One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Academy Award × 5·AFI #33·National Film Registry
Rent/Purchase
A petty criminal fakes insanity to serve his sentence in a mental ward rather than prison. He soon finds himself as a leader to the other patients—and an enemy to the cruel, domineering nurse who runs the ward.
What critics thought
Broadly celebrated and a rare sweep of the major Academy Awards, the film nonetheless drew some reservations from critics who felt its allegorical ambitions overwhelmed its human story — that the metaphors were too schematic and the tragic conclusion too programmed to be fully earned. What won over even the skeptics was the extraordinary ensemble playing, with Nicholson and Fletcher at the center of a film that has only grown in reputation over time.
“Miloš Forman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a film so good in so many of its parts that there's a temptation to forgive it when it goes wrong. But it does go wrong, insisting on making larger points than its story really should carry, so that at the end, the human qualities of the characters get lost in the significance of it all. And yet, there are those moments of brilliance.”
Roger Ebert·Chicago Sun-Times
“A comedy that can't quite support its tragic conclusion, which is too schematic to be honestly moving, but it is acted with such a sense of life that one responds to its demonstration of humanity if not to its programmed metaphors.”
Vincent Canby·The New York Times
“The edgy nature of the film extends into the score, giving it a profoundly disturbing feel at times—even when it appears to be relatively normal. The music has a tendency to always be a little off-kilter, and from time to time, it tilts completely over into a strange little world of its own.”
Steven McDonald·AllMusic
Genres
Drama
Cast & Crew
DirectorMiloš Forman
StarringJack Nicholson, Brad Dourif, Louise Fletcher, Danny DeVito, William Redfield
ComposerJack Nitzsche
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Academy Award × 5·AFI #33·National Film Registry
A petty criminal fakes insanity to serve his sentence in a mental ward rather than prison. He soon finds himself as a leader to the other patients—and an enemy to the cruel, domineering nurse who runs the ward.
What critics thought
Broadly celebrated and a rare sweep of the major Academy Awards, the film nonetheless drew some reservations from critics who felt its allegorical ambitions overwhelmed its human story — that the metaphors were too schematic and the tragic conclusion too programmed to be fully earned. What won over even the skeptics was the extraordinary ensemble playing, with Nicholson and Fletcher at the center of a film that has only grown in reputation over time.
“Miloš Forman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a film so good in so many of its parts that there's a temptation to forgive it when it goes wrong. But it does go wrong, insisting on making larger points than its story really should carry, so that at the end, the human qualities of the characters get lost in the significance of it all. And yet, there are those moments of brilliance.”
Roger Ebert·Chicago Sun-Times
“A comedy that can't quite support its tragic conclusion, which is too schematic to be honestly moving, but it is acted with such a sense of life that one responds to its demonstration of humanity if not to its programmed metaphors.”
Vincent Canby·The New York Times
“The edgy nature of the film extends into the score, giving it a profoundly disturbing feel at times—even when it appears to be relatively normal. The music has a tendency to always be a little off-kilter, and from time to time, it tilts completely over into a strange little world of its own.”
Steven McDonald·AllMusic
Genres
Drama
Cast & Crew
DirectorMiloš Forman
StarringJack Nicholson, Brad Dourif, Louise Fletcher, Danny DeVito, William Redfield
ComposerJack Nitzsche
Rent/Purchase