One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

Written by CinemaSerf on March 12, 2025

“McMurphy” (Jack Nicholson) is a veteran with an attitude who has pled insanity to escape his latest court appearance on a charge of statutory rape. He is sent to an evaluation hospital where they are to decide just what, if anything, is wrong with him. His smart-assed confidence endears him to some of his fellow inmates, especially the impressionable “Billy” (Brad Dourif) but also earns him the instant enmity of the chief nurse “Ratched” (Louise Fletcher) who is used to ruling with a psychological rod of iron augmented by pils, pills and more pills. Initially, “Mac” is simply concerned with his own predicament, but as he witnesses the regime that treats these people with indifference, disdain and little affection, he starts to become a little more invested in their future’s. When he manages to orchestrate a wheeze to get the men out on the water for some fishing, then the battle lines are truly drawn - but who is going to emerge victorious? Nicholson is great here as his character evolves before our eyes from a cocky and arrogant one but it is Fletcher who really steals the show and that’s with remarkably little dialogue just a powerful degree of sheer on-screen malevolence. Ken Kesey’s original novel shines quite a potent light on the frankly quite brutal treatment of patients with mental illnesses, even when some of these individuals are volunteers who think this treatment might actually lead to some sort of “cure”; and also at the attitudes of the State that is all to frequently out of sight, out of mind. Milos Forman has paced this tautly and there’s plenty of double-edged humour as a war of words becomes much more one of attrition. I can’t say I loved the conclusion but maybe that’s a testament to the efforts of both ensuring that I cared, liked and loathed as this enthralling and distasteful drama offers a toxic review of what passes for institutional civilisation.