One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

My local theater had another one of it's monthly screenings of a classic movie. $5 to see a classic on the big screen is a pretty great deal. I wish they did this more often! This month it was One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I'd never seen this 5 Oscar winning film, and this was as good as anytime to see it. Once again, I knew very little going in, but I suppose what little I did know, that Jack Nicholson is sent to a mental institution, is all I really needed to know. Hit the jump to see if this classic still holds up, or if it drove me mad with frustration.


No real point into getting into the story is there? Nicholson's character McMurphy is sent from jail to a mental hospital to assess if he's really mentally sick, or just faking it to get out of work duties at the prison. We don't see anything of his time in jail, instead it starts with him arriving at the hospital. The rest of the film is just McMurphy dealing with and trying to adjust to his new life in the institution.

McMurphy tries to explain the rules of betting in poker

I was surprised, as is often the case with older films, how many faces I recognized in the cast. This is usually the case as the odds you've seen younger actors in other things is pretty good, so long as they're good of course. Well in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, I picked out a very young Danny DeVito as Martini, a surprisingly hostile Christopher Lloyd as Taber, and even a young Brad Dourif as Billy. I even recognized Louise Fletcher as the evil Nurse Ratched (who I thought was Nurse Ratchet the whole time). I wasn't sure exactly where I saw some of these actors before, but it turns out Brad Dourif was in Lord of the Rings: Two Towers, and I knew Louise Fletcher from, of all places, Deep Space Nine as Vedek Winn. The cast was great all around, and even the ones that didn't become really famous were endearing, such as the characters Chief and Charley Cheswick.

The "evil" over-controlling Nurse Ratched

The acting was a highlight as well. At first I wasn't sure if the acting was good or not, they all just seemed like pretty regular people. Then it hit me. That's the sign of the BEST acting. They all just seemed so natural and like real people. Not characters or roles. Just people doing their jobs or people who were truly mentally ill. It is no surprise then that Nicholson and Fletcher both won Oscars for their leading roles in this movie. I have to say though, that Danny DeVito's and Christopher Llyod's characters stood out to me as well, but I'm not sure if it's because I knew who they were, or if they were just that good, which then of course lead to their future careers which lead me to know who they are. I try not to think about it too much. I liked them nevertheless.

Then there's also the friendship that builds between McMurphy and the man he calls Chief. Chief is a massive Natvie American man built like a tree. He is unresponsive when McMurphy first meets him, and everyone lets him know that he is deaf and dumb. Even so, McMurphy treats him just like all the others, trying to teach him how to play basketball and talking to him constantly even after told several times that it's useless. I really liked this bond that we see develop, and slowly we see Chief respond to him like he's never done, eventually even joining in a game of basketball with the others and smiling.

McMurphy recruits another tall patient to help show Chief how to play basketball

This film isn't normally listed as a comedy, but damn if there aren't some truly funny moments. There were plenty of laughs in the theater, even some clapping and cheering when Chief, who normally just stands still and rarely moves, starts to run across the basketball court with the biggest grin on his face. The cast of kooky patients are often fun and of course Jack Nicholson is a riot to watch. Unfortunately the laughs go away in the last half of the movie as it all takes a turn for the serious, and there are some really sad moments at the end.

If you haven't seen One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, I urge you to seek it out. It's really very good and I felt it aged well and still works today. Sure there are some factors that just don't fit into modern times, like how all the orderlies are black men, or how electric shock is used on troubled patients. However, remembering that this is clearly set many decades in the past, I found it easy to look past those things and see it for what it's really about. Watch it, it has a huge cast of great characters, quite a lot of laughs, and a really good ending, all adding up to a movie you'll remember for years to come.