All the time, however, the question is just how sane any of the players in this actually are. Eventually McMurphy is lobotomized after he explodes into a violent rage when one of Nurse Ratched's psychological power games results in the death of a patient.
During the night he is smothered by his friend, the Chief, who can't bear to see McMurphy so brainless and dull, seeing the murder as an act of mercy that sets his friend free. The Chief, managing an act McMurphy earlier failed to do, lifts up a heavy marble hydrotherapy fountain and, hurling it through a barred window, escapes.
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Casting
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Kirk Douglas originated the role of McMurphy in a stage production, and then bought the film rights, hoping to play McMurphy on film. He passed the production rights to his son, Michael Douglas, who decided his father was too old for the role. Kirk was reportedly angry at his son for a time afterwards because of this. Actor James Caan was originally offered the McMurphy role, and Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman were considered as well.
The role of domineering Nurse Ratched was turned down by six actresses - Anne Bancroft, Colleen Dewhurst, Geraldine Page, Ellen Burstyn, Jane Fonda, and Angela Lansbury - until Louise Fletcher accepted casting (in her debut film) only a week before filming began.
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Cast
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Reception
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The film was widely acclaimed and won a total of five Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Jack Nicholson (who played McMurphy), Best Actress for Louise Fletcher (who played Nurse Ratched), Best Direction for Miloš Forman, as well as Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. (One of the other nominees for Best Actress that year, Ann-Margret, was also in a film that featured Jack Nicholson--Tommy.)
It ranked number 20 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 greatest American films, Nurse Ratched was ranked number 5 on the Institute's list of 50 Greatest Villains, and the film consistently ranks in the top 12 on the Internet Movie Database.
Kesey himself did not hide his dislike of the film, particularly the casting of Nicholson as McMurphy. (The characters were based on actual patients Kesey knew from a mental hospital.) Kesey also loathed the fact the film was not told through the eyes of Chief Bromden, as the book was, for he saw this as fundamental to the story. Kesey claimed to have never seen the film for these reasons.
The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
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In popular culture
The song Shadows that Move by metal band Mastodon includes a famous part from this film right before McMurphy is subdued towards the end by Nurse Ratched's mind games.
The lines "I'm not just talking about one person, I'm talking about everybody... Do you understand... FINALLY?" uttered by Harding during one of the therapy scenes bear an uncanny resemblance to the words spoken in an interlude of the 1999 Dance hit "Everybody" by The Boy Wunda.
The film has been parodied in several Simpsons episodes:
In one episode, Bart escapes with the inhabitants of a Retirement home, and goes boating with them, just like McMurphy does in the film. The Chief is also depicted in the same episode, as he rips a fountain and throws it out of the window to escape, just like in the film.
In another episode, "", Homer is hospitalised by a practical joke by Bart. When Moe and Barney come to visit him, Moe brings a can of Duff as a present. Homer immediately starts shrieking at the sight of the can, and Barney exclaims "I can't stand to see him like this!" before smothering his face with a pillow, ripping a water fountain out of the ground and using it to break a window, and then proceeding to run into the distance. This is a satirical amalgamation of several key scenes of the film.
In an earlier episode, "Stark Raving Dad", Homer is admitted to a mental institution for wearing a pink shirt to work at the power plant. Characters in a long pan shot appear to be parodies of Cuckoo's Nest characters. Homer says "Hello!" to a very Chief-like character, who startles doctors by responding in kind, explaining "Well it's about time someone opened up to me."
An episode of Mew Mew Power is entitled "One Flew Out of the Mew Mew's Nest".
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