One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (film)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Miloš Forman
Produced by Saul Zaentz
Michael Douglas
Written by Lawrence Hauben
Bo Goldman
Ken Kesey (Novel)
Starring Jack Nicholson
Louise Fletcher
William Redfield
Brad Dourif
Music by Jack Nitzsche
Cinematography Haskell Wexler
Editing by Richard Chew[1]
Sheldon Kahn
Lynzee Klingman
Distributed by United Artists
Release date(s) November 19, 1975 (1975-11-19)
Running time 133 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $4.4 million
Gross revenue $108,981,275

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a 1975 American drama film directed by Miloš Forman. The film is an adaptation of the 1962 novel of the same name by Ken Kesey.

The film was the second to win all five major Academy Awards, (Best Picture, Actor in Lead Role, Actress in Lead Role, Director, and Screenplay) following It Happened One Night in 1934, an accomplishment not repeated until 1991 by The Silence of the Lambs. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is frequently called one of the greatest films in the history of American cinema.

There had been an earlier stage version of the book, in 1963, but the film does not use the script of the stage version.

The movie was filmed at Oregon State Hospital in Salem, Oregon, which was the setting of the novel.

Contents

Plot

Randle Patrick McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), a recidivist criminal serving a short sentence on a prison farm for statutory rape, is transferred to a mental institution in 1963 for evaluation. This is a ploy to avoid hard labor and serve the rest of his sentence in a more relaxed environment. He is anti-authoritarian with a history of violence, but he exhibits no signs of mental illness.

McMurphy's ward in the mental institution is run by a calm but unyielding tyrant, Nurse Mildred Ratched (Louise Fletcher), who suppresses the patients by employing a combination of subtle humiliation in group therapy, punishment disguised as unpleasant medical treatments and a mind-numbing daily routine. McMurphy finds that the other male and mostly middle-aged patients are more institutionalized and afraid of Ratched than they are focused on becoming functional in the outside world. McMurphy befriends patients Billy Bibbit (Brad Dourif), a nervous, stuttering young man, Charlie Cheswick (Sydney Lassick), a man disposed to childish fits of temper, Martini (Danny DeVito), who is delusional, Dale Harding (William Redfield), a high-strung, well-educated patient and "Chief" Bromden (Will Sampson), a silent 6 feet 7 inches (2.01 m) tall Native American, among others. Believed by the patients and staff to be deaf and mute, Chief is mostly ignored but is respected because of his size, at which McMurphy marvels at first sight.

McMurphy baits Nurse Ratched at first merely to amuse himself, but he intensifies his efforts to loosen her control when he sees the effect she has over the ward. McMurphy plays cards with the other patients, acting as dealer and humorously narrating and entertaining them while gambling for cigarettes. This is quickly stopped when Nurse Ratched has cigarettes confiscated and rationed. To break the monotony, McMurphy calls for votes on ward policy changes; he unsuccessfully campaigns for a World Series baseball game to be shown on the television on the ward, and organizes a pickup game of basketball against the orderlies. Then he makes a show of betting the other patients that he can escape by lifting an old hydrotherapy console — a massive and still-connected marble plumbing fixture — off the floor of the ward and sending it through the window; he eventually fails to do so.

To boost morale on the ward, McMurphy takes the group on a deep sea fishing trip by escaping over the asylum's fence and stealing a school bus, bringing along a party girl, Candy (Marya Small). This is the only location in the film outside the hospital. Soon after, McMurphy learns that Ratched has the power to keep him involuntarily committed to the ward indefinitely, as the more sympathetic ward psychiatrist, while nominally her supervisor, is a figurehead. He accuses the other patients on the ward of deliberately neglecting to let him know this, and learns that they are all voluntarily committed apart from himself, Chief and Taber (Christopher Lloyd). Rather than have McMurphy transferred following the deep sea fishing debacle, Ratched bides her time and increasingly asserts power, attempting to suppress the now somewhat-liberated patients. Later, McMurphy, the Chief and Cheswick are detained for fistfighting with the orderlies, including Washington (Nathan George) who had told McMurphy that they are in control of when he is realeased, following one of Ratched's group humiliation sessions. Cheswick undergoes electroconvulsive therapy while McMurphy and Chief wait their turn on a bench. While they wait, McMurphy offers Chief a piece of Juicy Fruit gum, and Chief comments "Thank you". McMurphy is shocked to hear the Chief speak to anyone for the first time in decades, and discovers that Chief shares his distaste of the hospital establishment but stays silent to deflect attention, as given his imposing physical appearance and meek character he does not feel he can rebel in the way that McMurphy does. The Chief becomes McMurphy's confidant, given their shared experiences with authority. After the electroshock therapy, McMurphy stiffly walks back onto the ward feigning catatonia, before humorously animating his face and loudly greeting his fellow patients, assuring everyone that the ECT was unsuccessful as an attempt to subdue him.

