One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest (1975)

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (1975)

Truly one of the greatest films ever made.

Jack Nicholson is put into a mental institute when he pretends to be insane to get out of going to prison. While there he uses the patients to help him pass the time. he plays cards and basketball and kind of tries helps them more than the nursing staff does. While hes there we wonder “is he really crazy?” or would we all act like that in his situation?

Nicholson seemingly wants to be a hero to these people, he wants them to like him so that he can change things, however making “crazy” people change their routine isn’t easy. Really I don’t feel like he really ever was a hero to anyone he just got desperate and more and more depressing. The more he tried to help his fellow patients the more he was driven mad.

One issue I have with the film, well not really with the film but the way people have received it is how Nurse Ratched is played off as the bad guy. In my opinion she did her job and in no way was overly strict or mean or anything like that at all. She seemed to do her best to keep order and did it the way it should be done. Really Nicholson’s character is the bad guy in my opinion. He tried to throw everything off and in a way made the patients worse, by throwing off their routine

Jack Nicholson’s performance is, in my opinion, his best ever. It was a role I don’t think anyone else could do as good and a role I can’t see him ever being able to top. As the say, he was born to play it. Danny Devito also did a great job, though a very small role I think he did fantastic, as well did most of the patients, and Louise Fletcher in the role of the Nurse Ratched

This film really did deserve the 5 Oscars it got that year. Personally I also would have given it cinematography over Barry Lyndon.

Forman got seemingly everything out of all the actors and had everything go right. It was some of the best directing in film history.

The film is at times funny, at times sad, at times tense, it has everything that makes up a good drama. It should continue to be watched and enjoyed for years and years.

10/10