One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (2 Disc Special Edition) [1975]

Average customer rating:

Hilariously funny, grim as hell, total masterpiece

A FILM EVERYONE CAN RELATE TO

Watch for any reason

Worthy of its rating

Sad, humourous and compelling at the same time

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (2 Disc Special Edition) [1975]
Starring: Jack Nicholson , Louise Fletcher , William Redfield , Michael Berryman , and Peter Brocco
Director: Milos Forman
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00006JI31
Release Date: 2002-10-14

Amazon.co.uk Review

One of the key movies of the 1970s, when exciting, groundbreaking, personal films were still being made in Hollywood, Milos Forman's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest emphasised the humanistic story at the heart of Ken Kesey's more hallucinogenic novel. Jack Nicholson was born to play the part of Randle Patrick McMurphy, the rebellious inmate of a psychiatric hospital who fights back against the authorities' cold attitudes of institutional superiority, as personified by Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher). It's the classic antiestablishment tale of one man asserting his individuality in the face of a repressive, conformist system--and it works on every level. Forman populates his film with memorably eccentric faces, and gets such freshly detailed and spontaneous work from his ensemble that the picture sometimes feels like a documentary. Unlike a lot of films pitched at the "youth culture" of the 1970s, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest really hasn't dated a bit, because the qualities of human nature that Forman captures--playfulness, courage, inspiration, pride, stubbornness--are universal and timeless. The film swept the Academy Awards for 1976, winning in all the major categories (picture, director, actor, actress, screenplay) for the first time since Frank Capra's It Happened One Night in 1931. --Jim Emerson

Amazon.co.uk Review

A big Oscar winner in 1975, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest still holds up remarkably well. Ken Kesey's novel, an allegory of repression and rebellion set in a mental hospital in the early 1960s, is cannily adapted by Czech director Milos Forman into a comedy drama with a cool, unassuming, near-documentary look. Jack Nicholson has his most jacknicholsonian role as Randle P McMurphy, a livewire troublemaker who unwisely cons his way out of prison and into a mental institution without realising he has switched from serving a sentence with a release date to being committed until adjudged sane by the same people he is winding up on a daily basis. Louise Fletcher, in a career-defining turn, is Nurse Ratched, the soft-spoken sadist who represents the worst type of matronly authoritarianism and clashes with Randle all down the line.

Taking another look at the picture after all these years, it's a surprise that all the unknown actors who seemed like real mental patients have graduated to becoming prolific character actor stars: Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Vincent Schiavelli, Brad Dourif, the late Will Sampson, Sidney Lassick, Michael Berryman. Unlike many Best Picture Oscar winners, this deals with profound subject matter without seeming self-important: Forman's approach and all-round great acting make it play as a small character story as well as a Big Statement about the human condition. Full marks also for Jack Nitzsche's musical saw-based score.

On the DVD: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest comes to DVD in a two-disc special edition with a great-looking anamorphic 1.85:1 print and 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack, plus tracks in French and Italian and optional subtitles in half a dozen languages. Disc 2 has the trailer, about 13 minutes of deleted scenes (mostly from the first third of the film, and all pretty good) and a making-of retrospective documentary with interesting material from producers Michael Douglas (who inherited the rights from Kirk) and Saul Zaentz, Forman, screenwriter Bo Goldman and many cast-members (though not Nicholson). There's also a commentary track by Forman, Douglas and others which repeats a few things from the documentary but also goes into more scene-specific detail about the development and shooting. --Kim Newman

Customer Reviews:

Hilariously funny, grim as hell, total masterpiece.......2007-12-18

Directed by Milos Forman and starring Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher, this is a 5-oscar-winning masterpiece and deservedly so. I first saw this picture in '76 and have watched it more times than is decent since, so much so I almost know the script by heart. Based on the novel by Ken Kesey and set in an Oregon mental institute, this tragicomedy is the single most profound drama I have ever seen and with a denouement so powerful and unforgettable I feel my life has been changed and enriched by the privilege of witnessing it. Whatever you think of Jack Nicholson, his performance here as R P McMurphy - a prison-dodging, sane-as-can-be sex offender confined for psychiatric assessment - is mesmerizing. As too are the performances of Louise Fletcher (Head Nurse Ratched) and a supporting ensemble of actors including Danny deVito, Christopher Lloyd, Will Sampson, William Redfield and Brad Dourif, all playing utterly convincing roles, indistinguishable - as I'm sure any psychiatric worker would vouch - from real-life mental patients.

