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Movies / On DVD / One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

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Reviews Counted:46

Fresh:44

Rotten:2

Average Rating:8.8/10

Consensus: The onscreen battle between Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher serves as a personal microcosm of the culture wars of the 1970s -- and testament to the director's vision that the film retains its power more than three decades later.

Runtime: 2 hrs 16 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: 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... 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. [More]

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, William Redfield, Danny DeVito

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, William Redfield, Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Will Sampson, Brad Dourif, Michael Berryman, Peter Brocco, William Duell, Nathan George, Paul Lambert, Sydney Lassick, Ted Markland, Louisa Moritz, Vincent Schiavelli, Mwako Cumbuka, Dean R. Brooks, Marya Small

Director: Milos Forman

Director: Milos Forman
Screenwriter: Lawrence Hauben, Bo Goldman
Story: Ken Kesey
Producer: Michael Douglas, Saul Zaentz
Composer: Jack Nitzsche

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Jan 8, 2008

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

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1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z)
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Among the greatest films of all time.

Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment Comment
12/30/03
Dragan Antulov
Dragan Antulov
rec.arts.movies.reviews

Jack Nicholson is McMurphy in all his roguish and rebellious fullness. He exudes energy, quick wit, and the willpower not to be broken by the System.

Full Review Source: Spirituality and Practice | comment Comment
03/04/02
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Spirituality and Practice

Even granting the artist his license, America is much too big and various to be satisfactorily reduced to the dimensions of one mental ward in a movie like this.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment 31 Comments
05/20/03
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

One of a small number of Best Picture winners to deserve the statuette.

Full Review Source: Film Freak Central | comment Comment
09/23/02
Bill Chambers
Bill Chambers
Film Freak Central

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) is one of the greatest American films of all time - a $4.4 million dollar effort directed by Czech Milos Forman.

Full Review Source: Tim Dirks' The Greatest Films | comment Comment
01/01/00
Tim Dirks
Tim Dirks
Tim Dirks' The Greatest Films

Is One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest not a great film because it is manipulative, or is it great because it is so superbly manipulative? I can see it through either filter.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
03/25/03
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

My basic quibble with the film is that it's part and parcel of the movies' unfortunate tendency to romanticize mental illness.

Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) | comment Comment
08/07/02
Ken Hanke
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Quietly shocking.

Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher | comment Comment
01/01/00
MaryAnn Johanson
MaryAnn Johanson
Flick Filosopher

Jack Nicholson plays McMurphy as if he were born to it, and the supporting cast provides fine, detailed performances.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
12/13/06
Dave Kehr
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

As direct and simple as it is funny and moving, this is a masterpiece of dramatic naturalism.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment 1 Comment
01/01/00
Colin Kennedy
Colin Kennedy
Empire Magazine

The film is based on Ken Kesey's novel of the same name, and it's magnificently brought up to the screen by director Milos Forman.

Full Review Source: Montreal Film Journal | comment Comment
09/10/02
Kevin N. Laforest
Kevin N. Laforest
Montreal Film Journal

A terrific adaptation of Ken Kensey's 1962 novel (first done as play) that became timelier in the 1970s, positing a free-spirited anti-establishment hero (the excellent Jack Nicholson) against repressive authoritarianism, embodied by Fletcher's nurse.

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
12/23/06
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

A stirring indictment of how we determine who's sane and who's crazy.

Full Review Source: Oscar Guy | comment Comment
12/13/06
Wesley Lovell
Wesley Lovell
Oscar Guy

Jack Nicholson stars in an outstanding characterization of Ken Kesey's asylum anti-hero, McMurphy, and Milos Forman's direction of a superbly-cast film is equally meritorious.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
02/19/08
A.D. Murphy
A.D. Murphy
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

As good as Nicholson and Fletcher are, the film simply wouldn't work without the ensemble cast that incorporates Forman's improvisational style

Full Review Source: Old School Reviews | comment Comment
10/26/02
John A. Nesbit
John A. Nesbit
Old School Reviews

Along with It Happened One Night and The Silence of the Lambs, these are the only three films to win all four major Oscars (actor, actress, director, picture). It's still the only film to deserve it.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
01/01/00
Christopher Null
Christopher Null
Filmcritic.com

...the story in its various guises has been an inspiration for several generations of dedicated fans.

Full Review Source: DVDTown.com | comment Comment
09/22/02
John J. Puccio
John J. Puccio
DVDTown.com

One Flew over the Cuckoo 's Nest is an earnest attempt to make a serious film. But in the end the movie backs away from both the human reality and the cloudy but potent symbolism that Ken Kesey found in the asylum.

Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | comment 8 Comments
02/20/09
Richard Schickel
Richard Schickel
TIME Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Its aims are too simplistic about life and happiness.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
05/23/04
Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

The genius of the film is that you never feel you're being preached at, but rather being allowed a fly-on-the-wall view of a systematic crushing of humanity.

Full Review Source: ColeSmithey.com | comment Comment
08/05/09
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z)
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Latest News for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

June 22, 2007: AFI Announces Top 100 Movies of All Time ... Again
Ten years ago the AFI gave us a list of the Top 100 American Films Ever Made -- and when that was done they churned out 15 other lists every few years. And then last night they... More...

July 11, 2006: Natalie Portman Will Do Naked in Next Film
This one's for all you Portman pervs out there -- the erstwhile Queen Amidala is set to go fully nude in her upcoming pic "Goya's Ghosts," in which she plays the... More...

January 03, 2006: Vincent Schiavelli Passes at 57
Character actor Vincent Schiavelli, the long-faced veteran of over 150 film and television appearances, died of lung cancer December 26 at home in Sicily. He was 57 years old. More...

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