One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest

Rating:
Summary: Great movie, poor DVD transfer
Review: 5 stars for the film, 1 star for the DVD:

There are a lot of reviews that discuss the movie itself, so I will keep this one short and talk about the DVD.

The DVD is a bit of a disappointment. The film itself is very dirty; it looks like the transfer was done from a copy of the film that's been shown a few hundred times in a theater. It's hard to believe that the master itself has deriorated this much.

There are no interesting extras on this DVD. No deleted scenes, no commentaries, no behind the scenes footage. Just some text screens talking about awards the film received, etc.

The are no audio options. You're just stuck with standard sterio. And the menu is bland and static. Basically, you are getting the movie, as you would have experienced it in a theater nearly three decades ago, and nothing else.

I love this film however, especially the ending, so I still recommend buying it if you are a Jack Nicholson fan. Just don't expect the DVD to actually take advantage of the medium.

Rating:
Summary: FOREMAN'S SUBVERSIVE ALLEGORY
Review: What many, if not most, Americans may not know is that this film was important as a statement against oppression of the individual in Communist Czechoslovakia of the 1970s. Milos Foreman made this film just about seven years after Russian tanks crushed the Prague Spring youth movement which tried putting a human face on socialism. From 1968 on, state oppression of the individual became much worse. Czech film director Foreman had earlier made films which tweaked the noses of the communist government bureacrats. But after 1970 it was difficult to impossible to make such films anymore inside Czechoslovakia. Enter, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST. Czech censors had little problem letting this American film into Czechoslovakia. They wrongly interpreted it to be critical of cruel treatment given mental patients in American hospitals. They welcomed any "anti-American propaganda." Did they fail to grasp that Foreman had made a film condemning all tyrannies? Condemning them? Czech citizens of 1970s could identify the film as a parody on their plight under communism.

The allegorical theme of ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST is set in a real mental hospital (Oregon State Hospital in Salem, Oregon), a place of rebellion exhibited by an energetic, wise-guy hero against The Establishment, institutional authority and attitudes. Jack Nicholson's free spirit acting persona was earlier set by his performances in Easy Rider (1969) and Five Easy Pieces (1970). In its time, CUCKOO'S NEST was so offbeat that well established actresses simply couldn't see themselves in it. For example, The role of Nurse Ratched was turned down by five actresses - namely, Anne Bancroft, Colleen Dewhurst, Geraldine Page, Ellen Burstyn, and Angela Lansbury. Wow! In the 11th hour, Louise Fletcher accepted the part only a week before filming began. However, not only did the movie earn lots of money (at its time, the seventh-highest-grossing movie ever), but this independent film captured the most Oscars. CUCKOO'S NEST won: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, and Best Actress. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards.

Nicholson plays a more-or-less sane man, Randle Patrick McMurphy sent to the mental hospital as punishment for a prison fight. The prison warden wants to determine whether or not Jack is crazy or simply violent and rebellious. So he is thrown into one of the less-insane wards, home to a short lech (Danny DeVito), a wild-eyed psychotic (Christopher Lloyd), a stuttering virgin (Brad Dourif), and a giant mute Indian (Will Sampson). McMurphy plays the outsider coming in and serving as the inspiration for change. He starts out slow -- engaging the patients in card games and trying to overturn rules about TV watching. He makes bets about how quickly he can make nurse Ratched hate him. McMurphy also attempts to befriend Chief, a very large Indian who is a patient at the hospital. Chief is "a deaf dumb Indian who can't say a word" according to the other patients, but McMurphy is intent on teaching him, to begin with, how to play basketball. He teaches him well, for when the patients and workers organize a game, Chief steals the show.Before long, McMurphy jumps over the mental hospital fence(aided by Chief) and takes a bus full of mental patients on an unauthorized fishing trip. The characters are so likeable, the performances so convincing, that soon we are silently cheer McMurphy's attempts to topple The System.

When McMurphy gets into a knock down drag out fight with a few of the attendants he is made to undergo electroshock therapy. But the most devestating event follows McMurphy deciding to host a little sex party inside the hospital one night. This leads to the film's tragic climax and its defining moment of liberation. CUCKOO'S NEST will long stand as an homage to courageous men who dare challenge overwhelming and cruel authority. McMurphy changes the lives of a group of mental patients by not being afraid to stand up to mindless and heartless hospital authority. The film well earned its many awards that the cast and crew members received. Communist Czechoslovakia is gone, peacefully brought down by people who in the late 1970s and early 1980s were perhaps partly inspired by Milos Foreman's allegory, subversive to tyrrany. Yet tyranny can take many different faces. Thus there is always an important role to be played by the Randle Patrick McMurphy's of this world.