It is the ebullient McMurphy's disruption of the tranquility of the hospital ward that brings him into conflict with Ratched's stone-hearted, authoritarian matron. She runs a tight ship convinced it's for the benefit of the patients. Her idea of therapy is to have everyone sitting in a circle, ostensibly to benefit from discussion and to air their mundane issues, but with the main agenda of maintaining and reinforcing a despiriting regime of rigid conformity. These sessions often start morosely and silently but invariably end with raucous and hilarious shouting matches which are so perfectly and authentically played by the ensemble cast that you feel as though you're watching a documentary, but a riveting one at that. Here also we are introduced to some of the more vocal patients who though quirky and laden with issues, are generally more articulate and intelligent than those beyond the asylum. Outside of these lively discourses, the patients are kept subdued by daily dosages of drugs. Any hint of insurrection is quelled by fear of Ratched's excoriating disapproval and her arsenal of truncheon-wielding orderlies, disposed on her say-so to remove a patient by force to another ward where electroconvulsive therapy is meted out to the specially deserving.

R P McMurphy lands onto this lugubrious, ordered world like a fun-loving Martian. He is a boisterous, big-hearted, roguish extrovert and, once settled in, wins the confidence and in turn the admiration and hero worship of his fellow inmates. Excepting the "chronics", McMurphy can scarcely distinguish (and neither can we) between the patients and "the average a**hole walking about out there on the street". But the trouble begins when he bets with his fellow patients that he can, within a week, "stick a bug so far up Nurse Ratched's a** she won't know whether to s**t or wind her wrist-watch." This sets the scene for psychological warfare with, on the one side, McMurphy leading a bunch of fired up, newly assertive patients, and on the other, the system, or the "Combine", fronted by Nurse Ratched. The conflict comes to a head when McMurphy arranges a wild party for the patients to liven up their otherwise monotonous and colourless existences. However, it will be seen in the devastating and brutal consequences that the system deems itself having more to lose than those who would dare to confront it. Catering for individual aspirations and for patient happiness it seems were very far beyond the remit of the mental healthcare system as it was. With undertones of Spartacus - possibly explaining Kirk Douglas' interest, whose son Michael brought the novel to the screen - this story brings into searing focus the cruelty and inhumanity of sectors of mental healthcare in sixties US.

Now to say further would be to give too much away. But believe me, this is a genuinely funny, bitterly tragic, remarkable, compelling, totally absorbing, emotionally draining and brilliant picture, so rightly deserving of its stature as one of the best films of all time - in this reviewer's opinion, the very best.

A FILM EVERYONE CAN RELATE TO.......2007-12-09

Based on the amazing novel by Ken Kesey, Randall Patrick McMurphy is an antisocial and dangerous man no different than a petty criminal, placed in a mental ward to have his behavior studied. He makes friends with lunatics and starts his own circle of admiration within the hospital, much to the dismay of Nurse Ratched, the central authority figure in the story and one of the greatest movie villains ever.

The movie exists to show not only how corrupt and poorly-constructed society's approach to the "mentally unstable" is, but it creates characters that we have all met in life and shows how the McMurphy-like figure that we all wish we had fights for freedom of choice and basic human rights. In addition to the movie's great spirit, the acting is fantastic. Jack Nicholson is at his best and Danny DeVito can be seen in his very first acting role ( which he absolutely triumphs in ). And of course, there's the unforgettable Chief Bromden. The directing by Milos Forman is very well-done, as the camera-work is excellent and follows the pace of the movie perfectly in how it is used. What really impressed me was the editing, especially as far as the use of audio goes: some parts just made me go "...wow."

My only complaint is that I believe the movie could've been slightly more effective if it were based more closely on the novel at certain points, but the modified point of view of the film does make a great point; anyone who has ever hated their job, been accused of something, had some person so self-righteous and convinced of their own authority and dependency on order get in your way, or attended the American public school system at any point in their life should be able to identify with this movie.

Watch for any reason.......2007-11-28

Brilliant Film

Lead Actor:Nicholson feigns insanity so as not to end up in prison. He really does think that it's going to be a brief uneventful stint in the institution but realizes that the bonding between his fellow patients borders upon true friendship.

Lead Villain: Louise Fletcher as Nurse Ratched represents the Establishment; cold, calculating and manipulative. Not to be messed about with !!!

Supporting actor's: De Vito is brilliant and hadn't yet reached superstardom heights. This film shows how hard he had to work to achieve that.

Memorable Scene: The last one - sticks in memory !!!

