One Flew Over The Cuckooâs Nest
A movie that was made back in 1975 and features acting that to this day still leaves one in absolute awestruck bewilderment at just how magnificent it continues to be, this was only the second of three movies in history to win all five âmajorâ Oscars (Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, and Screenplay) and pretty much deserved all of them. Produced by Michael Douglas (whose father Kirk had played in it on stage in the early 60s) and directed by Czech-born newly immigrated Milos Forman at the start of a legendary career, it tells the story of a petty criminal who has talked his way into the confines of an Oregon mental hospital in order to avoid the hardships of prison life, and once there, manages to bond with the other patients which gives them the courage to stand up and find a better life for themselves. If this sounds like some pretty heavy dramatic stuff, fear not, due to the fact that the brilliant interaction amongst the actors results in some great character moments that come off as laugh out loud funny. Jack Nicholson takes on the reins starring as Randle McMurphy, and take on the reins he did, literally assuming the job of running all the rehearsals on set and whipping the actors into shape, while onscreen McMurphy arrives at the facility to find his fellow male patients doped up into a total state of indifference, witnessing their zoo-like behavior during group therapy sessions and coming to clash with the draconian Head Nurse Mildred Ratched. Louise Fletcher as Ratched was that yearâs Oscar recipient as Best Actress, considered by some as a âflukeâ win given the popularity of the film, but really it is an example of an actress taking advantage of not only every line but literally every closeup and camera shot, whether it be observing McMurphy from the window as he plays basketball or the rage in her eyes when a patient defies her as we come to realize that what Ratched has established is an environment where she lords over a roomful of defeated, subjugated men who are not only under her thumb but literally at her mercy, thinking not of helping them with their issues so they can get out but further humiliating and degrading them whereas when Nicholson and others try to find some semblance of female kindness and feminine humanity in her, they encounter nothing but a cold hard shell of a human being, and THAT is why Fletcher won her Oscar. So as the story develops into a battle of wills between these two powerful main characters, we also get to meet the other patients in the ward as well, each one so well sketched out and performed, that we really feel like we get to know them all, including Danny DeVito as the hilariously mildly retarded Martini; Sydney Lassick as the pathetically blubbering Cheswick; Christopher Lloyd as the wild eyed loose cannon Taber; William Redfield (who was diagnosed on set with leukemia and given 18 months to live, which sadly came to pass) as the prickly know it all Harding; Will Sampson as the legendary imposing Native American known as The Chief; Vincent Schiavelli as the possible homosexual Fredrickson; and most amazingly of all Brad Dourif, whom it can be argued may possibly give the best performance in the film as the stuttering Billy Bibbit. Nominated for (and robbed of) The Best Supporting Actor Oscar, Dourif brings an intricate performance to life as a tortured young man who may very well be suffering the way he is because of his inability to connect to girls his own age and has adopted Ratched as a surrogate mother figure, which is made all the more complicated when McMurphy brings a couple of young lady friends into the ward at night for a big booze party enabled by bribing and then getting drunk the overnight orderly (Scatman Crothers). Of course, as much humor and good times are to be had by the viewer, itâs all about setting up for the big climax, as tragedy strikes and an event of literally mystical proportions takes place, done in such a way that only someone as cold hearted as Nurse Ratched herself would not literally be moved to tears with the beauty and dramatic grace that it embodies, proving for all time not only that this movie truly earned its Oscars, but that it continues to stand tall over most contemporary winners as one of the greatest ever in American Cinema, with a pitch perfect acting ensemble starting from the top all the way down to the smallest bit part.
10/10