One Flew Over The Cukoo's Nest (1975)

 

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUKOO’S NEST (1975)

By Ralph Santini – ****

Milos Forman’s fantastic masterpiece “One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest” is considered by many to be one of Hollywood’s most influential films ever made. And rightly so because I love this movie very much as many of the reviewers and those who’ve seen it, even if Siskel and Ebert whom despite neither of them disliking the film, did have some occasional reservations in spite of their overall recommendation. Based on Ken Kesey’s novel published 13 years earlier, its grippingly wonderful story is about 38 year old Randall Patrick MacMurphy who is being committed to a mental institution from a work farm so that the psychiatrists can test the young man whether he is actually faking his being mentally insane or otherwise.

The socially maladjusted anti-hero is magnificently portrayed by Jack Nicholson in which the characterization not only earned him a deserving Oscar® win, but it also turned him into a sensational movie star. In fact, after being nominated five times by the Academy this was his first win of not only another award for As Good As It Gets in 1997 but also another one as Best Supporting Actor in Terms Of Endearment in 1983. On top of that, I think it’s also one of Nicholson finest performances he has ever given in his long career.

After MacMurphy is been committed to the institution, things don’t seem to go well for him because he is absolutely displeased by the presence of a vicious Nurse named Ratched (an equally sensational performance by Louise Fletcher in which she also won an Oscar for best actress in the film). I mean Ratched is so despicable she can ruin the happiness of many of the patients, such as ignoring MacMurphy’s request of watching the World Series in the institution and, most notoriously, rationing their cigarettes in which especially Cheswick (another wonderful performance given by Sidney Lassick) hysterically protests against it.

Now MacMurphy is not the only patient in the institution who is faking his being insane but also a huge Indian Chief (6’5) in his late 30s-early 40s named  Chief Bromden (another fine performance even by Will Samspson) who pretends to be deaf mute and it turns out has not spoken for 12 years after discovering MacMurphy not being crazy. Their chemistry is so brilliant they share a fantastic and subtle scene where MacMurphy is teaching the chief to play basketball during the volunteers’ first recreation time in the film. 

Now here’s what I’d like to say about the rest of patients in this film. There is a great character of a guy who has a strong speech impediment named Billy Bibbit (Brad Dourif) and has a sexual obsession with women, like when Candy (the cute, attractive Mews Small) and a friend of hers trespass to the institution and MacMurphy tries to play cupid on Billy and Candy.  The other patients are Cheswick the Man Child, Taber the bipolar (played by an early and excellent 36 year old Christopher Lloyd), Martini the schizophrenic (an equally early Danny DeVito), Dale Harding the paranoid (William Redfield), Jim Sefelt the epileptic (William Duell) among others.

These topics are what make this film a masterpiece because, I think, it has a great screenplay and if I may say so, this one by Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman, is among one of the finest ever written. Miloš Forman directs this film very competently with a subtle touch of superior melodrama. I also find him altogether responsible for the film’s artistic take on mental illness and I think that’s subtle originality. Also I think his supervision of this gem helped Haskell Wexler and Bill Butler’s cinematography make this film look a great novel and I think this film might help encourage film buffs become literature buffs. In fact I love how literate this drama can be.

This film is without a doubt one of the finest films ever made not because of the fact that it won an Oscar® for best picture, but also because of its influential nature that helped the 1970s represent New Hollywood as Hollywood’s own Silver Age. This is truly one of the great films that truly demands multiple viewings from one to another. It is filled with a cast of brilliant characters and Bravura performances from most of the cast.