One night, McMurphy sneaks into the nurses' station and calls Candy and another lady friend, Rose (Louisa Moritz), and has them bring booze to the hospital. They enter the ward through a window after McMurphy bribes the night watchman, Mr. Turkle (Scatman Crothers). The patients have a party while Billy, who had previously been humiliated by Ratched because of his awkwardness with women, flirts with Candy. At the end of the night, McMurphy and Chief decide to escape and leave with the girls by climbing through the window. McMurphy goes to say goodbye to the other patients, and asks an emotional Billy to escape with them. However, Billy declines, stating that he would like to go on a date with Candy in the future but he is not yet ready to leave the hospital. McMurphy then goads Billy into trying to sleep with Candy, and, although nervous, he agrees. After Billy and Candy go to a private room the rest of the patients, including McMurphy and the Chief, pass out after a long night of drinking.

Nurse Ratched arrives the next morning and discovers the scene. She orders the attendants to lock the window, clean up the patients and conduct a head count. Billy is found undressed with Candy, and applauded by the other patients as a result. When Ratched scolds him and asks if he is ashamed of his behavior, Billy announces, confidently and without stuttering, that he is not. Nurse Ratched then goes overboard by announcing that she is going to tell Billy's mother what he has done. Billy panics and his stutter returns, and after being carried into the doctor's office, he kills himself by slitting his throat. McMurphy, believing that Nurse Ratched is to blame for Billy's death, chokes her nearly to death, until Washington knocks McMurphy out at the last second.

After some time has passed, the patients in the ward are shown playing cards and gambling for cigarettes as before, only this time without McMurphy present. Harding, now dealing, mimics McMurphy's narration of the game, while other patients speculate that McMurphy dramatically escaped the hospital rather than being taken 'upstairs'. Nurse Ratched, still recovering from the neck injury sustained during McMurphy's attack, is forced to use a microphone in the nurses' station to be heard by her patients.

Later that night, Chief Bromden sees McMurphy being escorted back to his bed, and initially believes that he has returned so they can escape together, which he is now ready to do since he feels 'as big as a mountain'. However, when the Chief looks closely at McMurphy's unresponsive face, he is horrified to learn that McMurphy received a lobotomy. Unwilling to allow McMurphy to live in such a state or be seen this way by the other patients, the Chief smothers McMurphy with his pillow. Chief then carries out McMurphy's escape plan by lifting the hydrotherapy console off the floor of the ward and hurling the massive fixture through a grated window, climbing through and running off into the distance.

Cast

According to Forman on the latest Special Edition DVD, he wanted Burt Reynolds to play the lead.

The role of domineering Nurse Ratched was turned down by Anne Bancroft, Colleen Dewhurst, Geraldine Page, Ellen Burstyn, Jane Fonda, Shirley MacLaine and Angela Lansbury, until Louise Fletcher accepted casting only a week before filming began.

The film marked the credited film debuts of Sampson, Dourif and Lloyd. It was also one of DeVito's earliest films. DeVito and Lloyd co-starred several years later on the television series, Taxi.

Title interpretation

The title is derived from an American children's folk rhyme.[2]

"Vintery, mintery, cutery, corn,
Apple seed and apple thorn,
Wire, briar, limber lock
Three geese in a flock
One flew East
One flew West
And one flew over the cuckoo's nest."

It loses a bit of the significance it has in the novel, where it is part of a rhyme Chief Bromden remembers from his childhood. This detail was not included in the film.

Reception

The film received generally positive reviews from critics. Roger Ebert (who won a Pulitzer Prize later that year) claimed that "Miloš Forman's 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' is a film so good in so many of its parts that there's a temptation to forgive it when it goes wrong. But it does go wrong, insisting on making larger points than its story really should carry, so that at the end, the human qualities of the characters get lost in the significance of it all. And yet there are those moments of brilliance".[3] Ebert would later put the film on his "Great Movies" list.[4] A.D. Murphy of Variety wrote a mixed review as well.[5] The film went on to win 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, Best Picture, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Laurence Hauben and Bo Goldman. The film currently has a 96% "Certified Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes.[6]

The film is considered to be one of the greatest American films. Kesey himself claimed to have disliked the movie, a fact revealed by Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk in the foreword of the 2007 edition, "The first time I heard this story, it was through the movie starring Jack Nicholson. A movie that Kesey once told me he disliked".[7]

In 1993, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in their National Film Registry.

