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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 rotten rating)
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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 7 Comments
02/20/09
Richard Schickel
Richard Schickel
TIME Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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 28 Comments
05/20/03
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby
New York Times

The film remains as fresh, shocking, depressing and exhilarating as when it was released.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
02/19/08
Channel 4 Film

Ken Kesey's grim satire of institutionalized authority, bracingly filmed by Milos Forman.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment 1 Comment
12/13/06
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Dealing with insanity, Cuckoo qualifies as an experience many will feel deeply and pass on to others.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
03/27/01
Boxoffice Magazine

Set in an insane asylum, the film involves the oppression of the individual, a struggle spearheaded by an ebullient Nicholson, turning in a star performance if ever there was one.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
02/11/06
Time Out

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

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

No review available.

comment Comment
12/06/02
Brian J. Arthurs
Brian J. Arthurs
Beach Reporter (Southern California)

No review available.

comment Comment
10/17/03
Carol Cling
Carol Cling
Las Vegas Review-Journal

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

Without hesitation my No. 1 favorite of all time. At once a comedy and a tragedy, hilarious and heartbreaking, few films have ever achieved such a level of excellence.

comment Comment
10/09/05
Chuck O'Leary
Chuck O'Leary
Fantastica Daily

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No review available.

comment Comment
02/11/05
Greg Maki
Greg Maki
Star-Democrat (Easton, MD)
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by rotten rating)
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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
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January 03, 2006: Vincent Schiavelli Passes at 57
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