To be a fully informed, educated and entertained person you must see ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST.

Rating:
Summary: Juicy Fruit
Review: I like the scene where Randall (Jack) gives the deaf mute guy a stick of Juicy Fruit.

Rating:
Summary: Flawless, possibly the best adapted movie ever
Review: This is my favorite movie of all time. Typically, movies that are adapted from great novels (and the novel is outstanding) aren't nearly as good as the novels themselves. Cuckoo's Nest is one of those very, very rare exceptions. In the novel, the story is told through the eyes of The Chief while in the film, the story is told through the eyes of McNulty (Nicholson). This is an excellent choice as the film would not have worked through the eyes of a mostly silent character.

The direction by Forman is brilliant and the screenplay and cinimatography are top knotch but the acting towers over everything. Everyone knows that the performances by Nicholson and Fletcher are amazing, and they certainly are, but the rest of the cast is excellent as well. The casting is simply flawless. The ensemble has future popular character actors DeVito and Lloyd among others who were unknowns at the time.

I've probably seen this film a dozen times and I still laugh in the beginning and am furious at the end. This is a movie that has withstood the test of time and, like Gone With the Wind a generation before, should be considered a model of how to adapt a screenplay.

Rating:
Summary: an excelent film
Review: this film, without doubt, deserved the academy's praidse in 1975. like other favorites of mine, this film deals with the treatment of those who are seen as "different". the directing was stunningly artistic, and casting jack nichlson was brilient! i would reccomend this to anyone who likes artistic, thought provocing film making.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best films ever made
Review: This is a captivating story of friendship, courage, and life. It is brilliantly written and directed. This film has some of the best casting I have ever seen. Jack Nicholson is extrodinary as Randolph Mcmurphy. Louise Fletcher also gives a full blown dramatic performance. This movie is filled with an atmoshere unlike any other. Every role is perfectly balanced with humor, emotion, and character. Milos Forman's directing weaves so many great features that this film has into a masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: : )
Review: Manic Jack revolts:

"We want to watch the Series!"

Nurse Ratched relents

Rating:
Summary: An outstanding film putting Jack Nicholsen on the map
Review: One of the truly great films. Its always difficult to compare one movie with another because they are often judged by a different measure in each case. So I won't bother comparing with anything.

This is the story of McMurphy a seeming career criminal full of cynicism and a boundless, reckless kind of energy for life and a disregard for authority. He enters the mental hospital because he is suspected of being psychologically disturbed and of course being the clever criminal he is chooses the "loony bin" rather than hard work on a prison farm. What strikes one immediately is the lack of sensitivity for others' feelings with regard to criminals, similarly we notice straight away the way nurse Pratchet controls her group of patients with an iron hand and a cold soul. The hospital corridors are empty and stark, the colours muted. The whole atmosphere is bleak. Milos Forman shows what he is capable of and gives a hint of his ability which he would later display in "Amadeus". Jack Nicholsen simply dominates the film in conjunction with nurse Pratchet. Nicholsen is the ideal choice but as noted by another reviewer he makes the role so completely his own that its difficult to see it any other way including his representation in the book.

As McMurphy shakes up the neat and tidy world constructed by the nurse he comes into more an more conflict with her especially after his "outing" with the other patients to the outside. One sees right away that these kinds of institutions, much like prisons, often don't help the recuperation of patients but rather make it more difficult for them to reorient themselves for the outside world. Hopefully these kinds of methods are now outdated and a more human perspective is applied.

An outstanding film putting Jack Nicholsen on the map.

Rating:
Summary: No mind games...
Review: Unlike me to see a movie 9 times! Each time seen is like the first time.One of the best performances by Jack Nicolson & Louise Fletcher. Milos Forman did give his best. Till date I have not come across any movie like this one. The way it hit my mind, take it to my grave!

Rating:
Summary: A must see
Review: Jack Nicholson stars as a convict who is committed to a mental institution to decide whether he is really crazy or not. During his stay, he tries to set the other patients free of the typical "routine" of their day. The acting is flawless and you really get to know the characters as more than "mental patients". A must see film.