Details
Movie Description
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.
Synopsis
Milos Forman directs this award-winning cinematic adaptation of Ken Kesey's celebrated novel, completely capturing the anarchic energy of the 1960s.The story follows a mental patient named McMurphy, played by Jack Nicholson, as he bucks the rigid administrative system in an asylum where he's incarcerated. After having been arrested for comingling with a fifteen-year-old, McMurphy thinks he can get out of doing work detail in prison by pretending to be mad. Initially he’s seemingly just a misdiagnosed misplaced free spirit. He tries to liven the place by teaching his newfound friends to play card games and basketball. He even arranges for them all to take an unexpected field trip, but the head nurse is after him at every turn. After he organizes a party for one of the inmates who has, under McMurphy’s unorthodox suggestions, begun to show signs of recovery, the patient takes an expected turn and commits suicide. At this point Nurse Mildred Ratched (Louise Fletcher) can no longer tolerate his behavior and will do whatever it takes to bring him down. The screenplay co-written by Bo Goldman and Laurence Hauben is also inspired by the play by Dale Wasserman. Forman's fabulous picture is alternately hysterically funny and movingly poignant, a true testament to the power of film.
Film Notes
DVD Features:
Region 1
Snap Case
Audio:
Widescreen - 1.85:1
Full Frame - 1.33:1
Audio:
Dolby Digital Stereo - English
Dolby Digital Mono - English
Additional Release Material:
Interactive Features:
Interactive Menus
Scene Access
Text/Photo Galleries:
Production Notes
Theatrical release: November 20, 1975.
Filmed on location at the Oregon State Mental Hospital in Salem, Oregon.
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST is number 20 on the American Film Institute's list of America's 100 Greatest Movies.
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST was added to the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 1993.
On November 3, 1963, the stage adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel was brought to Broadway, starring Kirk Douglas as McMurphy. (Gene Wilder also appeared in the show.)
The film marked the debut of actor Brad Dourif.
Estimated budget: $4.4 million.
The production was aided by the labor of inmates of the institution where they were filming.
Danny De Vito and Christopher Lloyd, who played two of the patients, later worked closely together on the television show Taxi, which also featured guest appearances by Vincent Schiavelli, another inmate in CUCKOO'S NEST. All three actors also appeared in Forman's MAN ON THE MOON.
Gene Hackman, Marlon Brando, and Burt Reynolds were all considered for the role that ultimately went to Jack Nicholson. Kirk Douglas, producer Michael Douglas's father, had played McMurphy onstage and was interested in the part for the film; Douglas told Newsday in January 2001, "I think my dad was disappointed that I hadn't given him the role."
Anne Bancroft, Colleen Dewhurst, Ellen Burstyn, Angela Lansbury, and Geraldine Page were all offered the role that ultimately went to Louise Fletcher.
The film played in theaters in Sweden for 11 consecutive years.
Industry Reviews
"...[A] masterpiece..."
Los Angeles Times - Kevin Thomas (09/23/1999)
"...Nicholson's performance is one of the high points in a long career of enviable rebels..."
Chicago Bulletin - Roger Ebert (02/02/2003)
"...[Nicholson's] flamboyant performance is balanced perfectly by superb character turns from Brad Dourif, Christopher Lloyd and Danny DeVito..."
Sight and Sound - Geoffrey Macnab (12/01/2002)
"Nicholson's manic and slightly corrosive charm motors this study of one roistering inmate's effect on an entire mental institution."
Premiere - Premiere Staff (04/01/2004)
"Milos Forman's masterpiece."
Total Film - Daniel Webb (03/01/2004)
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