Review: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Jack Nicholson, a possibly sane man pretending to be nuts, enters an insane asylum and upon seeing how his fellow inmates are treated by an uncaring system, tries to initiate a rebellion. Louise Fletcher is his main antagonist, the cold and clinical megalomaniac Nurse Ratched. Brad Dourif plays an awkward young man who is dominated by his mother and her ‘friend’ Nurse Ratched to the point where he’s painfully shy and accursed with a diabolical stutter. Christopher Lloyd is a combative, insensitive inmate, Danny De Vito is an adorably sweet-faced inmate, and you’ll also spot the familiar faces of Vincent Schiavelli, Sydney Lassick (as your garden variety ‘slightly reluctant shock therapy’ patient), Michael Berryman, and as silent giant Chief, Will Sampson. Scatman Crothers turns up as a gullible, heavy-drinking night guard.

A triumph of the human spirit against the barriers of an unfeeling, robotic institution (and its main disciplinarian/instrument, rigid Nurse Ratched), this 1975 Milos Forman (“Amadeus”, “Valmont”) film adaptation of the popular story (earlier in both book and stage play form), gets an extra boost to an already compelling story, from roguish prankster Nicholson. His outstanding, layered, sometimes funny (especially early on), sometimes disturbing (I’m still not sure whether he really was nuts or not!) performance greatly helps to keep this from becoming a sappy movie-of-the-week.

The somewhat limited Fletcher also shines in her best and most famous (Oscar winning) role, managing to actually get us to understand that she is not evil (as many would have you believe, so many critics seem to misinterpret the character even today), but a rigid, unbending (and calculating when need be) instrument of the stifling, inhuman institution. A superb rogue’s gallery of famous character actors and memorable faces, also help, with Oscar nominee Dourif (probably his most ambitious and critically successful work, but to me he’ll always be Charles Lee Ray), a young and hilarious De Vito, and Lloyd (De Vito, in particular, is a riot and absolutely adorable in one of his earliest roles), and the always excellent Crothers, all terrific. Killer ending, too, and often parodied (most notably on “The Simpsons”).

Oscar winner for Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, and Screenwriting. It was also nominated for Supporting Actor (Dourif), Cinematography, Editing, and Music.

Rating: A-