by Warner Home Video
| Average Rating: |
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| Sales Rank: | 9241 (lower is better) |
| Price Used: | $4.30 |
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| Director: | Milos Forman |
| Release Date: | 2002-09-24 |
| Label: | Warner Home Video |
| UPC: | 085393746322 |
| Binding: | DVD |
| Published By: | Warner Home Video |
| ASIN: | B00006FDCP |
| Category: | DVD |
Actors and Actresses
Editorial Reviews and Product Descriptions
Product Description
A rebellious patient battles Nurse Ratched (Fletcher) and the mental institution he has been sent to.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 24-SEP-2002
Media Type: DVD
Amazon.com essential video
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 emphasized 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
Customer Reviews
The movie was the first to win all five major Academy Awards - Reviewed on 2008-07-20
3 customers found this review helpful.
This is, without doubt, one of the greatest movies ever produced. Milos Forman won best director for his magnificent work on the adaptation of Ken Kesey's novel by the same name. But this movie is so much more than that. The acting was flawless - considering the roles, that is not an easy feat. In the beginning we meet Randle P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) who was sentenced to prison for inappropriate relations with a fourteen year old, finds his way onto a work release program. He finds himself an out with poor workmanship and deranged behavior - he is transferred to a mental institution and believes his sentence will be easier served. After all, he just has to lay back and act like a nut. But this is easier said than done, as he quickly discovers playing a simple game of basketball. Aside from maintaining his sanity, he meets his head ward at the institute Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher), who won best actress, plays her role flawlessly.
The mild mannered yet unrelenting head nurse becomes McMurphy main antagonist as he bets the other patients that he (McMurphy) can get under Ms. Ratched's bonnet (meaning drive her crazy) What does he have to lose? once his sentence is completed he is out of there. Of course, what McMurphy doesn't know is that his release can only come from the approval of the institute - Ms. Ratched has the power to keep him there indefinitely. It doesn't take McMurphy long to realize that he's never going to be released so he ends up forming friendships with the other patients.
The group includes Billy Bibbit (Brad Dourif), a suicidal, stuttering and helpless young man whom Ratched has humiliated and dominated, and "Chief" Bromden (Will Sampson), believed by the patients to be deaf and unable to speak, Chief is mostly ignored but also respected for his enormous size. In Billy, McMurphy sees a younger brother figure whom he wants to teach to have fun, while the Chief ultimately becomes his only real confidant, as they both see their struggles against authority in similar terms. Aside from some misadventures, ( hijacking a bus, a boat, and a rendezvous on the city streets) everything goes accordingly until one fateful night. McMurphy sneaks into the nurse's office and calls his girlfriend. After a successful bribe of the guard she sneaks into the asylum and all heck breaks loose. I will leave it there, but there is a reason this movie won all major awards and swept the Oscars. With actors such as: Jack Nicholson, Scatman Crothers, Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Vincent Schiavelli and Sydney Lassick this is one movie that will earn a place unto your favs. list.
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Book Subjects
- Allegory
- Angry
- Biting
- Cathartic
- Claustrophobic
- Color
- Comedy Drama
- Compassionate
- Doctors and Patients
- Drama
- English
- Feature
- Feature Film-drama
- Fighting the System
- High Artistic Quality
- High Historical Importance
- High Production Values
- Irreverent
- Mental Illness
- Message Movie