The film was shown in Swedish cinemas between 1975 and 1987 — twelve years, which is still a record. When Miloš Forman learned that, he said, "I'm absolutely thrilled by that... It's wonderful."

Awards and honors

Academy Awards

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest won all of the "Big Five" Academy Awards at the 48th Oscar ceremony

It was nominated for an additional four

Golden Globes

The film won all nominated six awards:

BAFTA Awards

The film won 6 BAFTAs

It was nominated for

Others

American Film Institute recognition

See also

References

  1. ↑ Chew was listed as "supervising editor" in the film's credits, but was included in the nomination for an editing Academy Award.
  2. ↑ "What children's song is also known as "William Trimmytoes"?". http://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question52475.html. 
  3. ↑ Suntimes.com - Roger Ebert review, Chicago Sun-Times, January 1, 1975
  4. ↑ Suntimes.com - Roger Ebert review, Chicago Sun-Times, February 2, 2003.
  5. ↑ Variety.com - A.D. Murphy, Variety, November 7, 1975
  6. ↑ "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes". http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/one_flew_over_the_cuckoos_nest/. Retrieved 2010-08-19. 
  7. ↑ Foreword of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Copyright 2007 by Chuck Palahniuk. Available in the 2007 Edition published by Penguin Books

External links

Awards
Preceded by
The Godfather Part II		 Academy Award for Best Picture
1975		 Succeeded by
Rocky
Preceded by
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore		 BAFTA Award for Best Film
1976		 Succeeded by
Annie Hall
Preceded by
Chinatown		 Golden Globe for Best Picture - Drama
1976		 Succeeded by
Rocky
Awards
Preceded by
It Happened One Night		 Academy Award winner for Best Actor and Best Actress Succeeded by
Network
Awards
Preceded by
It Happened One Night		 "Top Five" Academy Award winner Succeeded by
The Silence of the Lambs
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Novel
Adaptations of the novel
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1963 play)  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975 film)
Characters
Randle McMurphy  • Nurse Ratched
See also
Films directed by Miloš Forman
1960s
Black Peter (1964) • Loves of a Blonde (1965) • The Firemen's Ball (1967)
1970s
Taking Off (1971) • One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) • Hair (1979)
1980s
Ragtime (1981) • Amadeus (1984) • Valmont (1989)
1990s
The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996) • Man on the Moon (1999)
2000s
Goya's Ghosts (2006)
Works by Ken Kesey
Novels:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962) • Sometimes a Great Notion (1964) • Caverns (1989) • Sailor Song (1992) • Last Go Round with Ken Babbs (1994)
Collections:
Kesey's Garage Sale (1973) • Demon Box (1986) • Kesey's Jail Journal (2003)
Plays:
Over the Border (1973) • The Furthur Enquiry (1990) • Twister (1999)
Adaptations:

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1963 play) •

Sometimes a Great Notion (1971 film) • One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975 film)
Academy Award for Best Picture

West Side Story (1961) · Lawrence of Arabia (1962) · Tom Jones (1963) · My Fair Lady (1964) · The Sound of Music (1965) · A Man for All Seasons (1966) · In the Heat of the Night (1967) · Oliver! (1968) · Midnight Cowboy (1969) · Patton (1970) · The French Connection (1971) · The Godfather (1972) · The Sting (1973) · The Godfather Part II (1974) · One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) · Rocky (1976) · Annie Hall (1977) · The Deer Hunter (1978) · Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) · Ordinary People (1980)

Complete List · (1928–1940) · (1941–1960) · (1961–1980) · (1981–2000) · (2001–present)
Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama

The Guns of Navarone (1961) · Lawrence of Arabia (1962) · The Cardinal (1963) · Becket (1964) · Doctor Zhivago (1965) · A Man for All Seasons (1966) · In the Heat of the Night (1967) · The Lion in Winter (1968) · Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) · Love Story (1970) · The French Connection (1971) · The Godfather (1972) · The Exorcist (1973) · Chinatown (1974) · One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) · Rocky (1976) · The Turning Point (1977) · Midnight Express (1978) · Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) · Ordinary People (1980)

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