Worthy of its rating.......2007-11-09

This has been buzzing around my ears among my friends and without a doubt; it is one of the best films of all time. Mixing mental health with humor is a tough brand to sell; come to fine out it took several years for this movie to be made. Kirk Douglas had bought the rights hoping to star in it himself, but struggled to find a studio who would produce it; his son Michael eventually did it, but had the foresight to stay off the screen. When you watch it, it's not hard to work out why no-one would touch it - it's subject matter was just too quirky and controversial for Hollywood in the 60s. The film was ideal for representing a burgeoning discontent with society during the post-Vietnam malaise; its audience, like its characters, was feeling enormous dissatisfaction with rules, authority, government and the stupefying way it was treating its people. No wonder that it struck such a chord with cinema-goers.

Many liberties that we take for granted are explored within the narrative of the film: communication (in therapy sessions, where the nurse leads the discussion) freedom (during the 'escape') alcohol (during the party) sex (Billy's turn with the hooker McMurphy imports). The reactions of Nurse Ratched and the orderlies symbolize the reactions of authority when we digress from its designated path; the response of the inmates is to return to the routines and drudgery they entail. The analogy with the restrictive nature of society is glaring.

Enter Randle McMurphy, no respecter of rules or routines, a man who is riotous but also unselfish. Brilliantly played by Jack Nicholson (a masterly piece of casting) McMurphy challenges the established norms and routines of the hospital in pursuit of fun, which irks and then aggravates Nurse Ratched. The positive impact on the other patients is clear and noticeable; it suggests that there is value in breaking away from social expectations, in being spontaneous, in occasionally pursuing personal pleasure or individual goals beyond those authority grants to you. The conclusion suggests that those in authority will do anything to silence those who challenge the social order, but that freedom *is* ultimately accessible, whether by death (McMurphy) or escape (Chief Bromden).

Social analysis aside, the movie is great fun: there are a lot of laughs, a lot of thought-provoking moments, and a few tears. It's certainly one of the finest moments in cinematic history - it came at a time when it was drastically needed by the viewing public, but its content and themes are no less relevant and interesting to us today.

Sad, humourous and compelling at the same time.......2007-07-30

This film DOES have a comedy element in it. I fail to see how the wise-cracking, witty quips of R.P.McMurphy, along with his rebellious antics, could be regarded as anything but comedic. Having said that, there is also a lot of sadness.

R.P.McMurphy (Randall), has faked insanity in order to avoid a stretch in prison. He is a free-spirited convict who is unruly and anarchic, yet good-hearted and affable at the same time. Once in the mental institution, he sets about befriending various patients with varying degress of psychiatric problems, and then proceeds to shake things up and try to lead a revolt against the spiteful and tyrannical Nurse Ratched, played superbly by Louise Fletcher.

This film is a thought-provoking and often disturbing look at the treatment of people with psycholgical problems, and heavily hints that the methods used in mental institutions are inhumane at best, sickening at worst. Furthermore, it also shows the dynamics of society, and society's intolerance of free spirits in the same mould as Randall P. McMurpphy. The slow oppression of Randall and the gradual disintegration of any wilful rebellion or even humanity in the patients is sad and disconcerting to watch. Jack Nicholson is all at once charismatic, hilarious, rebellious and magnetic, whilst Fletcher is terrifying. Both actors won the coveted acting awards at the Oscars, and the film won Best Picture.

Watch this fascinating film and find out why.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest : The Movie & More (2 Disc Special Edition) [1975]

Average customer rating:

Jack is Back and once again you are not left wanting - A Review By Ian MacDonald

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest : The Movie & More (2 Disc Special Edition) [1975]
Starring: Jack Nicholson , Christopher Lloyd , Will Sampson , Vincent Schiavelli , and Paul Lambert
Director: Milos Forman
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000GQMLQY
Release Date: 2006-08-07

Customer Reviews:

Jack is Back and once again you are not left wanting - A Review By Ian MacDonald.......2006-10-08

Randal Patrick McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) a man with several assault charges to his name finds himself in jail once again when he is up for a statuary rape charge, when his 18 year old girlfriend actually turns out to be 15. Randal convinces the guards that he is too crazy for regular jail so he is put into a mental asylum where he and his fellow patients are up against their nemesis obstacle Nurse Ratched which turns out to be quite a story.
Once again Jack does not disappoint , he delivers the part all most too well, leaving the question pondering over in your head if he has a screw that is just not as tight as it should be in his mind. I think this just shows what a convincing actor he is. Very well directed and edited with a strong and compromising use of sound and soundtracks.

A must see for Jack fans, and a must see for anyone else

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